‘I Love You’ On JioCinema Movie Review: Pavail Gulati Shines Bright In Rakul Preet Singh’s Terribly Outdated And Predictable Hostage Drama

‘I Love You’: Cast & Crew

Director: Nikhil Mahajan

Cast: Rakul Preet Singh, Akshay Oberoi, Pavail Gulati, Kiran Kumar

Available On: JioCinema

Duration: 1 Hour 33 Minutes

‘I Love You’: Story

Sathya (Rakul Preet Singh) is a highly successful corporate executive who looks forward to a bright future with her fiancé, Vishal (Akshay Oberoi). One night, when she is about to board a flight to Delhi with her office best friend Rakesh (Pavail Gulati), Satya finds herself trapped within the office. What danger awaits her? Is someone planning this all along? Is this some prank of Vishal? Is Rakesh’s friendship fake? Or is Satya going to find out some hidden secrets about Vishal and her relationship with him? Will Satya and Rakesh finally be able to catch the flight to Delhi? Will Vishal ever be able to get hitched to Satya? Well, for all that, you’ll have to watch ‘I Love You’.

‘I Love You’: Performances

Pavail Gulati is the only watchable thing in ‘I Love You’. He starts off slow, but the way he picks up the pace and flips the character completely upside down – that’ll simply leave you awestruck. The craziness, anger, belligerence, weirdness and madness that he brings to the performance are superb. You will be left shocked seeing that someone with a puppy face like Pavail Gulati can also pull off something as raw and out-of-the-box as this. Because the storyline, the direction and the other performances are terrible, the film won’t work, otherwise, Pavail Gulati’s performance would have been comparable to that of Ranveer Singh in ‘Padmaavat’ or that of Shah Rukh Khan in ‘Darr’. Hopefully, we will get to see more of this intensity in Pavail Gulati’s other performances in future films.

It seems Rakul Preet Singh picked up this project only because she was going to finally play the lead in a project. Probably she signed onto this before she got ‘Chhatriwali’. Whatever the case, ‘I Love You’ has her in the weirdest of characters where she isn’t able to even establish the character’s potential to its core. There doesn’t seem to be any thought process behind why the character is performing this way. The fear that a hostage situation would get on the face of a person is feeling so mismatched and rather forced that you’re left disappointed. The performance is so forgettable that you’re left questioning why did she even sign on to this film altogether.

Akshay Oberoi barely has scenes or even dialogue in the entire film. Despite having used him in the film’s posters and trailer aggressively in order to get his fan base, his character in the film is basically an extended cameo. Honestly, Oberoi isn’t able to even start to show his acting prowess in the limited screen time he has.

Kiran Kumar has two scenes in the entire film. Having such a stalwart in the film and not tapping into the immense talent feels like an absolute waste. At least there should have been a worthy enough backstory to justify such a talented actor’s presence in the film.

‘I Love You’: Script, Direction & Technical Aspects

Nikhil Mahajan’s writing and direction both are quite amateurish. It’s a trapped hostage drama for Christ’s sake, and it needs to have that thrill angle at every nook and corner of the screenplay, which sadly isn’t there in its entirety. The twists and turns are as predictable as they can get. The characters are made to feel like they’re top bosses of a corporate firm, but none of them behaves in any way like employees (or bosses) in corporate firms. Rakul is unnecessarily made to dress as if she’s a high-end model for a fashion brand. And who proposes marriage in front of the entire office? To add to that there is an entire Olympic size swimming pool in the office premises. Which business park has such facilities for people coming to work? All of this is too unrealistic and takes you away from the core storyline.

Cameron Bryson’s cinematography is too jarring to the eyes, to say the least. The excessive usage of pink neon lights throughout the film neither brings the necessary feel of a sinister at work nor of Diwali, which is when the film is set. It’s trying to be too posh and outlandish, however, it ends up looking more like a dance bar.

Abhijit Deshpande could have edited out so much from the film that it could have remained just a short film of about 25-30 minutes. It’s not his fault actually, as he has managed to keep things tight from his end. However, the screenplay itself is so unpolished and has such bizarre elements that you’re left questioning why is this happening.

‘I Love You’: Can Kids Watch It?

Yes

Outlook’s Verdict

‘I Love You’ had the potential to be a ‘Trapped 2’ or at least a great hostage thriller, but sadly, the terrible writing and direction squander it all. Pavail Gulati’s remarkable performance tries to salvage the film a bit, but all in vain. The film is devoid of the basic thrills and chills needed for such a trapped hostage drama. This is Totally Avoidable. I am going with 1 star, and that too just for Pavail’s superb performance.