Love in Vietnam Movie Review: Ah, Saiyaraa! Your success will spawn many imitators, but it would be unfair to say Love in Vietnam exists because of it. The film began shooting back in September 2024 (Saiyaara came out in July 2025) and is, at least on paper, based on Sabahattin Ali’s celebrated 1940s novel Madonna in a Fur Coat. ‘Love in Vietnam’ Release Date: Shantanu Maheshwari and Avneet Kaur Starrer To Hit Theatres on September 12.

The 'based on' part, however, feels like window dressing. Beyond a few borrowed elements, Love in Vietnam belongs to the same universe as Half Girlfriend and Saiyaraa. To be fair, there is clearly a market for these kinds of romances, and some of the songs do land well. Unfortunately, like much else in the film - from its melodrama to its emotions - everything comes with an overbearing, in-your-face attitude.

'Love in Vietnam' Movie Review - The Plot

Manav (Shantanu Maheshwari), an orphan raised by his bade papa (Raj Babbar), dreams of music. But bade papa pushes him towards farming and sends him to Vietnam to study modernised techniques. Once there, Manav spots a portrait of a beautiful Vietnamese woman, and it’s love at first… painting.

Watch the Trailer of 'Love in Vietnam':

Instead of endearing us to him, his antics resemble the kind of tourist behaviour that makes headlines for all the wrong reasons. He stares obsessively at the painting, skips college, and even harasses gallery staff for the artist’s details, going so far as to physically force his way to the information. When he finally meets Linh (Khả Ngân), the girl in the portrait and a dancer, the two begin a romance.

'Love in Vietnam' Movie Review - Window Dressing Its Inspiration

Their relationship lifts fragments from Ali’s novel, but the central dynamics - the complex push and pull of power and desire - are absent. Instead, the film chops up their romance with cutesy reel-ready moments and promotional tourism shots of Vietnam. Sadly, Manav isn’t just a bad tourist but also a questionable romantic lead: he kisses Linh without consent and even sleeps with her when she’s drunk and vulnerable. Yet the narrative bizarrely sympathises with him.

A Still From Love in Vietnam

(Some SPOILERS ahead) The real drama comes when Linh ghosts him after he misses her calls during his sister’s wedding in India. On returning to Vietnam, Manav learns she has disappeared. Cue endless montages of him wandering through tourist spots in the same outfit, unwashed and mopey, while locals inexplicably sympathise instead of calling for his deportation.

'Love in Vietnam' Movie Review - A Tedious, Overlong Love Saga

It's not that I'm refusing to take this emotional saga seriously; the problem is that Love in Vietnam - or as someone sitting near me annoyingly muttered, 'Cringe in Vietnam' - doesn't take its own drama seriously. A major time jump of eight years occurs near the third act, yet the characters hardly age a day. Dear makers, are you sure that wasn't a typo? Did you mean to write 'eight days'? And when the film finally reveals why Linh has been ghosting Manav, it's hard not to slap your forehead and angrily mumble to yourself, 'why people so dumb?'

Oh, yes, how could I forget this year's single-most annoying character: Simi (Avneet Kaur)! As Manav's childhood friend, her sole motivation is an utter obsession with marrying him, when she isn't embodying the annoying archetype of a 'cutesy' Punjabi girl. Even their families play along with her madness, trying to play matchmakers and sending her off to Vietnam with Manav so she can 'take care of him' - instead of, you know, consulting a therapist.

A Still From Love in Vietnam

Her toxic obsession with Manav - despite him repeatedly and rudely telling her to back off and that he only sees her as a friend - gets more irksome by the minute. Although the film attempts to paint her in a softer light in the second half, you'll likely end up finding her even more infuriating by the time the credits roll.

Visually, Love in Vietnam doesn't acquit itself very well either. Sure, some of the tourist scenery is captured nicely enough to tempt you to visit the country, even if the kitschy romantic moments put you off the idea. Yet the contrasting colour palettes - the portions in Vietnam are in cooler tones, while those in Punjab have a warmer, golden tinge - feel jarring in some sequences. The caricatured direction doesn't help either. Why the obsessive need for Bhangra music in the background during any light-hearted moment involving Punjabi characters? Why the need to make Manav's Sikh friend constantly say 'Oye Kakke' whenever he beckons someone? ‘Saiyaara’ Movie Review: Old-School Tropes Meets Gen-Z Casting in Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda’s Kitschy Romantic Drama.

'Love in Vietnam' Movie Review - The Performances

As for the performances, Shantanu Maheshwari is earnest, but not enough to make us overlook his character's questionable behaviour in many places. Khả Ngân is pretty, but her English diction is almost robotic; at times, I wished her scenes came with subtitles so I could understand what she was trying to say. Avneet Kaur's main task, it seems, is to provide 'cutesy' expressions for every mood. In one scene where two other characters are conversing, she is literally just there to provide facial reactions.

Love in Vietnam casts veterans like Raj Babbar, Farida Jalal, and Gulshan Grover, and while Raj Babbar's character has something substantial to do - which is mostly emotionally guilt-tripping his adopted son - the other two have hardly anything to do here.

'Love in Vietnam' Movie Review - Final Thoughts

In the end, I was wondering, except for the probable tax rebates, why the need to set this movie in Vietnam? You could set this film anywhere in India, and it would have been equally ineffectual. 'Cos Love in Vietnam feels less like a love story and more like a cautionary tale about how not to write one. For all its postcard visuals and playlist-worthy songs, the film drowns itself in melodrama, clichés, and characters that make you root for the credits to roll rather than the romance to bloom.

Rating:1.5

(The opinions expressed in the above article are of the author and do not reflect the stand or position of LatestLY.)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 12, 2025 01:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).