‘Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri’ movie review: Ananya Panday brings fresh energy to this yawn fest

After making headlines with the Oscar shortlist, Dharma Productions goes homebound with a tourism advertisement for Croatia, interspersed with product placement for the bronzer look of its fair-skinned lead actress. Masquerading as a breezy, feel-good romantic comedy that imparts the warmth of family values during winter break, it feels like an addition to the aspirational calendar of wedding and honeymoon ideas that the production house delivers every year to towns of different tiers.

It is the kind of cinema where there is an unwritten pact between people on both sides of the screen that the film will not cause any emotional discomfort for consumers of the product. There is nothing wrong with frivolous cinema as long as it hides its true intentions. Here, the facade crumbles a little too early. 

Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri follows Ray (Kartik Aaryan), a carefree young man of Indian origin from the US, who plans grand weddings with his formidable mother, Pinky (Neena Gupta), and Rumi (Ananya Panday), a more grounded budding author from Agra who takes the responsibility of her retired father (Jackie Shroff) very seriously.

They meet during a trip to Croatia, where their destiny seems determined to bring them together during the yacht week. Soon, screenwriter Karan Shrikant Sharma hides behind fate to fill in the blanks between the pre-fabricated plot points. But even the quirks of fate prove relatively flat. Their initial clashes, designed to promote the country rather than the chemistry between the leads, predictably turn into romance over ten days.

As we hurtle towards intermission, family expectations and personal responsibilities pull them apart, as circumstances demand that Rumi and Ray choose between their love for each other and their devotion to their single parents.

A still from the film
| Photo Credit:
Dharma Productions/YouTube

Rumi has a doting father to take care of, and Ray is a mama’s boy. Like the romantic build-up, the clash over the parents feels timely but manufactured. Director Sameer Vidwans used a similar storytelling format in Satyaprem Ki Katha, but it sounded much more truthful. The dialogues here are filled with the shallow slang and syntax of today, which hardly travel beyond the surface. Not just the main strand—even the strong supporting cast, led by Tiku Talsania and Grusha Kapoor, fails to evoke genuine laughs.

Kartik’s toothy smile is a bigger distraction than his six-pack abdomen. The makers unnecessarily make him repeat the stereotypically annoying image he created with the Pyar ka Punchnama franchise, even though he has clearly outgrown this silly-to-sincere journey. There may be an audience for that loud, breathless dialogue delivery, but the magic has worn off. He shows what he can bring to the table in the second half in one of the few emotionally resonant scenes with Jackie Shroff, but the director clearly has different plans for him.

Ananya Panday once again makes a sketchily written part of a small-town girl on a journey of self-discovery come alive with a lively performance. She sets fitness and beauty goals in the first half and expresses youthful maturity in the second, even though the writer has not anchored the character in a defined social milieu. The camera loves her, and she doesn’t disappoint. Newcomer Chandni Bhabda offers sincere support as the younger sister. Neena Gupta tries to fit into the cacophony that mainstream cinema generates, and Jackie Shroff, much like the character he essays, sleepwalks through the role.

A still from the film
| Photo Credit:
Dharma Productions/YouTube

Ananya’s screen presence and Kartik’s dance moves make it work like a flimsy story that anchors a series of handsomely shot music videos with a medley of old hits (which only producers with deep pockets can afford) set to refreshing choreography. As for cinema about today’s youth’s dilemmas about their personal life and parental care, we can always refer to Piku and The Mehta Boys. For the rest, the title could be a great tongue twister for the wedding events that the film might inspire.

‘Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri’ is currently running in theatres.