Despite being directed by a woman, this rom-com was written by a man and it is glaringly obvious throughout the movie.
*Positive Points*
The actors do a fantastic job. Aditi Rao is excellent as the mentally tortured wife. Dulquer Salmaan is so charming that he manages the admirable feat of making Yaazhan's character tolerable and even likeable at times.
Plus, nice camera work and aesthetics. Vibrant costumes and good music.
Breaking gender bias
- Yaazhan takes great pleasure in handling the house, dabbling in gardening and cooking, etc.
- In one scene, Yaazhan is shown going to a wedding in his wife's dress. He is shown as a secure man who feels no need to resort to male stereotypes to prove his worth as a man.
*Negative Points* This mainly just boils down to how the main lead is portrayed and subsequently the relationship. The movie is hellbent on painting Yaazhan as the ideal husband, and in contrast, Mouna is painted as a superficial and idiotic woman for not appreciating this stifling "love".
- Yaazhan is constantly talking and never listening. Mouna is never shown to express her opinion on anything, except how sick of Yaazhan's habits she is, which paints her as the bad guy.
- He is overbearing and intellectually domineering.
- He is constantly force-feeding her - either actual food or food for thoughts. Yaazhan has an opinion on everything, which he shares without being asked. But he never asks his wife how she feels on the subject.
- On the subject of food, he is always force-feeding her. Quite literally. For instance, there's a scene where he barges into the shower to feed her cake.
The ending is a mess.
- After a relatively brief separation that allows both Yaazhan and Mouna to take some distance and view their relationship with a pair of fresh eyes. They choose to recoil back into essentially the same routine instead of venting their frustrations and acknowledging areas of improvement within their relationship.
- The movie ends on the very frustrating note that they both decide to make ZERO changes to their very unhealthy and toxic dynamic.