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Film: London Paris Newyork
Director: Anu Menon
Cast: Ali Zafar & Aditi Rao Hydari 
Genre: Romance

Debutant Anu Menon’s LPNY borrows apparatus from Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise. So, film has just 2 characters and throughout the film we witness their conversations and emotions. This is bollywood. Hence, songs are also there plus one of the most legendary cliché also comes into picture in the final moments of the film i.e. heroine’s dad.  

Protagonists Nikhil (played by Ali Zafar) & Lalitha (played by Aditi Rao Hydari) meet at London Airport and they merrily spend a day together and gentle emotions & spark of love ignite during the time of departure. They take a vow to meet again but in the meantime, no one’s supposed to call/write each other. In fact, they don’t share details like phone no./e-mail but they decide to see each other after a certain span of time. Sounds cool, eh?

As the name suggests, film criss-crosses across three dazzling cities of our planet and out of those three cities, our leads meet at two cities (London & Paris) and spend a day together. During their meet in third city (New York) they finally take a long-lasting resolution which I don’t think is worth appreciating because we’ve witnessed 4 rom-coms in past 4 weeks. It’s fine, just fine but because of overdose I am not able to connect to it.

Best thing about Anu Menon’s film is that it’s just 100 mins long and worst thing is that even in that short duration film unintentionally requests you to stare at your watch, yawn & even take a nap. ‘Before Sunrise’ had sharp & captivating conversations. It had power to hypnotize viewer but LPNY doesn’t have such power. Only two scenes stand out in the whole film, one’s when Lalitha translates one couple’s cocky & sexy discussion in male voice in our national language & another one’s in climax when Nikhil portrays his frustration & rage.  

Acting of both fluctuates after every few minutes and as the film contains only them it becomes easy to point out. Both look charming, both have enormous sex appeal but their absurd dialogue delivery & inconsistency in acting is unapologetic.

And yes, Ali Zafar’s music qualifies to enter my playlist but I am sure it won’t stay for long time. Cinematography is splendid & glowingly captures the essence of all the 3 cities. 

Concepts of feminism and banter related to “mills & boon” are sure to bore you but if you are in dilemma about where to go for honeymoon then you should watch this film. 

Rating: 1.5/5