Meri Pyaari Bindu: A charming take on love and nostalgia

Meri Pyaari Bindu is a rom-com that charms with its realism but is also shallow enough not to stay with you

The title Meri Pyaari Bindu is as cheesy as the titles of 'successful' author Abhimanyu Roy (Ayushmaan Khurrana). For someone who writes the kind of shady pulp fiction with crass names, it should come as a surprise that he must hit a writer's block.
But unravelling that block is what Meri Pyaari Bindu is all about, and it is centred on the romantic, almost verging on platonic, relationship between Abhimanyu and his childhood neighbour Bindu (Parineeti Chopra).
If it is Parineeti, of course, Bindu has to be bubbly, peppy and in-command - and Bindu is all that. And if it is Ayushmaan, he must come with a bit of gravitas sponged down in humour. Abhimanyu is that too. And since it is a Yash Raj Films production, the elaborate family set pieces too must be there. Ticked, for sure, on that one too!
But the real surprise in Meri Pyaari Bindu is the fine realism that writer Suprotim Sengupta and direct Akshay Roy weave in. The film's opening, set in Kolkata, is a charmer, and so is the way the whole Bindu conundrum and Abhimanyu's writer's block is narrated.
Since writers seldom play heroes in Bollywood, and since our referral point today of pulp fiction writing is Chetan Bhagat, it is pretty hard to pan out the life of Abhimanyu convincingly. That is why the usual clichés abound - be it in the hero's beard, dress or quirky habits.
However, as soon as the film sets its heart on building the friendship and romance of Abhimanyu and Bindu, it takes its life - not from the characters - but from our own nostalgia for the past. For once, you have a Bollywood film, where yesteryear films, music and a powerful background score play as strong a protagonist as the two leads.
In that sense, Meri Pyaari Bindu is a build-up on that cheesy Bollywood fixation Karan Johar tried to milk in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Here, it is almost as if a game of anthakshari takes life with each song proving a point.
Meri Pyaari Bindu moves in one plane of hopeless romanticism and nostalgia but the pacing is slow, and surprisingly, you really don't get hooked on to the lives of the two.  They remain disengaged from you, and appear as ephemeral as fleeting vibes of nostalgia that comes and goes.
In a film that demands exceptional performance, the casting is spot-on. Ayushmaan and Parineeti couldn't have been a better fit for the roles, but if they appear a tad too predictable, and repeating themselves, you cannot be wronged - after all, it is hard to break the stereotypical labels that Bollywood bestows on actors.
With its focus on writing, songs, nostalgia and relationships (that are more real than in most Bollywood films), Meri Pyaari Bindu is delightful yet disengaging, falling far short of being a  rom-com classic.
And when you leave the theaters, it is not the characters but the music that stays with you; if you hear yourself humming Abhi Na Jao, you could for a moment be transported to that charming world of romance that Dev Anand and Sadhana weaved.
And you realise, wistfully, that Bollywood doesn't make romances like them anymore. Sigh!
Meri Pyaari Bindu
Starring: Ayushmaan Khurana and Parineeti Chopra
Directed by Akshay Roy
Now playing at theatres in the UAE
Rating: 2.5/5