Aap Jaisa Koi Review: R Madhavan, Fatima Sana Shaikh's Film On Female Sexual Desire Drowns In Too Much Talk

 'Aap Jaisa Koi' Movie Review: 

Aap Jaisa Koi Review: R Madhavan, Fatima Sana Shaikh's Film On Female Sexual Desire Drowns In Too Much Talk

Aap Jaisa Koi Review: A heavy-handed flourish puts a dampener on the apt messaging of the Netflix movie from Karan Johar's Dharmatic Entertainment

Aap Jaisa Koi

Streaming On: Netflix

Release Date: July 11

Cast: R Madhavan, Fatima San

a Shaikh, Ayesha Raza

Director: Vivek Soni

What's the most disgusting question a man can ask a woman? For Madhu Bose, played by Fatima Sana Shaikh in Aap Jaisa Koi, "You are a virgin, right?" is the long and short of it.

One could argue that this is the 21st century, women are equal to men, they should enjoy the same rights as their male counterparts, blah, blah, blah. But, who are we kidding? It's often one step forward two steps back for women, be it homemakers, students, or working professionals, both at home and outside.

Aap Jaisa Koi, Netflix's latest film directed by Vivek Soni (Meenakshi Sundareshwar), makes all the right noise about female desire, agency, and an attack on patriarchy, and it almost succeeds. A heavy-handed flourish puts a dampener on the apt messaging.

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Perfect Recipe For A Rom-Com

Aap Jaisa Koi is a romantic comedy about a "nerdy boy" called Shrirenu Tripathi, essayed by R Madhavan, and a "cute girl" named Madhu Bose. He's 42, she's 32. He lives in Steel City Jamshedpur, she hails from Kolkata. He is a Sanskrit teacher, she is a French teacher. He plays the sitar, she plays the piano. He is shy, mousy, and a virgin. She is assertive, confident, and experienced. They couldn't be more different than chalk and cheese.
On paper, they aren't supposed to work. But they have some things in common, the fulcrum of every staple romantic comedy -- they like their tea with less milk, more patti, and with ginger, fennel, and cardamom; they are looking for a jugalbandi like love; and they both have a common secret unbeknownst to them.

Like many millennials, Shrirenu also grew up in the 1990s, watching Karan Johar's Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Aap Jaisa Koi is produced by Karan Johar's Dharmatic Entertainment, in case you didn't know) and believing in the mantra of "Pyaar dosti hai". It was until he is "cursed" by his crush that he would neither get pyaar nor sex in life. Result - he is unmarried and still a virgin who is under a false impression that he is educated and liberal.

There is this great scene between Shrirenu and Madhu, the protagonists played by an earnest Madhavan and a dignified Fatima. When a sweet Shrirenu patronisingly tells Madhu that when they get married he would allow everything within some limits, Madhu politely claps back, saying "And why will you decide my limits?"

So, who decides what a woman's limit should be and why? Why at all?

The theme is on point and relevant -- women must have agency to work, to choose, to love, to have sex or not have sex, before or after marriage.

But does being woke mean you can't be
Songs from Aap Jaisa Koi, the film, especially Mila Tujhe and Saare Jag Mein, penned by Raj Shekhar, are gems set to Justin Prabhakaran's music.

There are many hat-tips to real people and ghosts in the movie, written by Radhika Anand.

Shrirenu is based out of Jamshedpur, which is R Madhavan's birthplace. There's also a fun reference to the horror comedy Stree right in the beginning of Aap Jaisa Koi.

When Shrirenu's sister-in-law Kusum Bhabhi, played by Ayesha Raza in a scene-stealing performance, buys two dozen (must have cost a fortune) avocados, the produce happens to be from former India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's farm. Dhoni spent his early cricketing days in Jamshedpur's Keenan Stadium.