The movie starts on a very awkward sequence where the guys in Kashmir stalk Laila (Tripti Dimri). Introduced as a girl who has a reputation of dude-magnet in the city, Laila is quirky & wants to live her life at the fullest. Enters Qais Bhatt (Avinash Tiwary), son of the rival of Laila’s father & a charmer.
He, too, stalks Laila and believes he has a story pre-written with her. This belief of his turns so strong so he manages to charm Laila in it. But, both of their fathers are enemies & fighting over a land-grabbing case. As we know this is Laila Majnu story retold, it carries forward with many heartbreaking moments & a brilliant music album.
Avinash Tiwary – WHAT A PERFORMANCE! It needed the equal amount of insanity to perform Majnu what it took Imtiaz to write that character. Tiwary lives up to each single stance of Imtiaz’s Majnu & he delivers an outstanding performance. He has so much emotions to express, it’s hard to believe this was his first feature film. He had certain shades of Ranbir Kapoor; it’s not easy to have them and still manage to act in your original way. He held back the film from turning out to be a caricature in the second half.
Tripti Dimri, too, has managed portray a Laila who is full of diverse emotions. Be it looking beautiful or laughing in the midst of delivering a very angry dialogue, she has nailed every department. There couldn’t have been a better Laila than her for the film. Parmeet Sethi is just about good though his character gets pretty monotonous after a point.
All said and done, Imtiaz Ali films have a certain loyal fanbase & Laila Majnu is for them. Other people can attempt too but do not expect it to be your usual dose of entertainment because this is different. Laila Majnu is a heartbreak in the visual form & you need your heart to be at right place to love this film. Remember, love with logic is not love!
Rating: 8/10