Romance isn't really timeless - culture shifts and tastes change, so cinematic romance will also evolve form era to era. Plan A Plan B (2022) tries so hard to be a modern love story that it ends up feeling like a relic from another place and time - in this case, an American TV sitcom from the 1980s and 90s.
.png "Unusually explanatory title screen.")
This kind of "Will they, won't they" romance requires a mismatched pair of opposites - here we have Nirali (Tamannaah Bhatia), an earnest psychologist who is taking over the matchmaking service founded by her mother Kiran (Poonam Dhillon), and Kaustabh "Kosti" Chougule (Ritiesh Deshmukh), a thorny and meticulous family lawyer who specializes in divorces. Both characters have quirks: Kosti may be tightly wound but he's an excellent dancer, while Nirali doesn't dance and is much more likely to spend her nights eating ice cream while babysitting Kabeer (Prithviraj Sarnaik), the son of her plucky best friend Seema (Kusha Kapila). And they're both dealing with secret heartbreak. Nirali lost her long-time boyfriend Varun a while ago, and Kosti is refusing to finalize the divorce from his estranged wife Runjhun (Bidita Bag), instead annoying his friends and pouring out his heart to random women he meets on dating apps.
.png "Try and stop me, kid.")
Kosti and Nirali have neighboring offices in the same building, and they clash immediately - it's not just mildly antagonistic flirting, they have wildly different views on relationships, life, the world, and appropriate levels of noise in a shared office space. Still, the people around them can't help but notice that they spend an awful lot of time talking about each other; at one point Seema is amazed that Nirali goes four hours without talking about Varun because she's too busy compaining about ol' Caustic Chougule. Still, they're so hostile that even friendship is unlikely.
.png "Boy, I would be really surprised if these two ended up together!")
And then Kosti meets Kiran, and while he starts out Eddie Haskelling in order to annoy Nirali, he actually gets along with Kiran. She invites him to her upcoming 60th birthday party, and he winds up teaching her friends in an impromptu dance class which quickly becomes a regular dance class. Kiran asks Nirali and Kosti to knock off the fighting until after the birthday party, and they agree. Of course, since they're not fighting they start actually talking, and sparks begin to fly. It would be a terrible shame if this budding friendship was derailed by a misunderstanding.
.png "Maaaybe?")
The budding friendship is promptly derailed by a misunderstanding.
.png "More ice cream.")
Of course, there's never any question of how things will end. The movie has the inevitability of Sam and Diane, David and Maddie, Ross and Rachel. The plot asks "Will they or won't they," but of course they will. And like the sitcoms that came before it, once they do the whole thing becomes a bit less interesting. Of course, this is a movie tightly focused on the relationship rather than a series, so the good news is that it wraps up nicely instead of dragging on for four more seasons.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png "I just like the character, okay?")
.png "say it like you mean it.")
.png "Convinces him with money, that is.")
.png "Oh, to be young and insufferable.")
.png "It takes work to be the most unpleasant person in this cast.")
.png "Not cool, man.")
.png "I see you've been reading my blog.")
.png "Almost done.")
.png){kind=link}