She keeps fighting the guilt of putting herself before family, society and Badri for the rest of the film. What’s wrong with that? Why should she be like her voiceless mother or the sister who is happy to compromise? But even as you applaud her for putting the roadside Romeo hero Badrinath Bansal (alternatively pleasant and over the top Varun Dhawan) in his place comes the sudden, poorly contrived and entirely unconvincing, twist at the interval that turns her, rather unfairly, albeit momentarily, into the villain of the story. She’s the smart, educated, dimpled girl from Kota – Vaidehi Trivedi (Aalia Bhatt, affable, as always), who wants to fly high rather than get suffocated in her restricted life, who opts for a career of choice over marriage with someone she can’t relate to. The boundaries get defined for the woman as well-the one who is actually the heartening initiator of change. In short, it’s a rebellion within permissible limits. While minor negotiations take place, the larger edifice –problem of patriarchy-stays intact. So Khaitan, is careful in gently nudging the societal system than daring to go radically against it – in short he doesn’t believe in upsetting the applecart. Director Shashank Khaitan, quite evidently, believes in reconciliation and continuity rather than estrangement and disruption.
The romcom is interspersed with the contentious theme of patriarchy and gender inequity. When you have two good-looking, charming, likeable and in-sync-with-each other actors like Aalia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan you know how the film will pan out eventually-the intercity, Kota-Jhansi (via Mumbai and Singapore) love story is bound to end well despite a few hiccups.