Comedy Couple Movie Review: Once upon a time, urban romcoms used to be a staple genre in Bollywood. Nearly every third film used to be one. But now, in the wake of patriotic sagas, small-town comedies and Hollywoodised action thrillers, romcom as a genre takes a beating. So when a film like Comedy Couple comes by, it does make for a refreshing view. But then, romcom genre has its own cliched drawbacks, and Comedy Couple, directed by Nachiket Samant and written by Bikas Ranjan Mishra​, continues to borrow those trite tropes. Comedy Couple Trailer: Shweta Basu Prasad and Saqib Saleem's Love Story Is Not All Laughs and Smiles.

Before we get into that tired zone, Comedy Couple comes across as a very fresh and engaging romantic comedy at least in its initial portions, shouldered by its two talented leads - Shweta Basu Prasad and Saqib Saleem. They play Zoya and Deep respectively, who are in love with each other and also do a successful standup routine together. But their live-in relationship status and their joke-making career bring trouble for the couple; the former in not getting them a pad to stay together, the latter drags them in controversies and FIRs.

Deep's habit of being a compulsive liar to get them out of sticky situations (and land them in new ones) also created problems between the couple. Zoya's single mother (Pooja Bedi), who is an artist, thinks Deep isn't the right guy for her. Deep, meanwhile, has not revealed about his career or his girlfriend to his middleclass parents (Rajesh Tailang and Madhu Sachdeva).

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Watch the trailer of Comedy Couple:

Can the couple make their relationship be as successful as their standup career? Or will it fizzle out like a bad joke?

Like I said before, Comedy Couple feels fresh and funny in the first two acts. Rarely do we have movies made up on standup comedians, that too a couple, and that idea gives a novel twist to the boy-and-girl-are-bonkers-for-each-other premise. The standup bit also allows the film to take potshots at the contemporary situations. From gaumutra to Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, quite a few digs are taken what's India's political pop culture. At times, the jokes don't always work out. I mean, taking satirical digs on news channels doesn't really work, when news channels behave exactly like their satirical versions. It's also another matter that Zoya and Deep's comedy skits aren't very funny enough. Or perhaps, I might not be hip enough.

That said, the couple have better lines and better scope of humour when they are faced with their lives outside the stage. Their couple status once again throws light on how difficult it is to get accomodation together if couples are unmarried. At one place, Deep even lies that they are siblings, only for their facade to fall when they are caught kissing in the lift by their shocked neighbour who might think she just had her Bran Stark moment. Deep's interactions with his doped-out friend and temporary roommate (Aadar Malik, effective in a brief role) and his parents are funny to watch, and so is Zoya's brief interactions with her mother. Saqib Saleem Reveals He Is Trying to Write a Secret Set of Stand-Up Comedy Since Past Five Years but Couldn’t Complete It.

It's when the cracks really begin to show in their relationship - mostly due to Deep's inability to speak the truth - is also where the film takes a dip taking the tried-n-tired path of breaking up the couple over personal tiff, and then... well, you know the drill... There are quite a few times when the film strongly reminds you of Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Love Per Square Foot.

What works best for Comedy Couple is the incredible chemistry between Saqib and Shweta, both in absolutely great form here, even if their jokes aren't. Their easy bonhomie and wonderful performances makes the film a breezy watch.

Yay!

- The Leads

Nay!

- Goes Into Cliched Territory

Final Thoughts

Comedy Couple has an interesting novel setting for a romcom, but then goes into the same zone, where nearly every romcom goes. Thanks to the effervescent acts of its leads,

Rating:2.5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 21, 2020 09:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).