Film Review: ‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’

Director: Shakun Batra
Cast: Imran Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, Ratna Pathak Shah, Nikhil Kapoor
Rating: ★★★☆☆

There is always a market for sleek, superficial, Valentine’s Day date movies about the liberating power of love and the virtues of being true to yourself. The new Karan Johar-produced rom-com Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is one such film, and it almost manages to succeed over the hackneyed conventions of the genre.

Debutant director Shakun Batra’s rip-off homage to What Happened In Vegas and Mexican film Recien Cazado is unabashedly slushy and syrupy, and if your favourite movie is Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na or The Notebook, then Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is just the film for you. The less romantic will find the entirety of this movie to be a tremendously trite, ham-handed endurance test.

On the bright side, director Batra’s twist on the standard rom-com clichés is that Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu isn’t bogged down by the “made for each other” machination that makes a sappy Bollywood ending inevitable. The film is mostly breezy and fun as Batra and his co-writer Ayesha Devitre avoid formulaic pomposity. It helps that Amit Trivedi’s soundtrack is just as lighthearted and inviting as the glossy Vegas locales where the first half is set.

The story revolves around Rahul Kapoor (Khan), the obedient 25-year-old son of a rich couple (Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah) who loses his job at a top construction company in Las Vegas. Rahul has never made a choice of his own in his life, and is afraid to go against his dad’s plan of being drafted into the family business and marrying a colleague’s daughter. He chances upon happy-go-lucky hairstylist Riana (Kapoor) at a shrink’s office, and after a drunken Christmas night together, they wake up to find that they got married at one of those infamous Vegas chapels. Rahul and Riana decide to procure an annulment, but as expected, Rahul realises that Riana might just be the beacon of light in his perfunctory life.

We’ve had too many rom-coms that feature mid-twenty-something boys and girls complaining about daddy issues before finding someone who changes their lives, but in the case of Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, Khan’s character manages to keep the plot truism to a thankful minimum. A more mature and realistic portrayal of the same, however, was done by Siddharth in the Telugu film Bommarillu.

In Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, 50 percent of the leads are excellent—Kareena Kapoor, bright as sunshine, cruises with charming quirks and cutesy wide-eyed smiling, but Imran Khan’s mechanical performance, where he bumbles over his attempts at humour, almost sabotages her role. Teenage girls will squeal at his dreamy eyes and hair, but Khan’s tedious acting just drags us through his character’s daddy and mommy issues and uncomfortable whims that make you want to shake him awake.

The production design and David Mac Donald’s photography are crafted with meticulous care; the Vegas locales are menthol cool, and are graciously not the least bit schlocky like in Anjaana Anjaani. Unfortunately the same can’t be said about the cheesy dialogue, which like in comic books, seems as if it should come attached to big white balloons hovering over the characters’ heads. Sample Khan saying to Kapoor: “Duniya me do type ke parents hote hai, jo Cola aur Candy allow karte hai, aur jo nahi”. The comedy isn’t particularly hilarious, in fact most of the jokes are just sitcom level; all they’re devoid of are the accompanying laugh tracks. Most of the giggles arise from the few physical comedy bits, one of which involves Khan falling over a couch and another where he walks out of a restaurant bathroom dripping wet.

What Ek Mai Aur Ekk Tu has going for it is the excellent supporting cast. Shah proves yet again that she is by far one of the most likable people on both the telly (she starred in Sarabhai vs Sarabhai) and the big screen. Ram Kapoor as Irani’s business partner is fun in his cameo, more so is Nikhil Kapoor who plays Kareena Kapoor’s jovial dad. Unfortunately, both Shah and Irani are given minuscule roles; one wonders why they weren’t given full reign towards the climax, a plot point that was again better explored in Bommarillu.

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is a lollypop rom-com date movie and star vehicle rolled into one lustrous package. It isn’t the least bit original, but it doesn’t annihilate your patience levels the way I Hate Luv Storys and Break Ke Baad did.