‘Loveyapa’ Movie Review: Junaid Khan and Khushi Kapoor Are the Surprise Packages of This Sharp and Witty Romcom (LatestLY Exclusive)

Loveyapa Movie Review: When not trying to be a OnePlus advert, Loveyapa is a charming enough rom-com that manages to extract surprisingly decent performances from its two young lead actors. A disclaimer needs to be placed here - I haven’t had the time or space to watch Love Today, the Tamil movie that Loveyapa is an official adaptation of. Going by how enjoyable the remake is, I’m sure the original would be good enough, if not better. Loveyapa may not be fresh maal, but it is still a fun, frothy, and harmless entertainer about new-gen love. ‘Loveyapa’ Review: Dharmendra, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi and Others Shower Love on Junaid Khan and Khushi Kapoor’s Movie.

That said, the title is still cringe, but it makes sense because even the nicknames of the lovebirds in the movie - Gaurav (Junaid Khan) and Baani (Khushi Kapoor) - use for each other would sound cringe to a third person. Gaurav and Baani spend nearly all their waking time whispering sweet nothings and other cute gibberish on the phone with each other.

The fun actually begins when Baani’s father, sitar maestro Atul Kumar Sharma (Ashutosh Rana) is introduced. When he gets a whiff of the relationship, he asks Baani to make Gaurav meet him. After Gaurav meets his prospective father-in-law, the latter puts him to a test to check their trust in each other - hand over each other’s phones and see if their romance survives that exchange. Although the couple claims they are very open with each other, it’s evident that they are both not pleased with the idea, and we find out soon enough why.

Watch the Trailer of 'Loveyapa':

Running parallel to this track is the engagement-to-marriage ceremonies of Gaurav’s sister Kiran (Tanvika Parlikar) and her dentist fiancé Anupam (Kiku Sharda), a match that the bride is happy with, but not some others around her, because the groom is overweight.

‘Loveyapa’ Movie Review - A Well-Handled Remake

I have an admiration for Advait Chandan as a director - I loved his debut film, Secret Superstar. Even though no one asked for it, and its lead actor gave one of his strangest performances, there was a decent attempt by Advait Chandan to remake Forrest Gump in Hindi as Lal Singh Chaddha. Even though he is saddled with another remake here, the director has a much tighter grip, even when venturing into risky territory - comedy. Comedy is definitely serious business, and the director certainly takes that task seriously, with the effort visible onscreen, delivering humour that doesn’t insult the audience’s intellect.

Of course, the movie benefits from the quirky plotline of the original film (Pradip Ranganathan deserves the credit here) and some of the borrowed sequences (I may not have watched Love Today, but I’ve seen some of its popular scenes in reels) have been adapted nicely. Loveyapa raises the bar for itself from the moment Gaurav meets Baani’s father, whose bizarre proposal forms the crux of the film. It’s a hilarious sequence, and the movie continues to maintain that tempo ahead.

Hilarity ensues further when the couple discovers secrets about each other through their exchanged phones. He learns of her dalliances with her ex and her chats with her besotted bestie. She learns of his flirtations, his porn browsing, and sleazy group chats. The movie also adopts a visual language that brings these chats to life, adding a fun vibe to the proceedings, with a couple of scenes standing out. For instance, when Gaurav goes through Baani’s Instagram chats, a whole lot of creeps pop out with their windows, shouting their perverted messages to her. While the scene maintains the movie's light-hearted nature, it also addresses the everyday harassment women face online from random men.

The dialogues (screenplay by Sneha Desai, additional dialogues by Sidhant Mago) also help spark the wit of these scenes.

‘Loveyapa’ Movie Review - The Dramatic Moments Felt Inconsistent

Yet, I have to say I could sense some struggle in the second half to match the mirth of the first half. This is not only due to the fact that there is more drama and dramatic conflict here, but also because space is given to Kiran and Anupam’s relationship saga, where the girl, curious about her fiancé’s secretiveness about his phone and inspired by Gaurav and Baani’s ‘test’, wants to find out what he’s up to, and her antics to get that phone. It’s less funny, but the track has a surprisingly emotional conclusion that won my heart. There are a couple of other dramatic moments that also get to stand out here like Gaurav’s mother telling him - in the movie’s rare moment of preaching - not to treat relationships with the fickleness of instant food delivery. Another scene has Baani’s father’s sitar-playing becoming an apt background score to raise the tension in a couple of conflicts.

At the same time, the reason why Baani and Gaurav have their actual serious fight—over the discovery of who’s behind a handle that is troubling her and her sister—felt too incredulous to my understanding. I wish there was a better way to bring about their big fight.

For example, the one they had in the first half before the interval over Baani’s Mussoorie trip felt more organic. Similarly, the inclusion of Baani’s creepy colleague (Kunj Anand) and a viral sex clip felt like a convenient way to work around the lead couple’s conflict—even though it fits well with the theme of the film. Also, the subplot serves as a nice little payoff for a small repeated gag that was set up earlier. ‘Precious Moment’: Juhi Chawla Poses With Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan at Junaid Khan’s ‘Loveyapa’ Screening, Shares Photos!

‘Loveyapa’ Movie Review - Wonderful Cast

But the bigger credit that Advait Chandan deserves is in making two greenhorn actors, who everyone had seemingly written off after watching the trailer (including yours truly), come out as the film’s biggest surprises. I’m not saying I saw career-defining performances here, but career-saving for sure. Compared to his debut, Maharaj, where he felt very raw, Junaid Khan was very much in his comfort zone here within a contemporary character, and he managed to deliver the funny lines without a sense of awkwardness. Yes, his body language was stiff in places, particularly when he had to dance, but otherwise, it was a very fun performance to watch.

Similarly, while Khushi Kapoor may not have a dominating screen presence, she made up for that with a committed act that was surprisingly miles ahead of what I saw of her in The Archies. She was too good in the emotional scenes or when she went on rants about her on-screen boyfriend.

Ashutosh Rana, with his shudh Hindi, was a delight in the few scenes he was in, and I’m glad the movie connected with his rarely-used comic timing. Grusha Kapoor was wonderful as Gaurav’s mother, and she scores particularly well in the monologue scene where she schools her son about relationships.

Kiku Sharda was fantastic in that emotional scene where his character bares his heart and secrets to his brother-in-law. Considering fat-shaming is a theme of his subplot, I hope he invites his Kapil Sharma Show gang to watch this movie and learn something. Tanvika Parlikar was quite a find here as Gaurav’s sister and Anupam’s fiancée, and so was Devishi Madaan as Baani’s sister.

Special mention also goes to Aaditya Kulshreshth, Nikhil Mehta, Jason Tham, and Yunus Khan, who play Gaurav’s friends - their comic camaraderie works well in raising hilarity in many scenes.

‘Loveyapa’ Movie Review - Final Thoughts

Yes, Loveyapa is yet another reminder of Bollywood’s unshakable obsession with remakes - but when the result doesn’t feel like a carbon copy gone wrong, maybe we can cut it some slack. Let’s be clear: there’s no groundbreaking cinema here, no reinvention of the wheel, just a frothy, crowd-pleasing rom-com that knows its job and does it well. What saves Loveyapa from being just another forgettable flick is its earnest attempts at comedy, its quirky premise, and the surprisingly effective performances from its young leads. Throw in a solid supporting cast, and you’ve got a film that manages to serve up enough laughs and charm to make it worth your popcorn.

(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 Feb 07, 2025 12:20 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).