How ironical that Yash Raj Films will produce a film which challenges the very idea of love, marriage and commitment that they have been championing for decades over chiffon and champagne. Delving into the changing mindset of the Indian youth and their confusion about relationships, Shuddh Desi Romance is a rom com unlike any other. It makes you fall in love, it makes you laugh, but it also makes you think. About the happily-ever-after bit.

Set in Rajasthan, the film moves between marriages, thus bringing back happy memories of director Maneesh Sharma’s first film Band Baaja Baaraat. Sometimes those marriages involve the principal characters, sometimes they don’t. But they always bring about a dramatic turnaround in the plot.

It starts with Raghu’s (Sushant Singh Rajput) first attempt at marriage. He had said “yes” after meeting the girl (Tara, played by Vaani Kapoor) but the “arrangement” is undone in his mind when he meets the spunky Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra) on the bus en route to the shaadi. She is spearheading the fake baraati put together by wedding planner Goel (Rishi Kapoor) to bolster the standing of the groom.

What her presence manages to do is make him run away from the wedding and fall in love with her. Raghu and Gayatri start living together, but they have too many questions about each other’s past and future, which will raise their ugly heads when they decide to marry. Tara will come back for her share of questions and the three of them would find themselves in an unusual love triangle featuring toilets and cold drinks.

With characters flawed and rooted, and situations funny and real, writer Jaideep Sahni takes us through a maze of dilemmas that come with a relationship today. It’s not so much about the perils of living together a la Saathiya, but more about the underlying uneasiness over long-term commitment. “I do”, but will I?

Sahni chooses three archetypes to zoom into the psyche of the youth. So, while Raghu is initially okay with arranged marriage and is then confronted with love, Gayatri has been bruised in love many a time to convert a relationship into marriage, and Tara has to arrange some love for herself. When three such hearts collide, there will be burn. But there’s always the toilet and the cold drink!

While Maneesh brings his Band Baaja brand of pomp and grandeur to turn the script into one fun, sometimes wild, party, the three actors make the film soar. Raghu is complex, given the decisions he takes at every turn, but Sushant makes him believable. If he was the hero in Kai Po Che, here he is often the wimp. But the innocence and integrity he brings to the character wins you over.

In her third film, Parineeti continues to be good, even if slightly repetitive at times. But she too pitches her vulnerability very well. The new girl Vaani is not just pleasing to the eye but surprisingly effortless in her first acting job. Rishi Kapoor is yet again such a joy to watch.

The purity of Shuddh Desi Romance lies in the impurities that reside in a modern-day boy-girl relationship. Those that never find their way into a screen love story. Go watch it with your friends,or even your other half. If you choose the latter, just remember where the toilet is and keep a cold drink handy.