Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain

There is an airport ending, too, but not in the classical sense. Again, the thought is pragmatic and sensitive; distance, at times, is the only way to create space for better engagement. And then you hear his voice, "Not all stories have heroes called Shah Rukh Khan…" – and you instantly know why a movie that thrives on inverting the angrezi of love isn't as novel as it should have been: it is too busy flaunting its humble grammar.

Some of the film is pleasing in the way it brings out the dull familiarity that plagues a well-excavated relationship, and both Sanjay Mishra and Ekavali Khanna feel sufficiently lived in.

This is a small film with a very big heart, enduring in its statement on the erosion of mutual respect in a marriage of convenience, and endearing in its susceptibility to keep the narrative clutter-free when the stakes are piled heavily against a friction-free condition of existence. Oh, and yes. This is a two-hero film. Sanjay Mishra and the city of Varanasi.

A lovely story about love, duty, everyday life set in Benaras. A grouchy, crotchety man who does his duty by his wife and daughter announces that he has arranged for his daughter to be married off. The daughter rebels and questions her dad: do you even know what is love? How the question is answered is this lovely tale of heartache and love and new beginnings.

What we have here, I guess, is a director who understands how people fight, but has not a clue about how they make love.

The problem is not with acting or cinematography, it is the script that makes what could have been an exceptional tale of loss of love, a run-of-the-mill Bollywood masala flick.