What Is the Story About?
Comedy Couple is the latest original film from the stables of ZEE5. It is a romantic comedy, with moralistic drama thrown into the mix. Comedy Couple is directed by Nachiket Samant, written by Kashyap Kapoor, Raghav Raj Kakker, Gaurav Sharma and Bikas Ranjan Mishra, and produced by Vikram Mehra and Siddharth Anand Kumar, under the banner of Yoodlee Films, the indie film division of Saregama.
Deep Sharma (Saqib Saleem) and Zoya Batra (Shweta Basu Prasad) are a couple in love – with each other, and with stand-up comedy. They decide to kill two birds with one stone, and form the country’s first comedy couple – the first comedians that perform stand up comedy as a duo.
The movie opens with the couple debuting in the stand-up comedy scene of Gurgaon. They soon hit the big time, a fact testified to by their stand up acts going viral on the internet; and are inundated with comedy gigs across town.
Deep and Zoya are the archetypical millennial couple who has it all – love, fame and success; but throws it all away due to silly reasons – a speciality of today’s youngsters. Will the couple set aside their differences and get their mojo back? Read on to find out!
Performances?
Saqib Saleem and Shweta Basu Prasad have put in flawless performances as Deep and Zoya. Their acting is effortlessly natural, which is quite a relief as it is not something one can say for the contrived plotline of Comedy Couple. They also share crackling chemistry on screen, which again provides solid testimony to the assured performing abilities of the lead couple.
Pranay Manchanda gives a great performance as the comedy couple’s manager cum friend. Aadar Malik is simply superb as Deep’s perpetually high friend, Rohan. He is a riot to watch. Not only that, the two numbers he sings in the movie are hilarious AF. Together, these two are responsible for all the laughs that Comedy Couple generates.
Rajesh Tailang, as Deep’s rigid and conservative father, disappoints — one of the very few times he does. He’s clearly out of sorts here. Pooja Bedi is a delight to have back on our screens, even though all we see of her is on Zoya’s laptop screen.
Analysis
Comedy Couple is a mixed bag of tricks. It starts off well, keeping us hooked to the narrative with its refreshing premise. But half an hour into the story, it decides that it is much too sappy and feel-good. So it introduces issues conjured out of nowhere; issues that seem as contrived as Elon Musk’s plans to occupy Mars. That is when the narrative starts to go haywire, and the plot goes from refreshing to tedious, invigorating to tepid, and listless.
Some bits in the movie stick out from the mundaneness, to shine with their singular brilliance. The ‘Laughter Jihad’ that the couple is accused of waging is, apart from a snide take on the issue of ‘Love Jihad’, uncomfortably close to real-life – remember the abuse heaped on comedians Agrima Joshua, Surleen Kaur, Azeem and others, for supposedly hurting religious sentiments through their comedy acts?
The police station sequence also shines. The ‘aadaab’ joke that the police officer cracks not only reeks of misogyny, it is also cheap and crass. It speaks a lot about the mentality of our fellow countrymen — sexist jokes are all good, while ‘gaumutra’ jokes are blasphemy and will bring the law to your doorstep.
Another sparkling scene was when Deep’s father is about to offer the ‘aarti’ to Zoya, but retracts it when she mentions her name. “Zoya?”, he repeats, with some concern, and visibly relaxes when she gives her full name, ‘Zoya Batra’. A telling moment, though a reality in a country where the surname is all-important – to forge relationships, friendships and kinship.
The sequences at Rohan’s house are truly hilarious. You just can’t keep from cringing in horror when Deep realizes the truth about the bottle he swigs from – ewww, gross!
While these moments stand out like a beacon of good writing in Comedy Couple, the same can’t be said for the rest of the movie – or more specifically – for the second half of the movie. All said and done, the contrived plot lets the movie down like nothing else.
Music and Other Departments?
Karthik Rao and Ravi Singal’s music is quite good. The numbers are good to hear, but as is the bane of digital content, none sticks in your mind. Riju Das’ cinematography and Abhishek Seth’s editing are good, though not outstandingly so.
Highlights?
Performances of all actors
Sporadic blasts of brilliance
The sequences at Rohan’s place
Drawbacks?
Contrived plot
Somewhat predictable storyline
Did I Enjoy It?
In parts
Will You Recommend It?
Watch it only if you have nothing better to do
‘Comedy Couple’ Review by Binged Bureau
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