Out on Netflix, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar makes a fabulous case for the man-child

Luv Ranjan’s Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is finally out on Netflix, and makes another case for the man-child who lives, laughs and cries with his family but chooses as always- to walk away rather than confront. Starring Ranbir Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor, this romantic comedy revolves around two people who fall in and out of love, fashionably and irresponsibly, and present- over the runtime of 164 minutes, a young generation that would rather choose to leave the country rather than communicate with each other.

This is not an exaggeration. Out of all places, Luv Ranjan concludes Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar at an airport. An entire family barges in the airport with their passport, check-in with a family photo, and fiercely search for their girl. Ranbir’s Rohan Arora, shouts the name of Tinni (Shraddha) multiple times inside the airport, and it reaches her just when she’s about to board the flight. What happens next can be left to the imagination, but this denouement, if anything, makes it immensely clear. All the world’s a playground for our male protagonist until he finds his love. The other passengers can suffer, the airport security can lose their job, but it matters not- unless he’s made his voice loud and clear for his lady love to respond.

Yet, this was just a snippet of what Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar forces its audience to process. It begins with a smartly executed scam run by two brothers who have taken up the full-time job of breaking up couples who are no longer interested in one another. Enter Rohan, nicknamed Mickey- a handsome 30 year-old who is conveniently playing his cards and paying his bills by running this business, of which his parents have no idea. So when he meets Nisha aka Tinni, and they fall in love in the most orchestrated stretch of a foreign locale-bachelor trip, for Mickey’s friend Dabbas (Anubhav Singh Bassi), he tells nothing about his main source of income.

There’s no reason to worry, because there’s plenty more things to talk about in Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar. Everyone, from the main characters to the supporting ones, talk non-stop and without a full stop. The monologue, which became the most memorable part of Pyaar Ka Punchnama, feel like a breeze in front of the unending rounds of automated verbal rollercoaster rides here. The film prides itself in these long dialogue-heavy scenes, trying as much as it can, to convey that this is how the modern generation express and convey their frustrations, doubts and anxieties. What it turns into is a film populated with paper-thin characters with no inner lives. Here are people who react in the same hackneyed way whether they are talking to their friend or their mother. These are cardboard cutouts incapable of having a personality, where there is no difference between intention and expression.

Take two instances of Mickey before he meets Tinni, and then when he’s in a relationship with her. An early scene at someone’s funeral, Mickey finds it opportune to sow the seeds of doubt and insecurity into Dabbas’ would-be fiancée. Then later at home, both he and Dabbas serve alcohol and spew abuses in front of Mickey’s little niece Sweetu. The scene plays out to show that both Mickey and Dabbas are okay with the little girl having alcohol and witnessing their insensitive, abusive banter around adult relationships. The next scene in question is when Mickey confirms that Tinni really wants to break up with him through the consultant. Mickey tries to jump off the balcony of his own house, and is surprised that Dabbas doesn’t try to save him. Dabbas responds that he is unable to understand the purpose of Mickey’s life. For once, he makes sense. Even when Mickey knows that his girl wants to break up with him, he can’t stop for one minute to deal with the crisis like a grown-up. He goes on to play the blame-game.

There’s no point talking a film seriously if it doesn’t want to do so in the first place. Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar presents people without any driving forces, personally or professionally. Modern relationships are a ball game, and this film is interested only in acknowledging that point, not delving into it. The back and forth that ensues when an independent woman decides to choose her family over her love becomes another catalyst to come-of-age for our male protagonist. This is a film that is interested and preoccupied only with the male standpoint, where we get to know what Mickey thinks and does, and how he sacrifices his love for his work. When Tinni finally gets the chance to communicate and reveal her intentions- the effect inclines towards male victory, unsurprisingly.

The modern Indian audience, that chooses to see themselves represented in a homegrown film will have much to discuss and argue over Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, not because the film opens up to that veritable state of curiosity, but because it conveniently sidesteps the point to cluelessly paint a generation too feather-headed to make their own decisions. If anything else, the film has pinned yet another feather on the cap of star Ranbir Kapoor’s growing resume of male characters who will walk away from from a fictional wedding than discuss what’s wrong. From Bachna Ae Haseeno, Raajneeti, Ye Jawaani Hai Deewani, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, and now here in Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar, the resume just gets longer, if not stronger, with each new film.