When a skilled actor is going through a purple patch in his career, every work he does gets elevated. Even if it is a truly bad movie. Pankaj Tripathi is going through such a phase in his career. If his mere appearance on the big screen can lit up a smile on your bored face, then Pankaj Tripathi has created a wonderful legacy about himself. And when you have such an incredible actor in your cast, the first thing you do is utilise him to the best of your opportunities. Not doing so is one of the many flaws of Luka Chuppi, starring Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon in the lead. Luka Chuppi Box Office Prediction: Will Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon Deliver Their First Hit Together in the Rom-Com Genre?

Directed by Laxman Utekar, Luka Chuppi follows the trend of recent Bollywood movies of not willing to look beyond Uttar Pradesh as a setting. This time, the movie is based in Mathura (with a brief sojourn to Gwalior), the holy city that is united in its hatred for live-in relationships. Why, you ask? 'Cos that's against our culture. The inhabitants, fuelled by a political party led by bigwig bigot Vishnu Trivedi (Vinay Pathak), hate the idea of a couple living together before marriage so much that they boycott a Bollywood superstar (with a Muslim name, just saying) because he did that. Thank God, the rest of our stars are so sanskaari, right?

In the same town, Guddu (Kartik Aaryan) works as a star reporter for a local news channel, with his friend Abbas (Aparshakti Khurrana) as a cameraman. Trivedi's daughter Rashmi (Kriti Sanon) joins there as an intern, and it is love at first sight for Guddu. After some time, even the girl reciprocates his feelings. So all is well in Radhe Radhe Land.

Or so we think. A little family discussion makes Guddu fear that he may never get married. Why he thinks so is not explored much except by showing a comical bad scene. In his desperation to get married, Guddu proposes to Rashmi even though their days-old romance hasn't progressed beyond a peck on the cheek.

On the hindsight, Rashmi should have run away from this creepy guy. Instead, she proposes that they have a live-in relationship to see if they are compatible with each other. A reluctant Guddu agrees to this and they use a 20-day work assignment in Gwalior to try it out. After, all, 20 days of togetherness are enough to find out if your partner is right for you for a lifetime. Luka Chuppi Song Photo: Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon Bring you The Perfect Valentine's Day Treat - Watch Video.

But Luka Chuppi is not about live-in dynamics. It is about a lie being stretched to the point of being incredibly annoying. To get temporary staying arrangements for their live-in funda, Guddu and Rashmi pretend to be married. However, their pretense becomes their reality for them, when both their families find out and accept their 'marriage'.

When the foundation is built on a very flimsy premise, it is difficult to build up a good film around it. The whole live-in vs marriage saga is treated very shoddily. This is quite evident in the first scene itself when a barrage of reporters badger a superstar on his live-in relationship and talks about sanskaars and other stuff. The movie continues to make the hatred for live-in an obsession for the entire town, with even youngsters feeling disgusted by the idea.

I get it that the idea is not exactly acceptable to our society, especially in small towns, but the kind of reactions the characters show in Luka Chuppi feel so artificial. If the director wanted to create a satirical view on the mindsets of inhabitants there, it doesn't really work out. And to think, a few years back, we had a very decent movie, Shuddh Desi Romance (interestingly, starring Kriti's alleged ex Sushant Singh Rajput), made on couples having a live-in relationship in towns.

Watch The Trailer of Luka Chuppi Here:

It is not just the live-in subplot that gets screwed. Even the romance between Guddu and Rashmi is very sketchily and conveniently written, and is only engaging because Kriti and Karthik share decent chemistry. Luka Chuppi may be trying to take a dig at our society's narrow-mindedness, but its romance is made so convenient. Like, how the Brahmin girl falls for the Brahmin boy, instead of his Muslim friend. If it was the other way, then we can't have the cute laughs, right?

Thanks to these issues, the first half is very average, with even the humour falling flat at most of the places.

The second half is better, mostly because the supporting cast, made of a talented roster, gets a little more to do. A couple of scenes about mistaken perceptions and blackmailing elicit chuckles. But again, I really didn't catch up to the couple's struggles to get actually married while pretending to be married anything worthwhile. Rather than devices to drive the plot, they act as mere inconveniences where even a hard-boiled, bigoted father had a change of mind thanks to a misplaced sermon. Luke Chuppi's runtime is, mercifully, short so it doesn't bear too much on your patience.

So what does Pankaj Tripathi has to do with all this BS? He plays a meddling relative of Guddu, who lusts after married women and is a freeloader living in Guddu's house. In between, he tries to catch Guddu and Rashmi's sham act, which leads to some minor irritation for the leads. His appearance is merely restricted to some colourful getups and 4-5 scenes. But whenever he appears on screen, Pankaj definitely makes you smile. The music, made od recreated songs, is just about ho-hum.

The Performances

Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon are both decent and charismatic. But apart from repeating what they did in Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety and Bareilly Ki Barfi respectively, their performances don't offer any surprise.

Luka Chuppi needed more of Pankaj Tripathi, who is hilarious in every scene he is in, but the movie is strangely happy in restricting him to an extended cameo. Aparshakti Khurrana, stuck in being the hero's friend in nearly every film, is just okay this time. The supporting cast consisting of Vinay Pathak and Atul Shrivastav are credible.

Yay!

- Kriti and Kartik's Decent Chemistry

- Pankaj Tripathi's Rare Appearances

- A Couple Of Funny Scenes

Nay!

- Weak Premise

- Weak Writing

- Weak Songs and Structure

Final Thoughts

Luka Chuppi may find attractors thanks to Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon's growing fan-base. However, to enjoy the movie, you have to get over its shoddy premise and lack of humour. At best, Luka Chuppi has one-time watch value that mostly depends on how big a fan you are of Kartik, and whether you ready to forgive the makers for wasting Pankaj Tripathi.

Rating:2.0

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 01, 2019 02:38 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).