Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar Review:
Both OTT and social media discourse were years away when Pyaar Ka Punchnama came out in 2011. Before people could understand the difference between feminine and feminism, the “Every guy’s pain” monologue had gone “viral” on messaging apps. Newbie Kartik Aaryan got overnight popularity but everybody later wanted to know who that “Liquid” (played by Divyenndu) guy was. Pyaar Ka Punchnama popularised the Delhi corporate slave lingo and gave people characters they could relate their frustrations with. Everybody in the film spoke in a rant-y way, concreting people’s (read guys) desires and disdains. It was a relatable buddy comedy before we caught on its overwhelmingly misogynistic lens.
Cast: Sparsh Walia, Kunal Vaid, Sargun Luthra, Alisha Chopra, Sakshi Vaidya, and Tushar Chhibber
Director: Anuj Saini
Writers: Luv Ranjan, Jehan Handa, and Anuj Saini
There is an attempt to recreate that first love viewers had with Pyaar Ka Punchnama with Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar. Just like the 2011 film, the movie focuses on three friends vexed with their predictable lives and looking for love. This time the core trio, however, has a gender inclusion upgrade with one of the friends being a girl. Gautam (Sparsh Walia), Vedant (Kunal Vaid) and Shivie (Sargun Luthra) are colleagues and roommates who are exhausted with climbing the corporate ladder. A Rajkummar Rao cameo (where he hilariously plays a guy who is sad at his ex’s wedding) convinces them to go to their school reunion and chase after their childhood crushes. Gautam goes after the popular, self-obsessed one Gehna (Alisha Chopra), Vedant falls for the front-bencher Simran (Sakshi Vaidya), and Shivie can’t resist the charms of playboy Karan (Tushar Chhibber). They all are set up for heartbreak but since this is a Hindi romantic film, it won’t end with the guys and the girls (even the toxic ones) ending up together.
Although the film is backed by competent performances, there is a certain plasticity to Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar. In this school reunion, nobody seems to have gained weight or gotten bald. Every guy is toned, every girl is slender and pretty and it often felt like I was watching an episode of Love Island. The actors have chemistry but the whole aesthetic of the film is that of a music video. I expected the film to explore the futility of chasing your first love but what it seems to champion is wrong decisions.
I won’t deny that there are some enjoyable bits. Sargun and Sparsh impress with their confidence and some portions were genuinely fun. But the film loses the plot when it focuses on Vedant and Simran’s love story. Things go haywire from here as what started off as a rom-com is now just a comedy revolving around a plan to kidnap a bride. Pehla Pyaar… becomes more ludicrous as it proceeds. The banter between the three core friends is enjoyable but has a heavy shadow of Pyaar Ka Punchnama. The agency of the female characters is questionable and most of it resides with the girl who is actually a tomboy.
Pehla Pyaar… could have been a simple story of three modern-day youths, their approach to life and how the whole Bollywood idea of first love being the eternal one is a big farce, but what it chooses to be is a glossy film only aimed at showcasing the looks and occasionally the acting prowess of its leads. The film seems confused, often trying too hard and ending up becoming a garbled mess. School reunions are more about flaring your insecurities than finding love.