Cast: Randeep Hooda, Sadaa Sayed, Divya Dutta, Rituparno Sengupta, Sonali Kulkarni, Riya Sen, Saurabh Shukla

Director: Srinivas Bhashyam

Rating:**

Jat boy Vir, learning to be a sous chef, has a single-point agenda : to prong as many willing women as he can. As he skitters from one female to the other, `Love Khichdi’ shows us just how rate-limiting Bollywood’s alleged sex romps still are. Our macho hero’s search for a good time leads him to cartoonish situations, and predictable hook-ups-that aren’t, delivering much less than it promises.

Here’s Vir’s ( Randeep) gaggle of gals—Pammy ( Divya), the buxom landlord’s wife who wants to learn how to make lasagna la la la ( women who have trouble spelling Italian Khana will not go all the way). Sweet sixteen schoolgirl Riya, who has a crush on him ( little misses who wear tartan skirts are teases). Book store manager Sharmishtha ( Rituparna), who sells the Kamasutra volume to dirty old men ( `Bharatiya naris’ who slip up will get all guilty after the deed). Shanta Bai ( Sonali Kulkarni) the maid, whose daily visit is used by Vir to practice his ogling ( all `kaamwalis’ have drunken husbands ).The only woman he doesn’t lust after is the goody-goody doormat Sandhya ( Sadaa Sayed) who works in the same hotel as he does. She brings him cake on his birthday : naturally, he takes her for granted.

`Love Khichdi’ starts out by being brave, and then chickens out. Keeping our delicate Indian sensibilities in mind, Randeep has to start showing us his sensitive side ( he gets to call condoms biscuits, for chrissakes), too soon. After a bit of fun and games with a hard-nosed call centre owner in power-suits ( women in authority are men in disguise), the film gets all drippy.

... contd.