Zara Hatke Zara Bachke review: Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan's reverse Love Per Square Foot has the verdict in the title

2/5

An Indore couple named Kapil (Vicky Kaushal) and Somya (Sara Ali Khan) decide to end their shared family life with a true but fake divorce. It's a comedy of errors from there on, as their relatives find out about them.

There's no denial about the fact that house hunting is one of the toughest and most tedious tasks for any individual in the country. Be it metro cities or tier two cities, everywhere, finding your place to live at the right price is no cakewalk. Zara Hatke Zara Bachke is a film all about house-hunting, with Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan in the lead roles. Vicky and house-hunting? Ring a bell? Yes, the Netflix original film, Love Per Square Foot (2018), featuring the actor along with Angira Dhar, also follows a similar plot.

In the Anand Tiwari directorial debut, Sanjay (Vicky) and Karina (Angira) are bank employees, and since neither of them makes enough money on their own to buy a house, they decide to wed for convenience.

In Zara Hatke Zara Bachke, the married couple seeks a divorce to get a house of their own. Kapil is a yoga instructor, while Somya is a coaching class tutor. Their incomes are not sufficient for them to get a house of their own, and this leads them to seek a secret divorce so that they can own a house.

As bizarre as it sounds, the film also takes questionable turns every now and then. Firstly, it's a union between an Indori Brahmin, the Dubey family, and a Punjabi family named Chawla. This leads to constant fights about cultural differences; no surprises there.

We have constantly heard of young couples wanting to live separately from their families for privacy and many other reasons. Kapil and Somya are among them, but that desperation led them to consider separating from each other, even on paper. This leads to a not-so-shocking comedy of errors, which sums up the whole film.

They hear of a government housing scheme for people with lower incomes and decide to take some dicey actions in the hopes of getting in. Although it sounds shocking to its core, it's not that surprising given that we hear the most bizarre of stories about couples in the country. These couples go to any lengths to have their desires fulfilled.

From the beginning, it's established that Kapil is a miser and thinks of saving money. He reacts to prices like most middle-class people do, citing that the world is indeed an expensive place to live.

Maitrey Bajpai and Ramiz Ilham Khan, who penned the screenplay, bring about run-of-the-mill humour with over-the-top lines given to put forth their points and also bring the physical humour in place. However, that works for me only in the first 45 minutes of the film. After the so-called divorce part is finalised, the writers seem to have forgotten the right way to pad up the film to bring it to an end.

It just revolves in cycles, and the climax should be about getting the house and the reunion of the divorced couple, right? For that, we are taken on different tangents by introducing newer characters, especially Sharib Hashmi. He brings a fun and emotional angle to the story, but not something that was needed.

Every step of Zara Hatke Zara Bachke reminded me of several other movies, including Band Baaja Baaraat, where Ranveer Singh's character also orders greasy Chinese food like "Chowmein ek veg ek chicken". Kapil, who goes out to eat Chinese with Somya after work, orders something similar to that, as she is a Punjabi, so the chicken is a necessity. However, in the process, there are a lot of brand plug-ins, including Thums Up, as they both share one bottle. Remember, Andaz Apna Apna, "Do dost ek pyale me chai piyenge"? But here it's Kapil's "kanjoosi" that leads him to do so.

The film, although it takes us on a journey of a couple's decision-making skills being questionable and going wrong, also shows subtly how women make sacrifices to have a peaceful marriage. Somya, for being modern, educated, earning more than a husband, and on top of that, a Punjabi. In two years of marriage, she has adjusted to everything her in-laws expect her to without any questions. However, we also see that she has also been adjusting to her husband's way of living because love is beyond all.

In no time, all hell breaks loose, and the film draws references from Thappad as well as the recently released Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, where the lady confronts her partner and brings out all his mistakes.

It's not just a hit-and-miss opportunity for Laxman Utekar with his third outing as a director, but also a lost path that doesn't reach its conclusion in the right way. As the world is recycling and bringing back trends, the makers also thought that old wine in a new bottle could work for Zara Hatke Zara Bachke. Well, no!

Even Vicky's small-town boy act is not good enough to make the film entertaining, despite him being one. The actor sinks his teeth into the role, like in his earlier serious roles, and is adorable as Kapu. But because of the lack of conviction in the script and the panning of the story, the actor's efforts go in vain. This was his return to the big screen after three years—not a desirable comeback of sorts.

On the other hand, Sara, whose expressions had to do most of the talking, has something that fails miserably for her. There's still a long way for the actor to get it right, despite having that chirpy nature, which she has even shown on her Instagram. At one point in time, her character, "Mujhe tang karna laga."

Earlier works of Laxman Utekar, namely Luka Chuppi and Mimi, had Pankaj Tripathi stealing the show the right way. This time it's Kanupriya Pandit as Kapil's mami, who brings in the usual tropes of a taunting saas. Her nagging of Somya and taking things to a different level to ruin further work, as she easily makes us angry at her character.

Full marks on the characterisation of a middle class family and showing a compact house where seven people live under the same roof. Kudos for even showing that sparks are still alive between a married couple after two years of marriage, only to bring it down with the divorce angle.

But there are no marks given for going from Love Per Square Foot, Luka Chuppi, to Baghban to conclude the bizarre scheme. And also, despite having decent songs, the placement ruins the game!

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke can be called Love Per Square Foot Reversed or Luka Chuppi 2, as that's what has been watched and not enjoyed!