Sometimes all you need for a film to charm you, beguile you, tickle you pink are two characters having a great time together and two actors having a great time playing those two characters. Irrfan and Parvathy make Tanuja Chandra’s Qarib Qarib Singlle one of the most delightful films of the year, even if the last hour loses its way and steam a bit.

Working out of a story written by Kamna Chandra and a screenplay co-written with Gazal Dhaliwal, Tanuja takes a premise as done-to-death as two people connecting via an Internet dating site and cooks up a love storm that is hilarious and hearty. Because to that recipe she adds the inimitable pleasures of a road movie, plus the unexpected jolts from the ghosts of girlfriends past.

We start with Tara (Parvathy) who is in her mid-30s and is introduced at a friend’s wedding as “the college senior whose husband has died”. While she still misses her dead husband and talks to him — by looking at the camera and breaking the fourth wall in a manner that would make Woody Allen proud — she is not completely closed to dating. That’s where the site Ab Tak Singlle — “single ‘l’ double ho jaaye” — pops up.

And soon, also pops up Yogi (Irrfan). His profile says he’s a 40-year-old chemical engineer whose hobby is poetry but he turns out to be a jobless man driving around in Mercs with truckloads of money. Once he casually mentions that he gives ideas to food companies which become big and make him rich. Sounds dubious? This sense of mystery remains cast on Yogi right through the film, keeping Tara and the audience guessing.

While Yogi’s crazy antics and constant banter irritate Tara every moment he is with her, she is also clearly intrigued by him and secretly wants to spend more time with this poet whose self-published books have never sold a copy. So, when Yogi proposes a dating trip across north India, starting with Dehradun and ending with Gangtok, Tara decides to go along.

And the madness begins where Yogi would invariably miss their flights and trains for some inexplicable reason, like key rings and pakodas. They would also visit his ex-girlfriends — three of them — where she would be introduced as his cousin. After clocking many a mile, including stops in Rishikesh, Delhi, Alwar and Jaipur, Tara agrees to drink water from Yogi’s bottle. That’s where the film ends and here we are revealing that last shot because Qarib Qarib Singlle is not about the destination, but their journey.

What makes this journey work is that both Yogi and Tara are real people, not stars cut out from some fake galaxy. Their issues are also relatable. Just that the situations they find themselves in are funny, which brings them closer while making you smile. It’s only in the second half when they go on their lonely trip that the film stutters briefly, before again flying to a satisfying finale.

This play of opposites — loud and chatty man and a quiet and questioning woman — would remind you of the Irrfan-Konkona story in Life in a... Metro and it is the genius of this man that despite Monty and Yogi being cut from the same cloth, they are absolutely different characters in terms of body language, speech and even the stare. Oh that stare! Irrfan should do more of these romantic films because if there’s one man you can fall in love with, regardless of your age and gender, it is him, him and him.

Parvathy is refreshing as the female lead. A veteran of many films in the south, she is unlike the dressed-up dolls that Bollywood showcases every Friday. She is a few pounds more, is often without make-up, wears glasses... basically someone we know or have met. She’s got terrific comic timing and when she smiles, that’s a sight for sore eyes.

Welcome back Tanuja Chandra! Qarib Qarib Singlle is a refreshing take on romance between a man and a woman who’ve been single for a tad too long. And when such people fall in love, that love is legendary... matlab jaan-leva... matlab ghanghor... matlab hadd paar.

Pratim D. Gupta

The best thing about Qarib Qarib Singlle is.... Tell t2@abp.in