Writer, Director: Girish Jotwani
Cast: Mayur More, Diksha Juneja, Shishir Sharma, Sonali Sachdev, Kushagre Dua, Himani Sharma, Harsh Joshi,
Producer: Backstory Pictures
Streaming Platform: MX Player
Girlfriend Chor, about two disgruntled youth (Aakash and Ritu) enviously watching their respective lovers (Neha and Vishal) be in love, is a breeze. For one, it only spans 5 episodes, 20 minutes each. It is also mostly dialogue based, not mounted on grand emotions, quiet close-ups, and neither does it attempt to be grand or emotive.
Aakash (Mayur More, the Kota Factory find) and his parents decide to collude with Ritu (Diksha Juneja, the Delhi girl in Mumbai) to break up Neha and Vishal. For one, Neha and Vishal were on the rebound when they found each other. So it is assumed that this is a frivolous affair destined to fizzle. Moreover, Vishal, described by the show-notes as "charming" , comes across as an incorrigible and obvious flirt, almost bringing to life the Delhi boy stereotype.
Vishal's parents (Shishir Sharma and Sonali Sachdev, the charming older couple) are the stable entity against which these flummoxed dispensable love affairs of the youth unfold through dog filters and boomerangs on Instagram. For a second their stability is cast into aspersion but this show does not have the emotional capacity to build this into something more real, so it is left out.
The idea that love needs to be fought for has been taken too far too often. But here, the candyfloss dialogue and staging make the macabre circumstances fade. There is a startling moment when all 4 are watching television at night. Ritu tries to hold Aakash's hand. Is it to make Vishal jealous? Is it because she is developing a serious sentiment for Aakash? A bit of both? For such a nebulous character it is rich that in the very next scene she boldly states to Vishal "Say what you mean, otherwise don't say it at all." But to be able to say what one feels, one needs to know what one feels. Here, both love and lovers feel fungible.
Swirling through stolen cigarette swigs and cheap rum, this tale of young people, like most tales of young people, is forgettable in that it doesn't bring any fresh perspective on the disposable nature of love we have tripped upon. But the collective run time of this show is less than most Hindi films. It doesn't demand much space in your day. Even after you're done with it, it won't demand much space in your mind. That's both its beauty and its bane.