Luka Chuppi

Luka Chuppi directed by Laxman Utekar is a breezy entertainer that won’t annoy you for sure. Watching the trailer of the film, I thought it would be about the difficulties of a couple who wants to hide their live-in relationship status in a conservative society and to my surprise, it was slightly different from that. With political statements getting plugged in, Luka Chuppi is watchable.

So the movie starts with Guddu Shukla and Reshmi getting to know each other as co-workers when Reshmi joins Guddu’s local news channel as an intern. The relationship grows and Guddu decides to take it to the next step by proposing to Reshmi about getting married. Reshmi wasn’t ready for commitment and she suggests the idea of a live-in relationship. Guddu hesitantly agrees to it and the film Luka Chuppi shows us the chaos that happens when they decided to live a live-in life without telling the world about it by faking a marriage.

Now don’t blame me for revealing the story. Almost all of this was there in the trailer. This roughly two-hour long movie isn’t really excited about building a solid relationship between the characters. One main purpose of the live-in relationship concept is to understand the compatibility. Utekar skips through that part quickly. And the movie becomes funnier post that part. The larger share is given to the portion which isn’t shown in the trailer; how they manage after getting caught. After an okay first half that sets up the plot to the point we saw in the trailer, the second half has some moments that will give you some moments of genuine laughter.

Karthik Aaryan is very much in his comfort zone here and the character of Guddu is more like an extension to the Luv Ranjan movies he did. He looks adorable and the Punchnama characteristics suit this Guddu character. Coming to Kriti Sanon, I really liked the way she carried the whole character. She isn’t monotonous and makes her character believable and to an extent, endearing. Even though his character is minimal in terms of screen time, Aparshakti Khurrana was hilarious and makes the most of his allotted time. Pankaj Tripathi is really good, but I felt he was forcefully included in the cast because of his likability. Vinay Pathak was pretty effective as the father in law.

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Laxman Utekar is interested in creating a comedy full of jokes unlike a Badhaai Ho or Stree where there is an effort to convey something subtly to the viewer. The movie drifts away from the topic of freedom to choose a live-in relationship. The first half has many areas where the director skips through the major process of building a relationship. The protagonists are thrown into this “go get married” scenario very quickly and the movie kind of became the opposite of what it should have been. Having said all this, I must say that there were some hilarious sequences in the second half which made me laugh. And it was good to see a mainstream commercial entertainer with bankable stars taking a dig at the right wing moral policing forces of UP and MP. The largely rehashed music album of the film was used smartly by Utekar. Visuals were mostly on the colorful pleasant tone and captured the texture of places like Madhura and Gwalior nicely.

Luka Chuppi is occasionally funny and because of that, it is a watchable one. It isn’t exactly a movie that talks about the live-in relationship and its problems. Luka Chuppi will be one movie in my guilty pleasure list. It is one of those films where I knew the statements are problematic but still the movie wasn’t annoying.

Rating: 2.5/5

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Final Thoughts

Lukka Chuppi is occasionally funny and because of that, it is a watchable one. It isn't exactly a movie that talks about the live-in relationship and its problems.

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Orange: The In-Between Ones

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By Aswin Bharadwaj

Founder and editor of Lensmen Reviews.