Ayushmann Khurrana & Vaani Kapoor’s Beautiful Way Of Saying “Normal Di Maa Di!”

Star Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Vaani Kapoor, Kanwaljit Singh, Karishma Singh, Tanya Abrol, Sawan Rupowali

Director: Abhishek Kapoor

What’s Good: The balance story maintains to not get preachy along with keeping a point in an entertaining way

What’s Bad: In the process of gaining the right balance, it loses some necessary elements and that pinches you throughout

Loo Break: It’s not even 2 hours, hold on to your pants! (This could be taken in either way)

Watch or Not?: If you’re familiar with the Ayushmann Khurrana school of cinema, you won’t mind getting admitted for this one at all!

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 117 Minutes

User Rating:

Manvinder Munjal (Ayushmann Khurrana) has the body of a beast but remains to be single in his early 30s, facing the usual family heat of getting married to just any living thing around him (but it should be female and have ‘class’). Manu is competing to be the fitness champ ‘GOAT’ (Gabru Of All Time), runs his gym which is suffering losses until Maanvi (Vaani Kapoor) comes into the picture. Her ‘Zumba’ magic attracts clients (and perverts) keeping Manu’s gym afloat along with his hopes of having a girl in his life.

A couple of meetings (and songs) later, Manu falls for Maanvi and they have s*x, many won’t get for their entire lifetime, in one single song. Maanvi reveals she’s transgender and that fact shatters the machoistic, ‘gormint’ school going male in him. He goes batsh*t crazy but couldn’t get over the fact of finally loving someone after years of struggle since his last honest relationship. The rest of the film is all about how they manage to tackle this truth & find a way to be together.

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui Movie Review: Script Analysis

Abishek Kapoor gets his favourite writer Supratik Sen (Kai Po Che, Fitoor) back to the team coupling him with Tushar Paranjpe (Picasso, Killa). The narration religiously follows the three-act structure by keeping the routine character-introduction, a guy falls for a girl love story in the first 30 minutes, revealing the transgender twist in the next 30 and showcases how the characters deal with that twist in the last hour.

The major imperfection comes from the almost-perfect Ayushmann Khurrana’s filmography because he has spoiled us with his script choices. If I see this after films like Badhaai Ho, Bala and Dream Girl, I would expect a great deal of humour from it but that’s not the case here. It’s not a bland affair in the comical department, of course, but it’s not great either. Some jokes, dialogues fall flat, some hit the target. It lacks consistency as seen in Khurrana’s previous films (barring Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan). Now, I also understand the topic was sensitive this time around and playing around it would’ve been a risky proposition, but he’s the guy who made his debut as a sperm donor. So!

Manoj Lobo’s (Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na) camera quirkily captures the oomph exuded by both the at-their-physical best leads. With some neatly choreographed make-out scenes, Lobo knows his way of smoothly panning the camera around the chiselled bodies of Vaani & Ayushmann. Chandan Arora’s editing is one more additional advantage restricting the film to the very sweet spot of just under 2 hours.

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui Movie Review: Star Performance

Ayushmann Khurrana, at this moment, is just like the climber standing at the peak of Mt. Everest thinking about “What now? What’s next?” The rate, he has bombarded moviegoers with good scripts, doesn’t allow him to make a single mistake. Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui is yet again a safe space to move in because this allows him to do something he has never attempted before. He’s as convincing with his physical transformation as was playing blind in Andhadhun. Kudos to him for not only being the torchbearer of quality cinema in Bollywood but holding the place with grace.

Vaani Kapoor finally gets a chance to prove the level of effortlessness she can achieve by surrendering herself to the character. Her urbanised look is somewhat similar to what she did in Befikre but with multiple additional layers of emotional depth and connect. There was every scope of overdoing her character but Vaani maintains a mannerly balance to portray a transgender. Kanwaljit Singh gets too little to establish anything but surely helps Vaani’s character to grow further.

Karishma Singh as Vaani’s friend, though stereotyped, adds a certain value to the whole relationship of Vaani & Ayushmann’s character. Tanya Abrol & Sawan Rupowali as Ayushmann’s sisters are annoying as they’re supposed to be, so good job.

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui Movie Review: Direction, Music

Abhishek Kapoor, predictably, keeps things sanitised with the sensitive messaging of a transgender love story because of obvious reasons. Expecting a Nagarkirtan from this would’ve been foolish from my side, but as complained above I hoped for a few more laughs. Kapoor injects the drama in the second half which could cause an imbalance for many.

Sachi-Jigar are finally back after a partial revival in Shiddat. With a proper balance of quirky, refreshing and heavy-on-heart songs, the music album as a package goes well with the narrative. Attraction surprised me the most and no, it’s not because of the love-making scenes in it.

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui Movie Review: The Last Word

All said and done, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui brings in the complete package just as Ayushmann Khurrana’s films are known for. It entertains you at the same time addressing a sensitive subject beautifully painting the message of ‘love is love’.

Three and a half stars!

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui Trailer

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui releases on 10th December, 2021.

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