Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar movie review: Luv Ranjan's most 'mature' film is still cringe, saved only by Ranbir Kapoor

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar

Director: Luv Ranjan

Creator: Ranbir Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Boney Kapoor, Anubhav Singh Bassi, Hasleen Kaur, and Monica Choudhary

Where to watch: Theatres

Rating: 3 stars

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is a film that requires patience to watch. Not because it is a rom com with a 2 hour, 30-minute runtime but because of how the film progresses. The first half is cringe, patchy, badly-written, and downright annoying. And then post-interval, the film becomes fun, engaging, with dollops of clean, snappy humour. It’s almost as if someone flipped a switch in director Luv Ranjan’s brain around interval. The end result is a film that is entertaining and fun but takes its own sweet time to arrive to the point. And it is only the efforts put in by its lead star – Ranbir Kapoor, who makes a glorious return to the rom com genre.

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is the story of Mickey (Ranbir), a second-generation Delhi businessman who also has a side business of helping people break up ‘in a beautiful’ manner. He meets Tini (Shraddha Kapoor) on a vacation and falls heads over heels in love. Everything seems to be going well until when Tini hires him to help her break up with her boyfriend – Mickey himself. What follows is a lot of Luv Ranjan-drama, insane comedy, and some solid cameos.

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First, we have to address the film’s bizarre and jarring progression. If this was an OTT release, I would have switched it off in the first hour itself, and actually the only reason I did not walk out of the theatre before the interval is because I was curious if it could get any worse. As it turns out, it got better, and that too drastically, unlike any other film I have seen. The same jokes that were landing flat in the first half became hilarious post interval. The screenplay that was unbearably cringe in the first half became relatable and fun in the second. And even the performances improved for some actors.

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar could have been so much better had it been consistent. But then again, it could have been so much worse too. So, I really don’t know what to make of the whole package except saying that if you can sit through the torture that is the first half, you are repaid with one of the funniest and funnest films in recent times. The film’s beating heart is Ranbir Kapoor. The man returns t romantic comedy genre and owns the screen like he never left. He is smooth in the fun scenes, impactful in the emotional ones, but does suffer due to te script somewhat. Yes, it is weird to see him as a swooning loverboy at 40, emotion emotions that may have been more suited on a younger actor.

On the other hand, Shraddha Kapoor disappoints grandly. She comes across as awkward, bland, and somewhat putting off as the leading lady. The chemistry between the two leads is almost non-existent in the first half, which means you never really root for them. Tini is hands down the most mature, well-written female character ever in a Luv Ranjan film. And yet, Shraddha does not do full justice to it, faling quite short with her performance, which lacked the emotional depth to carry off such a role.

Of the support cast, ‘debutant’ Boney Kapoor hardly has anything to do despite getting a top billing. Dimple Kapadia starts out as loud and annoying with weird dialogue but ends up getting some of the best comedy bits of the film. Anubhav Singh Bassi’s performance is also found lacking but the comedian-turned-actor does recover with some good comic timing. His emoting may need some more work. The deadpan humour works on stage but looks jarring on screen, in this role at least. The stars of the show, for me, were the two cameos – Kartik Aaryan, and Nushrratt Bharuccha. The two actors make the film fun and more than tolerable as soon as they enter, leaving Ranbir less to do to save the second half.

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar does contain the usual misogynistic tropes employed by Luv Ranjan’s films with some of the dialogue really pushing us back into Pyaar Ka Punchnaaama days. One can easily pin point which lines will become incel-friendly memes in days to come. But there is growth as well, largely in how he has written and depicted his female lead this time. His heroine here has more agency than any before and is not blamed for trying to break up with a man, who is actually a decent guy and not a ‘self-annointed nice guy’ as many of his previous heroes have been.

The reasons behind the lead pair’s misundertsandings are surpisingly mature and relatable, and some of the dialogue cleverly and humorously avoids plotholes. There are meta references to Luv Ranjan’s previous films and Ranbir and Shraddha’s own lives as well (with a character named Alia as well). And all of this does not appear forced.

In the end, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is a fun watch, but only if you have the patience to sit through a first half that is hammied and walks a long and winding route, taking its own sweet time to arrive at any point. It’s almost like Luv Ranjan is trying to test how many will tolerate the first hour and then rewards those who do with an actual good film.