This slightly racy Hindi-language romcom is mapped across a love triangle between two men and a woman, but its geometry is all out of whack. Thanks to a combination of raw star power and the way the script (credited to Tarun Dudeja and Ishita Moitra) is crafted, rising star Vicky Kaushal gets the most acute angle as a swaggering Punjabi mamma’s boy Akhil Chadha, who self-describes as a GOAT. His fancy footwork in the opening song-and-dance sequence is impressive if not entirely supportive of his outrageous greatest-of-all-time claim, but at least you can see why aspiring chef Saloni (Triptii Dimri) might take a shine to him.
Before long, the two have married, honeymooned in Croatia where they break beds regularly with their lovemaking (there’s kissing but nothing ever explicit on show) and settled back in Delhi. But Akhil’s smothering affection for his wife barely disguises a lack of respect for Saloni’s career ambitions, which centre on winning a culinary award called the Meraki Star (like a Michelin, but without the undercover judging panel). In fact, to win a chef must make an oral defence of their gastronomical philosophy, a screenwriting contrivance that seems about as absurd as the notion that an establishment specialising in burrito bowls would win such a high-level accolade, as is the case here.
But the film is much less interested in food than it is in conventional romantic shenanigans, and before the interval arrives Saloni and Akhil are divorced and she’s moved to mountainous Mussoorie to work in a swish hotel run by gentle, thoughtful manager Gurbir (Ammy Virk). One night, Saloni gets drunk and ends up going to bed with both Gurbir and her visiting ex-husband. Saloni finds herself pregnant with twins, with one foetus being Gurbir’s kid and the other Akhil’s, a phenomenon called heteropaternal superfecundation that does apparently happen but incredibly rarely. Which man will she end up with?
It’s a sign that the hitherto straitlaced morality of Bollywood cinema has changed in that there is even a remote possibly the threesome might end up co-parenting, and that no one slut-shames Saloni for sleeping with two different men on the same night. The final configuration isn’t much of a surprise but it’s a bit disappointing that the chemistry between Dimri and her co-stars is less compelling than that between the two men. While Dimri is filmed in as flattering a way possible to expose her breathtaking natural beauty, she doesn’t get much opportunity to show off any acting range, especially when it comes to comedy. Kaushal and Virk on the other hand, give good banter in their scenes together and get all the laughs – which ends up making the film more retrograde than it needs to be.
• Bad Newz is in cinemas now.
