Aap Jaisa Koi Movie Review: What a great time for urban rom-com fans! There’s Metro In Dino running in cinemas. You could do a movie triathlon with Aap Jaisa Koi and Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan this week. And a few days later, Param Sundari will hit the screens. What a breath of fresh air! But the one film that stands out from this lot is Aap Jaisa Koi. Why you ask? It’s themed on the complex and cinematically lesser explored institution of arranged marriages, albeit through a pastel-tinted pair of lenses.
And much like Nazia Hassan’s iconic Aap Jaisa Koi picturised on the timeless Zeenat Aman, this eponymous film too celebrates the essence of womanhood, her choices and sensuality and beautifully expresses her desires and infatuations. Director Vivek Soni goes back to his comfort zone – arranged/assisted marriages – a theme he sublimely portrayed in his debut film, Meenakshi Sundareshwar. But unlike the Sanya Malhotra and Abhimanyu Dassani starrer that delved deep into the upheavals of a long-distance marriage, this one circumnavigates around the events and the pangs leading up to a marriage.The action too shifts from Madurai to Kolkata-Jamshedpur. But enough of the comparisons! Aap Jaisa Koi is its own film and revolves around Shrirenu Tripathy and Madhu Bose. Shrirenu, fondly referred to as Shri, is a Sanskrit teacher at a local school in Jamshedpur. He’s a 42-year-old virgin (yes, it’s important that we mention this), who believes that he’s bearing the brunt of a curse inflicted on him by his schoolmate Rakhi when he proposed to her. Back in the day, she cursed him that he would never get married and/or have sex.
But his sister-in-law Kusum is hell-bent on finding the right match for him and reprimands him for stating his true age in his biodata as that may repel women. This is when Joy, their neighbour, brings them a prospective match in the form of Madhu from Kolkata. Madhu, 32, is Joy’s niece and is a French teacher at a language institute. The shy and introverted Shri drives down to Kolkata to meet her. Madhu, unlike most women he has met, doesn’t judge him for his looks or age and they realise that they do have a lot in common.
