Movie Review of Pyaar Ka Punchnama

Director : Luv Ranjan 

Music : Clinton Cerejo, Hitesh Sonik, Luv Ranjan and Ad Boys

Lyrics : Luv Ranjan

Starring : Kartikeya Tiwari, Rayo Bhakhirta, Divyendu Sharma, Sonalli Sehgal and Nushrat Bharucha

It seems anti-rom-coms are taking Bollywood by storm. LUV KA THE END released a few days back and this week it's PYAAR KA PUNCHNAMA. We're sure it's tag line - Come...fall out of love, won't make Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar and the likes very happy.

First things first. The promos of PYAAR KA PUNCHNAMA gave the impression that it's a sex comedy. But it isn't. It's about relationships. While watching the film, one is also reminded of Madhur Bhandarkar's DIL TOH BACCHA HAI JI, which released early this year.

The film traces the life of three friends - Rajat, Vikrant and Nishant aka Liquid, who are desperate to get girl-friends. Their wishes are answered soon.

Rajat meets Neha and soon gets in a live-in relationship with her. Vikrant falls for hottie Riya, who still can't get over her ex-boyfriend. Liquid is smitten by his new manipulative colleague Charu, who uses him to get her office work done.

As time passes, the relationships of all the tree couples starts getting from bad to worse. Will they hold on is what forms the rest of the story. The film is an anti-rom-com and director Luv Ranjan rightly doesn't waste much time in establishing the romance between the characters.

The initial few minutes of the film are fresh and enjoyable. The problem in the film arises when the couples start facing problems in their respective relationships. All the tracks drag to no end. While the first half is still bearable, the second half just goes on and on.

The best part of the second half, infact the entire film, is the 5-minute-long hilarious monologue by Rajat. He perhaps echoes the thoughts of each and every boy who's in a relationship.

Many of the things shown in the film are real are relatable. But they get very monotonous and boring as a viewer. The graph of the film oscillates from being very funny to very clumsy. The film needed to be much shorter, which would have helped it immensely.

The music by Clinton Cerejo, Hitesh Sonik, Luv Ranjan and Ad Boys goes well with the film with Baanware being the best song. Akiv Ali's editing is okay. Sudhir K Chaudhary's cinematography is good. The dialogues are very much in sink with today's lingo.

Kartikeya Tiwari is decent. Vikrant delivers a very restrained performance. Divyendu Sharma is excellent. Among the girls, Nushrat Bharucha is the best. She delivers a confident performance. Sonalli Sehgal looks great but is pretty ordinary when it comes to acting. Ishita Sharma is passable.

PYAAR KA PUNCHNAMA is inconsistent and lacks "Punch".