Movie Review - Qarib Qarib Singlle - by Suhel Johar

Qarib Qarib Singlle Is Interesting, Contemporary And Unorthodox.

Qarib Qarib Singlle, directed by Tanuja Chandra, is a rom-com. The film talks about love in the generation of online dating where relationships are complicated. Today the relationship status’ cannot be only described as single or committed because there are also relationships which are more than being single and less than committed and these relationships status’ can be described as ‘Almost Single’ or ‘Qarib Qarib Singlle’.

Qarib Qarib Singlle is a contemporary and unorthodox love story of a mature modern couple who meet through an online dating site. 35 year old Jaya (Parvati) is a war widow and works in a life insurance company. A rather chubby, cheerful lady who dresses classy, speaks French but tends to be a people pleaser and is often used as a babysitter by her friends. Jaya’s lack of love life leads her to a dating site where she meets self-published poet Yogi (Irrfan Khan) whose books are no longer sold. The two share a number of quirky moments and their constant repartee leads to a trip across India. This quirky love story travels through the cities of Dehradun, Rishikesh, Alwar, and Gangtok taking us on an unusual ride of a middle-age romance. They pass through these cities because Yogi is out to prove that they still think of him fondly. During this trip, both of them talk about their past relationships and that ends up in the most eventful, strange and yet the most crazy trip of their lives.

In an industry where heroes in their 50s routinely romance young women and heroines approaching their 30s start off on Botox in an attempt to look young, it takes immense courage to tell a tale about mature love. Tanuja Chandra’s Qarib Qarib Singlle is an impressive tale of a man and a woman in their mid-thirties looking for love and finding it through a dating app that sounds quite shady to start with. Chandra does not stop at telling a rather different tale. She adds to the story moments of mirth and fun and out comes a superb rom-com.

The film manages to gain ample amount of your attention for its unusual pairing and quirky content. The first half of the film is lively and happening but there’s a slight slackening of pace, post interval. The other thing that one noticed is that not enough work is done in giving the required shades to Yogi’s character. Similarly, all the secondary characters in the film are ill etched, they just enter and exit at will with no real purpose. The film’s length should have been atleast 15-20 minutes less than what it is as there are many unwanted scenes. Yes, some portions after the midpoint get repetitive. The narrative tends to sag in parts. Apart from these few glitches there is not much in Qarib Qarib Singlle that can be listed as a negative.

Director Tanuja Chandra with her sensitive touch tugs and pulls at your emotions in many ways. Story by Kamna Chandra is good. Screenplay by Tanuja Chandra and Gazal Dhaliwal is good. Dialogue by Gazal Dhaliwal work in the film. Cinematography by Eeshit Narain is impressive. Editing by Chandan Arora is below average. But nothing that Irrfan and Parvathy can't swoop up in their arms and revivify.

Performanewise, Irrfan has never failed us yet and his portrayal of a sentimental but rather annoyingly garish man is another feather in his cap. Parvathy is a versatile actress. This is her Bollywood debut and we cannot wait to watch other movies she may choose to feature in. The support cast including Neha Dhupia, Isha Sharvani,  Brijendra Kala, Luke Kenny, Pushtii Shakti and Siddharth Menon appear and disappear without registering their presence due to their ill etched characters.

On the whole, Qarib Qarib Singlle is a one time decent watch.