PhotoAnshai Lal’s “Phillauri” is a Bollywood movie toggling between a contemporary screwball rom-com and a sweeping historical love story. In a sprawling home in Punjab, the families of Kanan (Suraj Sharma), a 26-year-old aspiring rapper, and his longtime girlfriend, Anu (Mehreen Pirzada), prepare for their wedding. Just when you think “Phillauri” is becoming a “Ghost Town”- or “Topper”-type romp, it switches gears, as Shashi imparts her own past. When she meets another poet, Phillauri (Diljit Dosanjh), a dashing ne’er-do-well, they fall into a love forbidden by Shashi’s pious brother. It’s painful to witness the script’s transformation of Shashi at that point from a hardheaded freethinker into a lovelorn obsessive.

Source: New York Times March 26, 2017 20:37 UTC