Manmarziyaan Movie Review: Anurag Kashyap Paints Love On The Canvas In Its Truest Form!

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'Main Tenu Fir Milaan Gi, Kithey? Kis Tarah? Pata Nai...as these famous lines by Amrita Pritam play in the background when the three lead characters in Manmarziyaan take a drastic life-altering decision at the same time, you suddenly realize that it's not Amrita's words, but the emotion of love which is speaking to you.

The tagline of the film reads, 'Love isn't complicated, people are' & that's exactly what filmmaker Anurag Kashyap tries to explain through his characters- Vicky (Vicky Kaushal), Rumi (Taapsee Pannu) and Robbie (Abhishek Bachchan).

Vicky and Rumi are madly in love with each. 'Fyaar' as they like to call it. Things go hunky-dory for this 'much-in-love, much-in-lust pair' until they are caught red-handed in Rumi's bedroom. Of course, 'vyaah kara lo iska' is the next thing that you get to hear in such instances and so, Rumi asks Vicky to visit her house with their marriage proposal. Instead, he develops a cold feet and asks her questions like, when they had really discussed marriage before. Solution two- elopement. But that too doesn't work out when Rumi ends up chiding Vicky for his erratic and irreponsible behaviour.

Their toxic love story makes space for a third person in their relationship in the form of Robbie- a perfect husband material who falls in love with Rumi at first sight. He is everything that Vicky isn't.

Heartbroken with Vicky's lack of commitment, Rumi steps into a rebound by tying the knot with Robbie in an arranged marriage set-up. Soon, Vicky pops up in the picture again owing up his mistakes. Will Rumi reconcile with him or choose to move on in her life with Robbie? The rest of the film revolves around this plot.

While love triangles in Bollywood are a tried-and-tested formula, what makes Manmarziyaan refreshing is Anurag Kashyap stripping love to its selfish form and breaking few stereotypes. To put it in the great Rumi's words, 'You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.' There are some scenes in the film which lingers for long and the credit for that goes to the writer Kanika Dhillion. Having said that, on the flipside, the narrative drags a bit in places and could have been a little more crispier.

Speaking about the performances, Taapsee Pannu as the free-spirited Rumi steals away your heart. Rumi means 'mystic' and the actress sticks true to that throughout the film. Vicky Kaushal's volatile act as the spunky Vicky Sandhu aka DJ Sandz engulfs you completely. Last but not the least, Abhishek Bachchan leaves an indelible impression with his restrainted performance. He lets his silence speak volumes in many of his scenes.

Sylvester Fonseca's cinematography perfectly captures the bylanes of Punjab and is a character in itself. Amit Trivedi's brilliant music accompanies the characters more like a shadow to lend various layers to the story-telling. The songs of Manmarziyaan blend beautifully with the narrative.

There's a scene in the film where Robbie asks Rumi, "Yeh kaisa pyaar hai? " To which she replies back, "Yeh woh wala pyaar hai jissmein jitna karo na kamm padta hai." Manmarziyaan is exactly like that! Reason is powerless in the expression of love. I am going with 3.5 stars.