Parivarik ManuRanjan movie review: Pankaj Tripathi, Aditi Rao Hydari film is a lost opportunity

Parivarik ManuRanjan movie review: Lucknow is clearly the new flavour of the season: ‘Parivarik ManuRanjan’ which takes its job of being a ‘family-oriented film’ very seriously indeed, is the third or fourth recent film set in UP’s historic capital.

But it’s also an enterprise which has taken to heart the recent insistence on the city’s vegetarian version, given just how lacking the two romantic leads are in hearty red blood cells. Pankaj Tripathi and Aditi Rao Hydari, let loose in a large kothi in the city’s well-known ‘Chowk’ area, are the very epitome of wholesomeness, without a single lustful thought crossing their minds.

The writer-trio, which includes the director, Brijendra Kala who has a supporting part, as well as Abbas Ali Jafar, are so intent on giving us a ‘clean’ rom-com that they forget to spice things up. Nary a glimpse of the city’s world-famous kebabs, tauba tauba, only bhindi ki sabzi, leavened by an occasional bite of a cheese-burst pizza.

Pankaj Tripathi is always watchable, but even he can’t do much when he has been written into such staidness. His Ranjan Dubey, with a sarkari job in the bijli department, busy marrying off several sisters, has never given a thought to his bachelor status. The entrance of a lovely new housekeeper Helen (Aditi Rao Hydari) is a sign that things are about to change.

She beavers away, cleaning and cooking up a storm, electrifying his neighbours and colleagues with her mere presence: tongues start wagging, and we stand by for the good-natured Tripathi-Dubey to make his move. His sisters and their spouses, with Vijayant Kohli being the only stand-out, start protesting: of course, there has to be something fishy about this girl who seems too good to be true. Is Helen, a word carrying smirky overtones, even her real name?

This could have been a great chance to carve Tripathi a new image, given how he’s been stuck in avuncular father-deadly gangster type roles. If only the writing had lifted itself out of its familiar sitcom zone – the whole ‘bidyut’ office scene looks like a straight lift from ‘Gullak’, as does the appearance of Bittu-Ki-Mummy Sunita Rajwar in a near-similar part; the scooter-riding, tiffin-carrying persona reminds you of the lead in ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ – this may have turned into a sweet-and-spicy romance.

But the film is too safe, too dull: in short, a lost opportunity.

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Parivarik ManuRanjan movie cast: Pankaj Tripathi, Aditi Rao Hydari, Brijendra Kala, Mukesh Tiwari, Sunita Rajwar, Vijayant Kohli
Parivarik ManuRanjan movie director: Varun V Sharma
Parivarik ManuRanjan movie star rating: Two stars