A matchmaker and a divorce lawyer who has extremely opposite opinions about relationships sharing a workspace is an idea that has the potential to create a unique conflict. Plan A Plan B, directed by Shashanka Ghosh, unfortunately, doesn’t know how to get the best out of a peculiar premise and ends up being emotionally flat and forcefully funny. Plan A Plan B is one of that lazily written rom-com that borrows everything from every generic rom-com.
Kaustubh Chogule, aka Kosty, is a divorce lawyer who has a troubled relationship with his wife as she cheated on him. Nirali Vora is a matchmaker who is struggling to move on from her last relationship. Things take an interesting turn when Nirali gets an office space very next to Kosty’s law firm. How these diametrically opposite people and their endeavors co-exist in that space and what all happens in that equation is what we get to see in Plan A Plan B.
So many romantic comedies on Netflix basically say the same template story with different characters. Plan A Plan B belongs to that niche of films you watch without excitement. The only takeaways of these movies are the flat and bright visuals with advertisement-like romantic sequences. Rajat Arora, who is known for writing swagger-driven action movies like Once Upon A Time in Mumbai, Baadshaho, Kick, etc., tries his luck in a romantic comedy with Plan A Plan B, and he is struggling a lot in establishing his characters. In the first half an hour of the movie, our hero and heroine act like Poo from Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum is their spirit animal. Actually, the cinematic sensibility of this movie is stuck in the K3G era; only the lingo has changed.
Shashanka Ghosh, who has previously made movies like Khoobsurat and Veere Di Wedding, doesn’t have solid material here to create memorable characters. In the movie’s last act, when the lead pair is dancing and realizing their love for one another, we don’t feel for them as their emotions and outbursts are extremely plastic initially. Towards the climax, Kosty, who acted like a caricature moron till that point, suddenly becomes this motivational life coach who subtly tells Nirali about how the older women have moved on in their life. It feels like Rajat Arora had this moment in mind and tried to make a movie to reach that scene.
Ritesh Deshmukh has a natural talent for pulling off caricature-style comedy, and I must say that when his character is a bit moronic, his performance is enjoyable. Tamannah, whose purpose in most movies is to look eye-candy in designer clothes for the hero to stalk her, gets a different character here. And please don’t think that it is a challenging role by any means. Kusha Kapila, Poonam Dhillon, etc., are the other names in the cast with no significant space in the story.
Plan A Plan B is a romantic comedy that tries too hard to be comical that you don’t even bother about its romantic angle, which comes in the later half of the film. Just like how everything looks staged and unreal in the film, the characters also lack that humaneness one would expect so that we can connect with them emotionally.
Plan A Plan B is a romantic comedy that tries too hard to be comical that you don't even bother about its romantic angle, which comes in the later half of the film.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
