Tanuja Chandra’s Qarib Qarib Singlle is about a 34-year old widowed woman Jaya (Parvathy Thiruvotu) whose husband died in a war 10 years ago. The opening credits starts with an old-school song where the singer sings in a nasal tone, fitting to Jaya who is also quite old-school in this age of social media where her friend found a husband on Tinder. The visuals to the song gives a glimpse of the life of this lonely middle-aged single woman where she can be seen doing things like plucking out that annoying single white strand of hair or booking two tickets for herself to avoid a stranger by her side while watching the film.
She comes across an online dating website which goes by the name abtaksinglle.com. Why the double L you’d wonder? As the introduction to the site says: “L for ladka, L for ladki, kholo dil ke love ki khidki! Single L na rahein, double ho jae!”
She makes a profile on the site and messages from creepy guys start flooding in. After many desperate attempts from guys, she comes across a genuine message from a man who asks her for a meeting. The man is Yogi (Irrfan), a 40-year old chemical engineer whose hobbies are ‘Poetry, Poetry and Poetry’. Yogi comes to the cafe right from his small ‘marathon-prep’ run to meet Jaya, wearing a Bright Red Jacket and Funky Glasses. While Jaya was expecting an engineer, she meets an engineering graduate who is an unemployed writer (extremely relatable to the writer of this piece). At first meeting, Jaya thinks of running away from the carefree and blabbering Yogi, even searching for an emergency number on the dating website. But then Yogi convinces Jaya to accompany him on a trip for a holiday so that they can know each other better. What follows is a quirky journey between these two characters of opposite personalities, where they discover love, life and oneself.
There is a difference between this film and other films of the same genre. Quoting a dialogue from the film,
“Sirf ek?” “Nahi waise to chhote mote kafi hai par ek major difference hain…”
What sets this romcom apart from other rom-coms is here the female protagonist breaks the fourth wall, to talk to the audience whenever she comes across a dilemma or feels really annoyed in a situation. But I’m not sure if here the Deadpool-ish breaking of fourth wall is just used as a fun element, or if she being an introvert, is actually talking to herself.
There is a scene where Yogi gives Jaya a YOLO cap, and wears a SWAG cap himself. While it’s funny to see these grown-ass people wearing such caps, there might be a deeper meaning to this. He giving her a YOLO cap can also be seen as him reminding Jaya that we really do only live once, she needs to live her life to the fullest and get rid of her inhibitions rather than caring a bit too much about people. And about the SWAG cap, well, because even at this age he’s still got that swag!
This one’s a breezy slice-of-life entertainer with ample amount of humor present in the narrative. The film doesn’t boasts of a big cast, it’s predominantly only about the two leads, both of them present in the entire runtime of the film. And yet, you never get bored of watching just these two for the whole time because the characters are so well-written. And the dialogues really click because they never feel like dialogues, but things the characters would say in the particular situation. The same reason Jab Harry Met Sejal didn’t work, which was made on the same lines, was that the characters were not well etched out. Another film which comes in mind with a similar story is Life In A Metro where Irrfan and Konkona’s story was similar.
After the phenomenal success of Hindi Medium Irrfan is back with yet another entertaining ride. He proves yet again that he’s the actor for all seasons. He smoothly fits-in this quirky comedy as the flamboyant shayar who loves wearing flashy clothes. His comic timing is perfect and he evokes laughter with his constant blabbering and expressions. Hell, he even makes you laugh with his snoring.
Parvathy Thiruvotu gives a charming performance in her debut Hindi film. She might go overboard in some scenes (especially the unnecessary sequence where she’s tripping on sleeping pills) but is very natural in the rest. I’m really looking forward to what she signs next in Bollywood after this.
The three songs of the film sung by Nooran Sisters, Atif Aslam and Papon are fresh and compliment the story perfectly. With Qarib Qarib Singlle Tanuja Chandra gives a realistic look at mature love, devoid of any sentimentality. The story is very relatable as it talks about loneliness, need for a companion and letting go of the past.
Rating:
3.5/5
CineMumbles 