Parivarik ManuRanjan Review: Love Is Not Enough

Director: Varun V Sharma | Cast: Pankaj Tripathi, Aditi Rao Hydari | Hindi | SonyLIV

Ranjan, an ageing bachelor with a gigantic haveli in Kaiserbagh in Lucknow, works in the electricity department. Helen, a charming young woman, lands up at his home answering an ad for a housekeeper and proceeds to whip up excellent meals, clean up his home, wash his dishes, and organise his closet.

Basically every man’s fantasy, a beautiful young woman who works as a slave. But just as you think this is moving towards the cross-class romance shown so well in Rohena Gera’s Sir (2018), there is emphasis on Helen being from a respectable family who has to do this kind of work because she is poor. In one fell swoop, there goes our belief in the dignity of labour and our ideas of egalitarianism. All you have left then is an age-gap romance between a socially awkward Ranjan and a quietly desperate Helen, aided by Brijendra Kala as a nosy neighbour-cum-co worker.

You want to like this fresh pair especially in an industry that rarely gives the romcom a chance, but it never quite takes off, between Ranjan’s saviour complex and Helen’s need for a safe space. Just a note on Ranjan’s relatives, primarily his sisters and his brothers-in-law, is there a bigger collection of unlovely people than this?