Nothing about TMMTMTTM feels fresh.
That includes the painfully uninspired romance between the leads, who lack both genuine chemistry as well as individual charm to make a romantic drama like this work, sighs Mayur Sanap.
It’s the classic boy-meets-girl setup.
She doesn’t like him at first, then slowly softens, and eventually falls for him.
He proposes to marry her, but she is weighed down by her emotional baggage. He steps in to fix things, and wins her over again… until yet another round of problems shows up.
They break up, drift apart for a bit, only to realise they were meant to be together all along.
This emotional merry-go-round spins on for a solid two hours and 25 minutes, feeling less like a plot and more like a very literal enactment of the film’s elaborate title: Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri.
Nothing about TMMTMTTM feels fresh.
That includes the painfully uninspired romance between the leads, who lack both genuine chemistry as well as individual charm to make a romantic drama like this work.
Kartik Aaryan is Ray, while Ananya Panday plays Rumi.
She’s from Agra, he’s based in America.
Their paths cross in Croatia while both are on a solo vacation.
Casual flirting quickly slips into full-blown Bollywood-style pyaar vyaar against a backdrop of sun, sand, and beachy vibes.
The conflict arrives when Rumi makes it clear she can’t marry Ray and move to the US with him.
The reason? she can’t leave her widowed father (Jackie Shroff) alone back home, a retired soldier, who loves his house and his country far too much to ever consider leaving either behind.
Ray, on the other hand, is a proud mumma’s boy, raised by his single mother (Neena Gupta), who lays down one very clear rule: ‘Anyone but an Indian bahu.’
This leaves the couple stuck with the classic dilemma, either keep their parents happy, or risk losing each other altogether.
The premise loosely recalls Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, but Rumi’s conflict is more inward, closer to Shraddha Kapoor’s arc in Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar.
In that film Tinni feared an overbearing family after marriage, here, Rumi worries about leaving her ageing father behind, firmly believing that parental responsibility can’t be separated from married life.
Director Sameer Vidwans reunites with his Satyaprem Ki Katha writer Karan Shrikant Sharma as they frame a family-driven drama, placing a woman’s societal role in marriage at the centre.
The film, however, expects us to root for a romance where two deeply-in-love people can’t find a sensible solution to an easily fixable problem.
Moreover, the entire first half is filled with song-n-dance, carefree romance set in a foreign locale, which clashes with the heavier, more dramatic second half when the story shifts to India. The characters feel almost unrecognisable, leaving the film feeling like two mismatched halves stitched together.
The lead performances are another weak link.
Ananya at least gives her best shot to the role, showing glimpses of spark in what is easily one of her better dramatic turns.
Kartik, though, feels badly miscast, struggling to emote and leaning into a forced, manufactured charm that never quite lands. Thankfully, the film spares us his usual breathless monologue, the ones the actor has turned into an overused trademark.
As a romantic pair, their chemistry is painfully flat, to the point where Ananya seems to connect better with the tube of Lakme sunscreen she keeps cheerfully applying in an aggressively obvious product placement.
Shroff and Gupta offer nothing new, playing the same characters we have seen them portray before.
The film gets its occasional sparks of energy from Vishal-Sheykhar’s peppy soundtrack, with the catchy title track.
The standout, though, is Hum Dono, which brings an effortlessly cool, classic Bollywood romance vibe.
The film even crams in a medley of Hindi songs during a lavish shaadi sequence, also tossing in DDLJ‘s Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna, only for Aaryan to ruin the classic with awkward choreography.
Towards the end, TMMTMTTM leans heavily into an Imtiaz Ali zone, echoing Jab Harry Met Sejal with the literal line, ‘What you seek is seeking you’, in its poetic finale.
By the time the lovebirds reunite, the audience has already moved on.
Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri Review Rediff Rating:
