PremiumBobby Aur Rishi Ki Love Story review: Vardhaan Puri and Kaveri Kapur's rom-com has neither romance nor comedy
Kunal Kohli’s Bobby Aur Rishi Ki Love Story tries to revive Bollywood rom-coms but lacks freshness. With a rushed love story, outdated tropes, and weak performances, it ends up being forgettable.
Last Updated: 01.27 PM, Feb 11, 2025
Bobby Aur Rishi Ki Love Story plot:
With Cambridge as a backdrop, the story follows the lovely journey of Bobby (Kaveri Kapur) and Rishi (Vardhaan Puri), who are united by love and serendipity while facing unresolved issues, competing ideologies, and unresolved concerns.
Bobby Aur Rishi Ki Love Story review:
When we look at the way Bollywood movies are shaping up nowadays, it's a constant reminder that we need romantic comedies in the mean, dark, action-packed, and propaganda-filled world. There's always a glimmer of hope in the form of a light at the end of a tunnel. But not always there's a sheer brightness and mostly it's just the flickering that fuses out in no time. That damaged bulb has one more add-on, Bobby Aur Rishi Ki Love Story.
Directed by Kunal Kohli, the film is yet another title to be added to his slate of rom-coms that he has helmed over the years. It's a known fact that if a love story is being made about the current generation, either you keep up with the trend or just have a filmmaker who probably is a millennial of sorts understand what the dating culture is all about in today's times. When Kohli helmed Hum Tum in 2004, he was in his early 30s, so it made sense of his sensibility based on how the couples had been back then. Moreover, the filmmaker skilfully portrayed the attraction between couples who are completely different from each other without constantly emphasizing that one is emotional while the other takes a practical approach to life.
Now, after two decades, Kohli has brought a love story about a Gen-Z couple who also start falling for each other after their flight gets grounded in London, and they spend 24 hours with each other only to fall in love and get separated. The film is just one hour and 37 minutes, and the first half is an expansion of the song Ladki Kyon from Hum Tum, picturized on Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji.
Upon examining Kohli's romantic comedies over the years, you'll notice a consistent pattern of couples initially separating before ultimately coming together. Be it Mujhse Dosti Karoge (2002), where the love story begins in childhood and there's also catfishing involved. In Hum Tum, the couple meets, gets separated, meets again to almost fall in love, and once again parts ways; then there's "January mein baarish" for their final reunion. In 2012, Kohli directed Teri Meri Kahaani, starring Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in the lead roles. The film was based on reincarnation, and yes, separation is a basic part of the love story.
Thus, without much effort in framing the title, Bobby Aur Rishi Ki Love Story, the time span decreases here with just one day of spending time, and the love story begins after two years of separation only to have them end up at couples therapy. First things first, you have an extremely young-looking duo played by Kaveri Kapur as Bobby and Vardhaan Puri as Rishi. When I saw them seated for the first time in front of their therapist played by Lilette Dubey, I thought it was some intervention where the college principal asked them to come to her cabin.
Having them shown as a married couple doesn't sit well at all; even with the purpose of storytelling, there should be the right faces to show as a mature married couple who are already having trust issues. Meanwhile, instead of getting to know each other, the duo sings on the streets of Cambridge, because oh yes, we are missing that in the movies, right? So let them sing a song that has been recreated so many times that you lose count.
Yes, it's a musical love story, but this genre specifically features songs that take the storyline forward, not as some fillers because the actors have nothing else to do. The film has so many moments as such that are derived from the 90s and early 2000s Yash Raj Films romantic flicks, which try to show it's paying an ode but nonetheless prove that those stories are unmatchable even when Kohli has been among the pioneers.
Coming to performances, Kapur, who is the daughter of Shekhar Kapur and Suchitra Krishnamoorthy, is quite raw and leaves a lot more scope for improvement. It's difficult to place all the blame on her, given that this is her debut and she still has a long way to go. On the other hand, Puri does show efforts of being that chocolate boy that's amiss on screen; however, not a memorable one.
Bobby Aur Rishi Ki Love Story has become yet another film that's been added to the library of films that's been created in an effort to show that love story hasn't died in movies. But the efforts are lacking too much soul that it has turned out to be just a film that will remind you of stock clearance sales at a mall.
Bobby Aur Rishi Ki Love Story verdict:
Kunal Kohli's Bobby Aur Rishi Ki Love Story tries to serenade us with nostalgia but ends up being a scratched record of recycled romance. With a love story that’s neither timeless nor trendy, this one’s more of a missed connection.