The promise that Ranbir Kapoor displayed in Saawariya, his debut venture, has been duly fulfilled in this breezy, urbane tale of love and longing, set against a come-of-age backdrop of 21st century twenty-something Indians. Here is a crackling bunch of gals and guys who mirror the mores and manners of modern India, even as they re-live the traditional Bollywood fable of ishq-vishq, pyar-mohabbat.

Ultimately, however, Bachna is a well-made rom-com, and will serve you allright as the afternoon break on a weekend. Embracing the formula as it does, it has a certain joie de vivre that pervades through. It may get silly as it progresses, but that only brings it down from instant classic to good timepass, and if that could have been said about half the films this year, I wouldn’t be as curmudgeonly with this one.