Looking back at Pyaar Ka Punchnama, the rom-com directed by Luv Ranjan and starring Kartik Aaryan as it celebrates 14 years!
Luv Ranjan’s Pyaar Ka Punchnama packs in a precocious punch. In telling the story of three friends-cum-flatmates who get into ‘serious’ relationships with three self-serving working-class female monsters of the concrete jungle, debutant director Luv Ranjan gives us a film that’s fresh, flavourful and finally hugely rewarding.
Not that the film attempts to say anything we’ve not seen before. That’s the beauty of this sometimes-embarrassing, sometimes-disturbing, often-funny, and never-dull peek-a-boo at youthful life in the metropolis where human values are frequently sacrificed for the sake of a trendy lifestyle or maybe just to get even with a fast-moving, materialistic city that doesn’t care how much you carry in your heart as long as the credit cards keep working their mall magic.
Pyaar Ka Punchnama is the kind of rugged rom-com that brings the smile back into the genre. The performances, especially by Kartik and Divyendu, are rock-solid, imbuing the light-hearted but never-frivolous goings-on with flavour and strength.
Meet Rajat (Kartik Aaryan), who, alas, meets Riya, and his life changes forever. Wish we could say, for the better. In terms of an emotional graph and dramatic momentum, Kartik is the screenplay’s most appealing and inviting character. That the actor plays his character with great gusto just adds to the charm of the peccadilloes.
No doubt the Rajat-Riya track conveys echoes of the Saif Ali Khan-Suchitra Pillai lamb-and-bully equation in Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai. It’s not novelty for which this film wins extra points. It’s the sheer energy, exuberance and sardonic humour that the director invests into building a case against young men in the city ‘falling’ (with a humping thud) in love with girl so ambitious they would climb the highest peak at the slightest pretext. And we aren’t talking about the Himalayas.
Though there’s a delectable sexual subtext to the relationships, Ranjan keeps the proceedings surprisingly free of crassness. The vast, eclectic material is nimbly edited in a criss-cross of fast-moving vignettes taken from a suburban immorality tale.
Apart from an inexplicable fixation on urination in the dialogues of the first reel, the spoken lines communicate the musk of masculine prattle without getting over-lurid or picturesque.
For a first film, Luv Ranjan shows a remarkable grip over his characters’ destiny. If Rajat’s track moves at a vibrant volition, the nerdy Liquid’s (Divyendu Sharma) one-sided devotion to the selfish office colleague Charu (Ishita Sharma) reeks of a desperate romance that Somerset Maugham described in his novel Of Human Bondage decades ago.
Divyendu is a solid actor. He gives to his wimpy, cranky character an easily-recognisable profile. The plot involving Chaudhary (Raayo Bhakhirta) and his promiscuous lust interest is the feeblest of the three love tracks. And it suffers only in comparison with the sturdy momentum that the director allots to Rajat and Liquid’s rather sordid love stories.
Deftly written and edited with words and situations straight out of real life, Pyaar Ka Punchnama is the kind of rugged romantic-comedy that brings the smile back into the genre. The performances, especially by Kartikeya and Divyendu, are rock-solid, imbuing the light-hearted but never-frivolous goings-on with flavour and strength.
The ultimate horror flick? You got it! This one is about how scary the man-woman thing gets because most of the time, men don’t know what women want. You see, women don’t want men to know. That’s the secret this devilishly-delightful film lets out.
There were other talented actors in Luv Ranjan’s tongue-in-cheek what-women-want men-o-drama. But fate chose Kartik Aaryan to be the special one. When Kartik Aryan in Pyaar Ka Punchnama rattles off that ‘Problem’ monologue about what women want (“Maang bharna and phir zindagi bhar maang poori karte rahna”), a star is born.
That four-minute-45-second improvised monologue on how confusing feminine conduct gets for the male species is priceless in its piquancy. This is a story about the below-the-belt follies of the young. No matter what your age, you will see a slice of your own spousal relationship in the vicious circle that the plot creates around its three heroes.
Remembering that moment when ‘It’ happened, director Luv Ranjan told me, “That monologue was carefully planned. Kartik improvised a little, and we went along. There was no cut. The entire thing was done in one take. Again, in the sequel, we incorporated Kartik’s monologue because that was the USP of the Punchnaama franchise…it’s destiny, really.”
Playing Rajat, a.k.a Rajjo, Kartik stole the show from his co-stars Divyendu Sharma and Raayo S. Bakhirta, who unfortunately got left far behind as Kartik’s Rajjo caught the nation’s attention. It was a performance that youngsters connected with, of a guy totally dominated by his girlfriend to the point of asphyxiation. The role, the character, and his relationship with his girlfriend reminded me of a certain actor who is no longer with us and whose live-in similarly smothered him.
On release on May 20, 2011, the critics accused the film of being misogynistic. Luv Ranjan claims he didn’t even know what the word meant until he was accused of it. Released during the same year as Salman Khan’s twin towers Ready and Bodyguard, Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One and Don 2, Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Ranbir Kapoor’s Rockstar, PKPN eventually made more profits than all the revered box office hits mentioned above. PKPN was a sleeper, earning progressively enhanced profits and praise as the years have gone by.
Peppery and pertinent, this is a film that no one should miss. True, it is a story about the below-the-belt follies of the young. No matter what your age, you will see a slice of your own spousal relationship in the vicious circle that the plot creates around its three heroes.
The film gave us one major superstar, Kartik Aryan, who is today among the handful of most saleable and unassailable stars.
