Tag Archives: Paritosh Tripathi

Movie Review: Luv Ki Arrange Marriage (2024)

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1 Star (out of 4)

Watch Luv Ki Arrange Marriage on Zee5

Luv Ki Arrange Marriage (“Luv’s Arranged Marriage“) is a romantic comedy that has little to offer in the way of either romance or comedy.

The titular Luv (Sunny Singh) is the thuggish son of Prem Kumar (Annu Kapoor), a widowed Lothario with a reputation in their apartment colony. Luv chides his dad that a 55-year-old man shouldn’t be such a flirt, which is unintentionally funny since 55 isn’t exactly ancient and Kapoor is actually 68, anyway.

Father and son head to Bhopal with Luv’s aunt Prema (Kapoor in drag) and her husband Mishra (Mushtaq Khan) to meet a prospective bride for Luv named Ishika (Avneet Kaur). Ishika has rejected almost two dozen grooms so far, and she does the same with Luv. Both families say some hurtful things, and the Kumars leave in a huff.

Their exit is stymied as the city is engulfed in fiery political protests. With nowhere to go and a curfew in place, the Kumars return to Ishika’s spacious house and stay with her family for several days. Feelings between Luv and Ishika soften when he realizes that she’s avoiding marriage simply because she doesn’t want to abandon her widowed mother Supriya (Supriya Pathak).

Before Luv and Ishika can tell everyone they’ve reconsidered their engagement, Prem and Supriya announce their plans to marry. Instead of becoming husband and wife, Luv and Ishika are about to become brother and sister.

The film has a classic comedy premise, but there’s nothing fresh about the presentation. Flat jokes are delivered at maximum volume, and scenes are underscored with corny music and dated sound effects. Even with a relatively short two-hour runtime, the film devotes too much time to side characters like Rajpal Yadav’s spurned suitor Pyare and Paritosh Tripathi’s thief Jugnu.

It’s odd that Luv is the focal point of the title and the plot when he’s the least interesting character. The centering of his feelings is undeserved, especially when it comes at the expense of other characters. For example, when Luv does something selfish and Ishika gives him consequences, he gets a sad song montage about how deceitful Ishika is.

Singh’s low-energy performance does Luv no favors, though he’s more lively in the film’s dance numbers. Kaur puts in a solid effort as Ishika, and Pathak makes Supriya into a sympathetic figure. Kapoor and Yadav are comedy veterans and bring energy to their roles, but that’s not enough to recommend Luv Ki Arrange Marriage.

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Movie Review: Ludo (2020)

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3.5 Stars (out of 4)

Watch Ludo on Netflix

The movie Ludo uses its namesake board game as a metaphor for life, its characters one dice roll away from fortune or ruin. Writer-director Anurag Basu’s black comedy is beautifully made and laugh-out-loud funny.

Anyone who has played the games Aggravation, Sorry!, or Trouble is familiar with how Ludo works. Players from four different colored corners of the game board roll dice, moving their pieces around the board in the hopes of being the first to get all their pieces safely “home.” Basu assigns different characters to the colored corners, and they meet up with one another throughout the story. Right at the center is Sattu Bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi), a hard-to-kill gangster with ties to all of them.

In the red corner is Sattu’s former right-hand man Bittu (Abhishek Bachchan), fresh out of prison and eager confront his old boss. Bittu charges in after a meeting between Sattu and the yellow corner’s Akash (Aditya Roy Kapur), who needs Sattu’s help removing a sex tape from the internet. The blue corner’s Rahul (Rohit Suresh Saraf) is at Sattu’s hideout as well, having been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

An explosion sets the characters off in different directions. Rahul drives off with some of Sattu’s stolen cash and a cute, opportunistic nurse named Sheeja (Pearle Maaney). Akash also hits the road, joined by Shruti (Sanya Malhotra) the woman from the sex tape who’s due to marry someone else in a matter of days. Bittu’s plan to find a way back into the life of the wife who left him while he was in jail and the young daughter who doesn’t remember him is derailed when he meets another precocious little girl, Mini (Inayat Verma), who needs help faking her own kidnapping in order to get her distracted parents’ attention.

While all this is happening, the characters from the green corner are trying to get out of their own mess. Alu (Rajkummar Rao) has been in love with Pinky (Fatima Sana Shaikh) since childhood, although she never reciprocated his feelings. Pinky turns up with her baby to ask for Alu’s help getting her husband Manohar (Paritosh Tripathi) out of jail, where he languishes, wrongly accused of a murder committed by Sattu.

Director Basu doesn’t judge his characters for wanting what they want, even if what they want isn’t exactly good for them. Alu is the best example of this. He knows his one-sided devotion to Pinky gets him into trouble and keeps him perpetually single, but he’s miserable when she’s not around. Is it so bad for him to not want to feel awful?

Bittu’s story is the most complicated and emotional. He spent six years waiting to get back to his daughter — who was an infant when he went to prison — but she doesn’t know he exists. She thinks Bittu’s ex-wife’s new husband is her father. Spending time with Mini gives Bittu a chance to act in a fatherly role, making him question whether what he wants for himself is really what’s best for his daughter.

Bachchan’s performance when he’s playing Bittu the Gangster comes off as more pouty than menacing, but he’s terrific as Bittu the Dad. Little Inayat Verma is impossibly adorable, and she and Bachchan are so much fun together. Yet we know their relationship is only temporary. Almost all of Bittu’s options will leave him brokenhearted.

Given Pankaj Tripathi’s recent track record of stealing virtually every movie he’s in, Basu wisely put Tripathi in the middle of things from the start. His character’s introduction — dramatically exposing his inner thigh to pull a gun from a leg holster — is perfection. After the cute pairing of Bittu and Mini, Sattu is part of the film’s second best partnership. While he’s bedridden, Sattu forms a friendship with no-nonsense nurse Lata Kutty (Shalini Vatsa), one of the few people he can’t intimidate. It’s unexpected and delightful.

To keep his dark comedy from becoming too dark, Basu amplifies its other elements. Bright colors differentiate the storylines, but they also cheer up even violent scenes. Character closeups feel a little closer than normal. The excellent soundtrack and score by Pritam are prominent in the mix, setting the tone overtly. Ludo is loud, both aurally and visually, but it feels just right.

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