Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu takes an honest view of love
Starring Imran Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, and Ratna Pathak Shah. Rated PG. In Hindi with English subtitles. Now playing.
Released on Valentine’s Day weekend and promoted as a romantic-comedy, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu at first seems to follow all the expected conventions of this genre. And then, quite refreshingly, it doesn’t.
The film opens in Las Vegas, which, instead of looking glamorous as is the norm for U.S. locations in Bollywood films, looks bleak and unappealing. Rahul Kapoor (Imran Khan) is a 25 year-old Indian architect just fired from his first job. This position had been arranged for him by his overbearing parents (Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah), who have controlled every aspect of his life while sapping him of his will to live. They are the kind of parents that tell a child that he “didn’t win a silver medal, he lost the gold.” Rahul is a dull, personality-free bore who irons his socks.
In a meet-cute full of clichés, he gets entangled in the life of Riana Braganza (Kareena Kapoor), a free-spirited unemployed hairstylist who seems to repel orderliness and good decisions. Their connection transforms Rahul, and one night after a well-placed dare and copious amounts of alcohol, they do what everyone does in movies set in Las Vegas—they get married.
The rest of the movie is a joy to watch. The pace of the film is leisurely, with enough dialogue and context for the characters to become fully realized people that we come to care about. The songs are charming and placed in the film unobtrusively. The fun “Aunty Ji, Get Up and Dance” is sure to be a hit at desi weddings for years to come.
This film is funny, sweet, and romantic. It is also, however, a love story for adults. Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu will resonate with those who know that love brings with it no guarantees.
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