Pyaar ka Punchnama throws at you several punches, most of which land before you numb down into boredom. But it eventually picks itself up and knocks you out with scenes that bring out visceral emotions. All in all, it punches above it's weight.
The story is about three young men living together and leading lives of stereotypical bachelors. They're messy, foul-mouthed and carefree loners. But pure-hearted and know how to have a good time. They work jobs that they hate and use loud music and alcohol to cope with the stress that it brings. Always up for a party and definitely up for a chance to romance, even though they might not get as many as they'd like.
In just the first few scenes of the movie, Divyendu who plays Nishant a.k.a. Liquid sells the authenticity of the character with his seemingly effortless performance. He's the biggest loner in the group, clumsy in front of girls and knows there aren't many in his league. He would soon develop feelings for his co-worker Charu (played by Ishita) who'd friendzone him and later manipulate him to get her own work done.
As Nishant's struggles with his feelings for Charu unfold, we see the other two roommates - Rajat (played by Kartik) and Vikrant (played by Rayoo) - make romantic connections with Neha (played by Nusrat) and Rhea (played by Sonali), respectively. Through the movie, we see these three boys go through the journeys of relationships that eventually turn toxic and start to scar them emotionally.
The movie starts off being a fun, relatable, brashy humour laden film. As the boys fall in love, it does a pretty good job of transmitting the feeling of warm effervescence that a novel relationship brings. It starts throwing a few more comedic punches as the boys choose to ignore the subtle red flags that their relationships manifest.
At this point, it almost becomes a series of jokes that might come from the same school as the boomer-humour jests about wives. But still feel new and relatively closer to reality as they're written for the modern relationships. What further helps the punches land is the background music that mostly consists of dog noises.
However, this carries on for a little too long. Long enough that you're forced to look at your clock and realise that you're well over an hour into the movie and still don't have a sense of the direction it may take. You're driven to look at the runtime and realise that over an hour still remains. It is at this point that the movie starts to lose it's audience. It is at this very juncture that the spectators begin to question if it would be worth to stay to watch the end or not. While it seems unlikely at this stage, it is indeed worth staying and watching the last hour unfold.
You almost get a sense that the story needs a big twist, an unexpected bang, a dramatic-cinematic event that spurs life into it. It never comes. And that, you eventually realise, is the beauty of it.
The subtle red flags, the foolishness of characters in ignoring them that make you cringe at times, the ostensible directionlessness of the relationships - it all builds up and explodes in your face in scenes that bring out emotions more visceral than you thought they'd be.
A lot of credit for that goes to the brilliant acting performances as well as the music in the second half of the film. The song Banware is one of the most remarkably placed songs in any movie.
Divyendu and Nusrat steal the show with their performances. While Divyendu effortlessly makes Nishant look like a typical Delhi boy you ever met, Nusrat evokes visceral feelings out of the audience as her character displays very nuanced manipulative tactics to get her boyfriend in control. Kartik might seem fairly average throughout the movie, but he absolutely kills it in two very important scenes - one is the famous monologue, the other is where he breaks down in tears and kneels and hugs his girlfriend in a bid to try to keep her from getting away, while also subconsciously realising that he's been weakened and manipulated to great lengths by her and is by no means in a healthy relationship.
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