Hasee Toh Phasee (2014) was advertised with the tagline "Love Goes Cuckin Frazy", and a tagline like that should really tell you everything you need to know. Obviously, free-spirited Meeta is going to sweep stuffy Nikhil off his feet, freeing him from his boring existence and teaching him to love life again, just like in a thousand other romantic comedies. And that's almost exactly what doesn't happen.
Let's start with Nikhil (Sidharth Malhotra). Seven years ago, he met an amazing girl sneaking out of a wedding. They bonded almost immediately, and after an intense and very strange conversation, he helped her hail a cab and watched her drive out of his life, then went back into the wedding and caught the eye of the bride's sister, model and aspiring actress Karishma (Adah Sharma). Now they're getting married in a week. Karishma has become a successful actress, while Nikhil is a much less successful event coordinator. He's no stuffed shirt. Karishma's family consider him a bit of a good-natured screw-up, and she's broken up repeatedly with him over the years. But Nikhil's saving grace is his fidelity; once he's made a commitment, he'll stick with it, even if it kills him. (And it just might.)
Meanwhile, Meeta (Parineeti Chopra) crept away from her sister's wedding seven years ago. Now she's back, and desperate to see her father (Manoj Joshi). But her sister Karishma is determined to keep that from happening, so she asks Nikhil to put Meeta up in a hotel room somewhere until she can figure out bow to make her go away. Nikhil is too soft-hearted to leave her alone in a rat- and mosquito-infested hotel, so he brings her to stay with his family, and, well, wackiness ensues, because Meeta is odd. Not odd as in "charming free-spirited eccentric," odd as in "has a history of drug abuse and unspecified mental illness, which she is treating using medicine which she researched online and then forged prescriptions for, and said medication has noticeable side effects." She's also brilliant (she's basically invented flubber, and it's barely even a subplot) and she's in debt to Chinese gangsters. Not your typical Manic Pixie Dream Girl, in other words.
While Meeta is focused on seeing her father, Nikhil is having a rough week. He's busy with wedding preparations, securing money for his business, placating Karishma after their last big fight, and keeping an eye on Meeta, and then, gradually, he stops taking orders from Karishma and starts listening to Meeta. The relationship sneaks up on Nikhil just as it sneaks up on the viewer. There isn't a point where they suddenly fall in love, they just get to know each other better and it becomes more and more clear that Nikhil is marrying the wrong sister, but Nikhil being Nikhil, there's no way he's going to break Karishma's heart.
Hasee Toh Phasee is surprisingly somber for a romantic comedy. It's funny in places, and deeply romantic, too, but our leads approach matters of the heart with a certain gravitas that you don't often see in this sort of movie. Absolutely nobody goes cuckin frazy, and Nikhil doesn't learn to embrace life and follow his dreams; as he points out to Meeta, he's already ruled by his heart and she's the sensible level-headed one. If anything, Nikhil learns that sometimes you need to let go of your dreams, that what you wanted seven years ago isn't necessarily what you need today.
The movie's not perfect; the portrayal of Meeta's mental illness, in particular, is obviously well-meaning but flawed. (And in context, that tagline is kind of tone deaf.) Still, it's a unique romance, with easy chemistry between the two leads and a ferociously good performance by Parineeti Chopra. I liked it very much.
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