Tumse Na Ho Payega is frustratingly bland

Tumse Na  Ho Pyega (streaming on  Disney+Hotstar)

Starring  Ishwak Singh, Mahima Makwana, Gaurav Pandey, Gurpreet Saini , Karan Jotwani

Directed  by  Abhishek Sinha

Rating: **

Seeing so many talented people coming up with a film so dull and unfunny that it gives a bad reputation to past bromances like Dil Chahta Hai and Sholay is sad and annoying.

Forget Jai and Veeru, the three friends in  Tumse Na Ho Payega (a suitable title indeed) don’t even look like long-standing friends. They seem more like three unlikely people thrown together on the same table at a boring party by fluke. They are played by actors who want us to know that they know how to act. Every word they utter is punctuated and eye-rolling.

The main protagonist Gaurav (Ishwak Singh) speaks directly to us the audience, like Wamiqa Gabbi in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Charlie Chopra  who keeps looking into the camera and talking, making us feel very uncomfortable about not being dressed formally for the occasion.

While Wamiqa’s monologues with the camera were passably amusing, Ishwak Singh giving us pointers  on the plot is like telling us B comes after A.

The elementary-level storytelling (written by three geniuses, no less) never allows itself to grow up beyond the embarrassing shenanigans of the trio of friends who are in serious need of direction. Not much of it is evident in what we see. Abhishek Sinha’s direction is pretty much aimless. He seems to have told his actors to improvise like hell. Sorrily, when you improvise  like hell, you sometimes end up in hell.

Ishwak Singh, a talented actor seen in many engaging serials,is way out of depth as a leading man.Perhaps provided with more resourceful material he would leave a better impression. With the kind of listless lines doled out to the characters in this film, even Dilip Kumar would be nonplussed.

Ishwak’s Gaurav is inspired by a true-life entrepreneur who started up a tiffin business with housewives making ghar ka khana for officegoers. A  finger-licking idea reduced to a state of  utter blandness, the title  of  Tumse Na Ho Payega says it all. Better luck next time.