Aap Jaisa Koi movie review: R Madhavan-Fatima Sana Shaikh struggle to lift confused film on patriarchy, middle-aged love

Aap Jaisa Koi movie review: R Madhavan and Fatima Sana Shaikh's film begins on an earnest note, but soon loses the plot completely.

Aap Jaisa Koi movie review

Cast: R Madhavan, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Ayesha Raza, Manish Chaudhari, Namit Das

Director: Vivek Soni

Rating: ★★.5

Aap Jaisa Koi movie review: The Netflix film stars R Madhavan and Fatima Sana Shaikh in the lead roles.

Young romance feels old on screen now. Give us more stories of people finding love in their 40s and 50s. That’s one front where the Netflix offering Aap Jaisa Koi scores a point. Sadly, that’s the only front where it really scores any points.

Middle-aged, awkward, and still a virgin, Shrirenu (R Madhavan) is a Sanskrit professor who gets on a sex chatting app at the insistence of his friend (played by Namit Das). Soon after, a too-good-to-be-true rishta comes his way from Madhu (Fatima Sana Shaikh), a French professor. They bond, fall in love, and are about to get engaged when something changes how he looks at her. What happens next forms the rest of the story.

The film begins on a breezy, beautiful note. Madhavan as the awkward, sweet professor slips into his role effortlessly, and his meet-cute with Madhu hits you right in the feels. But it soon degenerates into a mess because the makers, director Vivek Soni and writers Radhika Anand and Jehan Handa, seem easily distracted. What starts as a sweet film suddenly becomes preachy and screechy. And the conflict? The sex chatting app. It plays out so amateurishly, it isn’t convincing for a second. Sure, the makers likely intended it this way: Madhavan’s character is a manchild, uncomfortable with his to-be wife’s sexual freedom. But the film relies on convenient setups and feels rushed.

However, it’s the way it all translates on screen that feels incomplete. Sub-tracks, like a character suddenly finding love elsewhere, feel surprising in a not-so-good way and end up as weak links.

Madhavan does a decent job but is severely limited by the script. There are moments that connect, but that’s only because of him, not the film. Like the one where he talks about how having someone special feels so nice. Fatima, too, holds her own. Her look seems inspired by Rani from Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, with the flowing hair and sleeveless blouse sarees (Dharma Productions is involved with both the films) Fatima and Madhavan share good chemistry when things are sweet, but in confrontations and the climax, the writing is too weak to leave a strong impact.

The music by Rohit Kohli and Justin Prabhakaran is hit and miss, but it fits the mood well.

In the end, Aap Jaisa Koi is a film with an earnest heart but muddled execution. It tries to say something bold about love, freedom, and middle-aged romance... and then gets lost in its own contradictions. You’ll find a few warm moments here, but they are buried under clumsy storytelling. Watch it only for the rare charm of seeing two grown-ups finding love, even if the film itself doesn’t quite know how to handle it.