Meri Pyaari Bindu, starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Parineeti Chopra and directed by Akshay Roy, is in theatres now. Here is our Meri Pyaari Bindu review.

Meri Pyaari Bnidu is like the proverbial cup of extra-milky tea with two spoons of sugar on a rainy Calcutta evening. Calcutta, not Kolkata. Because the Kolkata that writer Abhimanyu Roy (Ayushmann Khurrana) and aspiring singer Bindu Shankar Narayan (Parineeti Chopra) live, love and grow up in, is an emotion. Not politically-correct changed spellings.
Abhi is madly in love with his mad neighbour Bindu. Mad, unreciprocated love. Bindu is an aspiring singer who doesn’t play by the rules, instinctively warms up to and then ditches new projects, cities and boys and cannot give her childhood sweetheart, Abhimanyu, the one thing he most craves: stability. But obviously. How else will you reach a happy ending unless you first show the trials and travails you need to go through to reach there? But the bigger question in Meri Pyaari Bindu is whether or not you reach that happy ending at all. Director Akshay Roy’s story is a slice of life. And life doesn’t have happy endings. But who can tell what the next chapter holds.

Abhimanyu is a published author of many pulpy, horror-sex-ey books. “Horror sells,” Abhi tells a family with whom his parents are trying to fix a match. A particularly hilarious sequence involving the girl’s father reading out steamy portions from one of his books is one of the high points of this beautifully-written film. We are introduced to Abhimanyu when he is struggling with his ‘love story’, a project he needs to get out of the way before another visit from his publisher happens. He hasn’t written a book for three years. He is struggling with a severe case of writer’s block. He types, and discards his words, the crumpled balls of paper lying all around his sea-facing Mumbai flat. You know the drill.

In the next scene, we are thrown off guard when Abhimanyu’s mom (Bengali actor Aparajita Auddy in a superbly convincing role) and his dad (Bengali actor Rajatava Dutta in an equally brilliant role) call him to announce they are divorcing each other. Roy is hijacked to Kolkata. He lands in the city to crowds of relatives cheering him with ‘Welcome Home Bubla’. His daak-naam, as is all Bengalis’, is a constant source of embarrassment. He realises, as do we, that his parents have played an emotional blackmailing game just to see him.
In the middle of a Bengali madhouse, like any Bengali household is, Abhi stumbles upon a mix-tape.
We are taken on a trip down his life. He tells us the story of his first crush, Bindu, her father (the ever-dependable Prakash Belawadi in a memorable role) and mother. It is not a happy story. There are happy moments.
Director Akshay Roy gives us a story all too relatable. To borrow Abhimanyu’s words, “Happy endings bikte hai yaar.”
The story of Meri Pyaari Bindu shines for most parts. The first half is good. In the next scene, we are thrown off guard when Abhimanyu’s mom (Bengali actor Aparajita Auddy in a superbly convincing role) and his dad (Bengali actor Rajatava Dutta in an equally brilliant role) call him to announce they are divorcing each other. Roy is hijacked to Kolkata. He lands in the city to crowds of relatives cheering him with ‘Welcome Home Bubla’. His daak-naam, as is all Bengalis’, is a constant source of embarrassment. He realises, as do we, that his parents have played an emotional blackmailing game just to see him.
In the middle of a Bengali madhouse, like any Bengali household is, Abhi stumbles upon a mix-tape.We are taken on a trip down his life. He tells us the story of his first crush, Bindu, her father (the ever-dependable Prakash Belawadi in a memorable role) and mother. It is not a happy story. There are happy moments.
Director Akshay Roy gives us a story all too relatable. To borrow Abhimanyu’s words, “Happy endings bikte hai yaar.”
The story of Meri Pyaari Bindu shines for most parts. The first half is brilliantly done. It throws you into the story right from the word ‘Go’, and doesn’t let you stop feeling for Abhimanyu for even a moment. We see Bindu through his words. We fall for Bindu through his words. The credit behind Meri Pyaari Bindu is as much its actors’ as it is the director’s. Both the teams come together to create a charming film.’
So in the second half when Meri Pyaari Bindu falters for a bit, you want to forgive the director for the lapses. There are times when the pace of the film drops. But the next scene makes up for it. Much like the bumps in Abhi and Bindu’s story.
Meri Pyaari Bindu scores big on the technical front, as does it in the writing. The flavour of Calcutta is captured well. Abhimanyu’s family is a chapter out of any Bengali family. These people are real. Full marks to the casting director for choosing actors who could blend into the scene without a crinkle.
Akshay Roy’s hero Ayushmann shoulders Abhimanyu with an ease that even a Bengali-speaking actor might not have been able to. Parineeti is vivacious as ever. She shines in her role as Bindu. These two young actors are the fulcrum of a well-oiled machine that doesn’t leave you unsatisfied. Or ill-satisfied. Sachin-Jigar’s music adds to the overall charm of Meri Pyaari Bindu.
Watch the film for everything. And come out of the theatre with a big, foolish smile. The kind that appears on your face after a bite into a keema samosa on a rainy Calcutta day, after a sip of your hot-sweet tea.

  Ayushmann Khurana, Meri Pyaari Bindu, Parineeti Chopra