This rebound romance is confused, frivolous and doesn’t give any closure
Love triangles and complicated love stories between friends are a popular trope in Bollywood. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) is the OG, of course, followed by Ishq Vishk (2003), which launched the charming Shahid Kapoor. Two decades later, we have a spiritual sequel (whatever that means). Ishq Vishk Rebound tries really hard to stay afloat and meanders more than you can take. In fact, there’s a dialogue in the film that goes, “Clarity ka raasta confusion se guzarta hai”, something I wish could be said about the storyline and ending.
A “Gen Z rom-com”, begins with best friends — Raghav (Rohit Saraf), Sanya (Pashmina Roshan) and Sahir (Jibraan Khan). Riya (Naila Grrewal) joins at some point to turn the trio into a foursome. While Raghav loves books and writing scripts, Sanya and Sahir fall for each other. But what happens when they breakup and Raghav ends up as the fallback guy, trapped between his besties?
After all the confusion, complications and complexities that the protagonists go through, there’s barely any clarity for the audience. Although the characters seem to get closure, something feels amiss.
At 106 minutes, Ishq Vishk Rebound is one of the shortest releases recently, but it fails to engage its audience. Director Dharmadhikari has co-written the story with four others — Dr Vinay Chhawal, Vaishali Naik, Ketan Pedgaonkar and Akarsh Khurana — and perhaps that’s why you feel like the four have written a character each. The patchy screenplay makes the storyline look disjointed at times.
Saraf as the permanent kebab mein haddi holds the film entirely on his shoulders. He has his lows, but doesn’t give you a chance to complain. Roshan gets the maximum screen time but doesn’t bring anything new to the table; I couldn’t look past her dialogue delivery that reminded me of Kim Sharma in Mohabbatein (2000). Khan makes you swoon with his chiseled abs and despite his limited screen time, he manages to shine. Grrewal delivers the strongest performance of the lot, but was unfortunately forgotten for most of the film.
I really liked the complex yet interesting stories of their families. In fact, these narratives are more appealing than the main romance.
Is the film better than its predecessor? No. Is it bad? Not really. Simply put, it’s an easy watch that’s fun and frivolous. In one of the scenes, Sanya tells Raghav, “Your characters are mature, but you have a lot of growing up to do”. This is exactly what I’d like to tell the whole team — the story is mature and intense, but there’s still a lot that can make it clearer.