T his slightly racy Hindi-language romcom is mapped across a love triangle between two men and a woman, but its geometry is all out of whack. Thanks to a combination of raw star power and the way the script (credited to Tarun Dudeja and Ishita Moitra) is crafted, rising star Vicky Kaushal gets the most acute angle as a swaggering Punjabi mamma’s boy Akhil Chadha, who self-describes as a GOAT. His fancy footwork in the opening song-and-dance sequence is impressive if not entirely supportive of his outrageous greatest-of-all-time claim, but at least you can see why aspiring chef Saloni (Triptii Dimri) might take a shine to him.
Before long, the two have married, honeymooned in Croatia where they break beds regularly with their lovemaking (there’s kissing but nothing ever explicit on show) and settled back in Delhi. But Akhil’s smothering affection for his wife barely disguises a lack of respect for Saloni’s career ambitions, which centre on winning a culinary award called the Meraki Star (like a Michelin, but without the undercover judging panel). In fact, to win a chef must make an oral defence of their gastronomical philosophy, a screenwriting contrivance that seems about as absurd as the notion that an establishment specialising in burrito bowls would win such a high-level accolade, as is the case here.
But the film is much less interested in food than it is in conventional romantic shenanigans, and before the interval arrives Saloni and Akhil are divorced and she’.