Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar review: Luv Ranjan deceives the audience by bringing a 'family' twist to Ranbir Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor's rom-com, and it works!

3/5

Mickey (Ranbir Kapoor), the son of a wealthy businessman, goes on a bachelor's trip to Spain with his best friend Dabbas (Anubhav Singh Bassi). Dabbas's girlfriend Kinchi (Monica Chaudhary) and Kinchi's best friend Tinni (Shraddha Kapoor), a modern, independent girl, join them there. Tinny and Mickey fall in love, but Tinni wants to end their relationship, so she employs a break-up artist to do it. Tinni has no idea that Mickey is the break-up artist and that his job is to end their romance. 

Modern relationship problems get a modern solution. Over the years, the relationship dynamics have changed in real life, which has started translating to the screen as well. Luv Ranjan, whose take on relationships has faced the wrath of many this time, might have also triggered women, especially in the name of the family. The director made a movie that is a tribute to himself. It is a mix of Ranbir Kapoor's past romantic movies and Sooraj Barjatya's movies from the 1990s. 

In the very first scene, we meet Ranbir Kapoor as Mickey, a rich, spoiled brat who works as a jodi breaker on the side. Yes, but he doesn't touch divorces like R Madhavan and Bipasha Basu do in Jodi Breakers. It so happens that his own partner and best friend Dabbas (Anubhav Singh Bassi) now wants to separate from his fiancée Kinchi (Monica Chaudhary), just a few days before their bachelor trip in Spain. When it comes to his own best friend, Mickey gives it the excuse of "cold feet" and distracts himself with his best friend's fiancée's best friend, Tinni (Shraddha Kapoor). 

Tinni walks in. She is a modern Indian girl who dances in a Bollywood style in her first song, which bombs. It's not the right way to introduce your female lead in item number style, I must say. So begins Mickey's series of monologues to win Tinni's heart, and man, Ranbir is left breathless, just like Shankar Mahadevan's famous song. The actor's efforts to say dialogues in one go are seamless but exhausting to watch. At one point, it felt like even the audience might scream at the screen to shut him up. Well, at the right time, the actors on the screen do. 

The whirlwind romance reaches family life in no time, and we might wonder what could possibly go wrong in this love story. But there are a series of red flags, and the worst one is a lack of communication. That's where the title Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar falls aptly. Only a lack of communication between a couple can turn them into liars and deceivers. 

The template of Luv Ranjan's film is quite similar to what we saw in Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety. There we had Alok Nath as a grandfather to the leading character, while here we have the child actor Inayat Verma as a savage niece of Ranbir who drinks Appy Fizz, asks for a bribe, and talks about her "hissa" in family properties. She is truly amazing with her witty dialogue delivery, but even that turns heavy after a while. 

Even the house where Shraddha Kapoor lives turns out to be quite similar to that of Nushrratt Bharuccha's character in the 2018 film, and well, she does come back to that flat (spoiler, no spoiler). 

Luv has been questioned for being a "woman hater," which has been hinted at in his films. However, this time, the antagonist is not a female character, but how a modern-day relationship fails due to "family" issues. 

There are a few scenes where you might feel like Tinni does, claustrophobic, but the escape route takes an ugly turn, and it does come full circle given that Mickey's profession was introduced in the very first scene of the film. 

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is quite superficial, and the first half turns out to be a drag with multiple monologues that work as empty vessels. It tests your patience, and the twist is also predictable. So during the intermission, one could only hope that the rest of the film gets better. Well, it does, but only in the last 20 minutes, which is a laughter riot. 

The best part of the film is something I would want to revisit because blame games are a guilty pleasure, right? But scenes leading to that part take up screen time, with unnecessary scenes being a catalyst and turning out to be slightly drab. 

The film doesn't meet the expectations people had with this quirky collaboration of a director and actors coming from different spaces of cinema. So how have Ranbir and Shraddha fit well in Luv Ranjan's universe? 

Given that Ranbir is the first actor to star in Luv's film apart from Kartik Aaryan, it comes as a refreshing change. However, sinking into the monologues by the actor will take time, and there is a lot in the film. The breathless dialogue delivery comes across as uncomfortable to watch, but as mentioned earlier, Ranbir aces it very well. However, it's the scenes where he has to give the funniest expressions and also shed a tear that are the ones to watch out for. This genre is a safe space for the actor, as he has proven time and again. However, it reminded me of Anjaana Anjaani, which is, in my opinion, one of his underrated rom-com. So, I must say, Ranbir has got a win here! Moreover, it's actually a delight to see him as a self-obsessed man who doesn't shy away from talking about his "good looks" and asks for a gender reversal in scenes with Shraddha. Only he can carry it off! 

Credit, where credit's due, watching Shraddha on the big screen, shows that she has grown as an actor. The actor has an equal number of scenes where she gets to shine. Well, she almost gets a monologue but is stopped by the champion himself (spoiler, no spoiler). But yes, this is among the best performances by Shraddha in her more than a decade-long career. Like Ranbir, even she is a good cryer, which works well for the film and also shows her calibre as an actor. 

The best actor to watch out for in the film is Dimple Kapadia. You can never get enough of her in the film, especially in the climax, where she just bares it all with her incredible dialogue delivery. The actor makes me laugh out loud and plays a 30-year-old man's progressive mom to a tee. 

Luv has penned the screenplay with his frequent collaborator, Rahul Mody. The dialogue itself is another character in the film. Even with that, the duo has played multiple nicknames for the characters. Rohan becomes Mickey (Ranbir), and Nisha becomes Tinni (Shraddha). But the same dialogues can be tiresome as they are delivered in one breath. But some punchlines are too funny for words and will crack you up instantly. 

Along with being a dialogue-heavy film, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is also a musical. There are seven songs in the film, and all of them are included in the 164-minute runtime. The four songs that are out: Tere Pyaar Mein, Pyaar Hota Kayi Baar Hai, Show Me The Thumka, and O Bedardeya, are already winners. But Shraddha's introductory songs bring a drop in the upbeat album, and so does the film. There is another romantic song that is also soothing to the ears. 

It's not the best film I watched in recent times, but it is far better than the movies I had to tolerate recently. Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is refreshing to some extent, but it might not exceed your expectations and end up being questionable, like every Luv Ranjan film does. 

There's a scene in the film where Shraddha Kapoor wears a kurta while visiting Ranbir Kapoor's family. This doesn't sit well with them, as they assume he is the one who asked her to wear an Indian dress. The modern family take is perfect and desirable for many, which Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar shows in a make-believe manner. But after 20 years, Luv Ranjan makes the most of Karan Johar's Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham's tagline, "It's all about loving your parents."