Odyssey Corporation Ltd., 52 Weeks Entertainment Limited and Harvey India Productions’ Luv U Soniyo is a love story made without conviction. Mark Braganza (Tanuj Virwani) and Soniyo Gill (Neha Hinge) are good friends whose paths have crossed ever since both were toddlers who participated in advertisement shorts. When the two grow up, Mark falls in love with Soniyo but her father has finalised her marriage with armyman Vikram (Bunty Grewal). Mark expresses his love to Soniyo but she turns down his marriage proposal as she wants no complications in her life and would rather marry the groom selected by her father.
However, Soniyo starts enjoying the company of Mark and realises that he is the guy she would like to spend the rest of her life with. But will Soniyo’s parents agree? What is the reaction of Vikram when he becomes aware of the love affair or does he not learn of the romance brewing between Mark and Soniyo? Ultimately, who marries whom?
Shreya Tawde’s story is as old as the hills and there is not even a hint of freshness in it. Her screenplay is so weak that it is simply not able to involve or even interest the viewers. Nothing makes an impression on the audience as the drama unfolds in a predictable and unexciting manner. Although it is a youthful romance, there is nothing youthful about it. Light moments are actually embarrassing whereas the emotional ones fail to touch the heart. Even the romance just doesn’t gladden the audience’s hearts. As if the entire romantic drama is not bad enough, the twist in the climax is so childish that the viewers are left wondering whether the writer knows anything about an engaging screenplay. Dialogues, penned by Shreya Tawde, Clifford D’souza and Joy Fernandes, are dry and drab.
Tanuj Virwani and Neha Hinge make average debuts. Both are probably handicapped by the routine and dull script which offers them hardly any scope to show their talent. Bunty Grewal is at least earnest as Vikram. Howard Rosemeyer hardly entertains in his take-off on Aamir Khan; many among the audience won’t even realise that he is imitating the superstar. Joy Fernandes irritates with his constant crying, in the role of Mark’s father. Avtar Gill is also hardly funny as Soniyo’s father. Suresh Menon tries to evoke laughter as Kuttikaran and succeeds at times because of his dialogues. Puneet Issar is okay. Farida Dadi is endearing. Himani Shivpuri, Viveck Vaswani, Amaan Khan (as Veer), Shobhit Khanduri (as Headlight), Apurv Ratan (as Bablu), Sudeepta (as Meenu), master Aditya Shivkumar (as Mark’s brother, Mario) and Alpa Gajjar (as Soniyo’s friend) provide ordinary support. Shaan’s voice has been used as the narrator.
Joe Rajan’s debut as director is too dull to be true. He seems clueless about what constitutes an entertaining film. Vipin Patwa and Sunil Bhatia’s music is commonplace. The title song, composed by Remo Fernandes, is okay. Lyrics (Sanjay Mishra, Dr. Sagar, Sunil Bhatia, Prashant Ingole and Abhijit Deshpande; Konkani lyrics in title track by Sai Palondkar) also don’t add much to the music. Howard Rosemeyer’s choreography (Praveen Suryavanshi, for one song) is, at best, functional. Kalpesh Bhandarkar’s cinematography is dull. Sets (Sunil Varadkar and Manasi Shailendra Kolhe) pass muster. Devendra Murdeshwar’s editing is okay.
On the whole, Luv U Soniyo is a half-hearted attempt which fails to strike a chord in people’s hearts. At the box-office, it will go completely unnoticed and its poor start will only add to its terrible tale of woes.
Released on 26-7-’13 at Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures. Publicity: so-so. Opening: very poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was very weak everywhere.