R Madhavan and Fatima Sana Sheikh in Aap Jaise Ko
Director Vivek Soni takes the classic trope of gradual love in an arranged marriage to deliver stinging lessons on patriarchy. Men who appear to be modern on surface but actually placing themselves in authority. Vivek Soni along his writers do a fine job in calling out the double standards particularly in matters related to sexuality and desires
Starcast: R Madhavan, Fatima Sana Sheikh, Ayesha Raza, Namit Das, Manish Chaudhary and others
Genre: Romance
Director: Vivek Soni
Writers: Radhika Anand and Jehan Handa
Producers: Karan Johar, Somen Mishra, Aadar Poonawala etc
Production Company: Dharmatic Entertainment
,Music: Rochak Kohli and Justin Prabhakaran
Cinematography: Debojeet Ray
Running time: 1 hour and 55 minutes
Streaming site: Netflix
On the surface the plot of Aap Jaisa Koi feels a cross between Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani and R Madhavan’s own Tanu Weds Manu. Much like Alia Bhatt in Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani Fatima Sana Sheikh also plays a fiercely opiniated Bengali here. R Madhavan’s character of a middle aged bachelor has shades of the soft Manu. Thankfully though Aap Jaisa Koi has its own identity specifically the subplot of Ayesha Raza representing the numerous married women facing casual sexism and misogyny and how she breaks out of the conventions by following her heart.
The story of Aap Jaisa Koi primarily revolves around two people belonging to different age brackets as well as varied thought processes. R Madhavan is a 40 plus Sanskrit professor Shrinenu Tripathi. Shrinenu is painfully shy, he hasn’t even kissed till now. In short an absolute virgin becoming the butt of jokes. The friend played by Namit Das introduces him to an anonymous world of chatting with unknown women, the site is Aap Jaisa Koi. The chats in this site have sexual undertones which Shrinenu thoroughly enjoys. Fatima Sana Sheikh is Madhu Bose. a lecturer from Kolkata. Both of them meet in an arranged marriage set up and sparks fly soon. However the path is far from easy. The obstacles are societal expectations and the traditional expectations of gender roles. This is the story in brief.
A strong aspect of Aap Jaise Koi is the integration of different social issues like women’s desires along with the hypocritical attitude of men towards their choices. There is a key scene in the second half where Shrinenu and Madhu Bose have a split when everything is going right, the break up is connected to the dating site. Madhu Bose was also on the same site for a while chatting with many men. Shrinenu considers Madhu Bose a whore just because she chatted with numerous unknown males .The heated dialogues between the two exposes the double standards of men like Shrinenu who think of themselves as progressive but in actuality they are sexist.
In the beginning portions there is a heavy hangover of Manu in R Madhavan’s role but unlike that movie Shrinenu here comes with more shades. Post the bitter break up there are scenes of Shrinenu grappling with prejudices that he has never questioned so far. After a long time R Madhavan has returned back to the romantic set up and the actor is a delight to watch conveying the internal turmoil with just his body language. Fatima Sana Sheikh is confidence personified perfectly embodying the feministic attitude, additionally she looks gorgeous as well in the sarees.
Mention must also be made of Ayesha Raza’s heartfelt portrayal of a woman who hasn’t got the emotional love and often faces casual sexism from her husband. In spite of doing a job from home the husband doesn’t take her seriously, instead Manish Chaudhary’s character thinks that he is doing some favor by allowing her to work. This is where the theme of ingrained patriarchy comes in. This is cycle of inherited attitudes is very visible in Shrinenu’s view points towards Madhu being on Aap Jaisa Koi app. Manish Chaudhary is successful in making the viewers hate him, he perfectly embodies the character’s attitude making the role relatable.
The songs composed by Rochak Kohli and Justin Prabhakaran are soulful too. Jab Tu Sajan and Mila Tujhe stand out among the compositions. Both these numbers perfectly capture the blossoming romance.
Final word: Aap Jaisa Koi is a simple tale with feministic undertones. If you are in the mood for something breezy and are an R Madhavan fan do watch it.
