Zara Hatke Zara Bachke REVIEW: Vicky Kaushal And Sara Ali Khan Starrer Romantic Comedy Fails To Impress As It's An Unfunny Mess

Scroll down to read the review of Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan starrer romantic comedy ‘Zara Hatke Zara Bachke’

Subhash K Jha

Sat Jun 03 2023, 13:40:31 18275 views
The problem with Laxman Utekar's third romcom is  that it is not funny at all. The gags and jokes  about a young excitable couple  living in a crowded  joint family  trying to get their own home , has already been done to great effect in Basu Chatterjee’s Piya  Ka Ghar forty years ago. Zara Hatke Zara Bachke is all about labored  lines delivered by actors who seem to have been  told to  make it  large.So large, it shrieks  They all ham…except maybe Sharib Hashmi who makes an appearance  midway as a  watchman in a housing calling in Indore.

You could say Hashmi is outdoor in  Indore,and that  would be a  funnier line than any in this jugaadu comedy about a husband who keeps scrounging (even when buying  softs drinks he buys just one for two, but there is a deep raaz  for that which comes bubbling to the surface  at the end) , a wife who keeps screaming, a  family that keeps hamming till it hurts, and  a script that seems  to have a poor idea of how the audience  responds to  lowbrow  humour.


Speaking of screaming, there is a divorce lawyer with paan-stained teeth who  shouts down the Judge  every time Vicky Kaushal and  Sarah Ali Khan appear in court  for a divorce.Every time the lawyer screams , the audience is  supposed to  laugh.Amidst the  torrential  download of  screams  and shouts, the lead pair must  pretend they  are a divorced  couple to get  a government home.
 So  essentially the lead  pair  must  first ham while pretending to be in  love . Then  they must ham while feigning mutual animosity. How  does all  this pan out? Do you  really want  to know? Does  it  make  any difference?

 In the director’s far  more enjoyable Lukka Chuppi, Kartik Aaryan and  Kriti Sanon had to pretend they were not a live-in couple .This time it’s not just Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan  pretending to be out of love. The audience too must pretend that  they are amused by a script that thinks it is  funny for  a father-in-law (Rakesh Bedi in a turban, ha ha)  to ask , “Why are  you  divorcing  my daughter? Is it another  woman… or maybe  a man.”

It also thinks  it’s funny to  make fun of buck teeth. And of  smalltown accents. But the biggest  joke is,the  chocolate bar that  keeps recurring as a symbol of love. The 5 star,on a subliminal  level, is wishful  thinking.


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