Virgin Bhanupriya

STORY: Bhanupriya (Urvashi Rautela) is a smart, highly qualified college girl whose biggest regret is that she is still a virgin. With a little push from her forward-thinking friend Rukul (Rumana Molla), Bhanu — as she is fondly called — musters the courage to initiate an intimate encounter. And that snowballs into a comedy of errors.

REVIEW: Bhanupriya has multiple accolades to her credit and has always been a star student. Even though her parents are separated and are constantly at loggerheads, Bhanu still has a family life filled with love. But she resents the fact that all her peers have begun fulfilling their sexual fantasies except her. She is in college and yet to kiss a boy!

With her friend Rukul scoring men at an alarmingly high rate, the self-imposed pressure on Bhanu to “give away her flower” is mounting. After multiple failed attempts at losing her virginity and a tarot card reader’s prediction that she would always remain a virgin, Bhanu finally finds a ‘heroic man’ —Shartiya aka Abhimanyu (Gautam Gulati). As his moniker states, he would go to any length to win a bet. Is Shartiya going to win her over and break the jinx? Only time will tell!

Written and directed by Ajay Lohan, the trope of this dramedy is all too familiar — a nerdy girl looking for ways to explore her sexuality. In comes a bad, way-out-of-league boy and bam! She falls head over heels in love with him. Having said that, ‘Virgin Bhanupriya’ brings to light the taboo around one’s sexual desires in our society and how parents avoid ‘the talk’ with their children, among other things. But the diegesis only manages to touch upon subtexts that deserve in-depth handling — the concept of a love child, teen pregnancy and single motherhood. Also, some of the parallel characters add little to the already lacklustre script. Case in point: Natasha Suri as Shonali.

Urvashi Rautela aces the girl-next-door avatar. Archana Puran Singh as her mouthy, open-minded mother is a delight to watch. Some of the other characters that leave a mark are Sumit Gulati as stutter ‘prem pujari’ Rajiv and Bhanu’s best friend-cum-sidekick Rukul. While Sumit Gulati renders the much needed comic relief at periodic intervals, Rumana Molla’s Rukul is brassy and has some of the best monologues and one-liners. Our favourite: Men are sh*t and sh*t is men. Gautam Gulati, as the rowdy college heartthrob, is a misfit. If anything, he looks like a desperate attempt to recapture Aamir Khan’s machismo from ‘Gulaam’. Also, the chemistry between the lead pair doesn’t appeal even by comedy standards — the love doesn’t blossom on screen and the sexual attraction feels forced upon its enforcers.

‘Virgin Bhanupriya’ has a noble intent and its heart is in the right place, but an inconsistent storyline, coupled with common tropes, make this virginity talk something I wouldn't be too keen on listening to this weekend.