The return of romance in 'Musafir Cafe'

Musafir Café | Showrunner: Sharanya Rajagopal | Cast: Vikrant Massey, Vedika Pinto, Mahima Makwana | Netflix

He loves Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. She adores Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. He is an engineering student from Indore who felt lonely in America and returned to build the cafe of his dreams. She is a law student from Ratlam practising in Bhopal. They meet on an arranged marriage date and reject each other only to find they are inextricably attracted to each other. In romance tropes, it is a slow burn. Vikrant Massey as Chander Mohan Sharma and Vedika Pinto as Sudha Tripathi are attractive enough, though their facial muscles must be stretched beyond what is humanly possible. They fall in love, he does something stupid, she gets offended, and they meet eight years later when he is with someone else. What happens then? The series ends on a cliffhanger, which means there will be a second season. For a romcom to work, the lead pair needs to have that X factor, the zing thing on screen. Adapted from Divya Prakash Dubey’s novel, the direction from showrunner Sharanya Rajagopal gives it an element of the female gaze, giving her women feistiness in spirit and playfulness in act. So Chander admits to crying over a for­mer love, and Sudha insists her widowed mother is her first love. Love or duty? Joy now or happiness later? In a world where rom­coms are such a rarity, Musafir Café is a welcome break.