It’s only towards the end that Half Girlfriend, the film, begins to diverge from Half Girlfriend, the book. Otherwise, it’s an all-too-faithful adaptation. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that this is a smart adaptation — unlike Kai Po Che or even 2 States — and more’s the pity.

Prominent as the Suri trademarks are, Half Girlfriend is very much a Chetan Bhagat film. All the markers of the man—the anti-intellectualism, the perfumed reek of good intentions, the ability to grind down complex issues into bite-size chunks of positivity—are all present. “Madhav Jha is not a name. Madhav Jha is an attitude,” we’re told at one point. It’s surprising this line isn’t in the book: it has the sort of management-institute facileness that suits the author’s style perfectly.