Aap Jaisa Koi: The Netflix romance problem

Every millennial girl who watched 'Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein' fell for R Madhavan's charming smile. His character, Maddy, was a serial stalker with anger issues, but his soft eyes and cheeky personality distracted young women from the bigger problem.

This happened to be Bollywood's best working recipe: cast a good-looking actor as the lead, give him the worst attributes and brand it as romance.

However, this recipe for success does not work these days as it used to twenty years ago; problematic characters are now often called out by the audience, and hence, OTT platforms have started creating more 'acceptable' characters.

Netflix's 'Aap Jaisa Koi' is a romantic comedy-drama directed by Vivek Soni and produced by Karan Johar's Dharmatic Entertainment.

It stars R. Madhavan as Shrirenu Tripathi, a shy middle-aged Sanskrit professor, and Fatima Sana Shaikh as Madhu Bose, a fun-loving French instructor.

"Cute Girl, Nerdy Boy. Perfect Romcom," Madhu says to Shrirenu in one of their initial meetings. This was an attempt to break the fourth wall, but it felt unnecessary.

The premise of the film is simple: Shrirenu is a 40-year-old simple man who has never been in a relationship with the opposite gender; he is regularly set up on blind dates for an arranged marriage but is repeatedly rejected for his shy nature, profession, and age. Madhu, on the other hand, is your average fair, tall, and beautiful woman who does not shy away from her sexuality.

Madhu's from Kolkata, Shrirenu's from Jamshedpur, and director Vivek Soni couldn't resist dipping into his bag of stereotypes; for his version of West Bengalis is nothing but men and women sipping on wine like water, working artsy jobs and having endless political debates. Whereas people of other regions in India are portrayed as more reserved, more domesticated, where women are merely seen as baby-making machines and househelps.

When these two worlds collide, romance initially brews between the protagonists. They come across as compatible and share sweet moments, which are shown mostly through songs, with perfect visuals that blur the line between fantasy and the present time. Everything seems smooth for them.

That is, until the main conflict arises: Aap Jaisa Koi, an online app where people can anonymously have conversations, mostly explicit. During their lonelier days, after a string of failed blind dates, both had used the app. When Shrirenu realises this, he steps back — but not before calling out Madhu as a "characterless woman" for an act which was somehow okay for him to do but not her.

However, Shrirenu starts to miss Madhu and attempts to resolve their issue by telling her, "It's okay, I forgive you for using the app, you can do whatever you want, but within a limit." 

To this, Madhu looks at him, trying to find out where his audacity came from and calmly replies, "And who are you to decide what is my limit?".

On one hand, the film tries to show that women should not be seen as objects and are their own person who don't need a man's permission to live their life — but on the other, it tries to justify a woman being unfaithful, making it seem acceptable because she was in a toxic relationship. A very flawed sub-plot of the movie.

Kusum Bhabi, played by Ayesha Raza, is shown to be a timid woman who only dreams of having a cloud kitchen to sell her homemade pickles, but this is highly discouraged by her husband and Shrirenu's brother, Bhanu Tripathi, played by Manish Chaudhari. 

A man with an old school point of view towards a woman and society who believes his biggest achievement is letting his daughter study and work, and allowing his wife to do household work, but by his rules. 

A very upset Kusum Bhabi is later seen to be engaging in a brief conversation with Madhu's uncle, Joy Bose, played by Saheb Chatterjee, who appreciates her cooking skills and encourages her to open her cloud kitchen. Swept away by the bare minimum, Kusum Bhabi is later engaged in a relationship with the same man, with zero regrets.

Even if a person is in a toxic marriage, the narrative should show them removing themselves from that situation first and then moving on — not glorifying infidelity, something which producer Karan Johar tends to do best, which is wrong and a practice that should not be encouraged.

The first half of the film is definitely more enjoyable than the latter half, and Netflix might want to understand that just because a woman is empowered, it doesn't mean it's okay for her to be involved in activities that are wrong — for both men and women.

Shrirenu's ending monologue to win back Madhu was well written, as it showed where his patriarchal views came from and how he is more self-aware now and is willing to change — not for her, but in general, as a person.

This was a good start and a break from the usual men who go above and beyond for their love interests and then return to their original selves once they 'get the girl', because their only motive was to win her, not change.

Sometimes funny, other times preachy, Aap Jaisa Koi was a good one-time watch overall, but filmmakers still need to learn how to portray empowered women and progressive men without treating it like a checklist for social media approval.