POV: How Luv Ranjan rom-coms makes me laugh, rage, and reflect all at once!

Luv Ranjan’s films aren’t my favourite but they’re not ones I can bring myself to hate either. As a woman, his stories leave me tangled in knots as I want to enjoy them, but I just can’t!

It was 2011 when three Delhi boys, rather, three carefree bachelors had their lives flipped upside down the moment women entered their world. From running around in vests and sharing bottles of booze, they suddenly became “dogs dancing to the tune of women.” And hence a new war cry was born, one that had been quietly brewing in WhatsApp jokes and dad memes about marriage, where husbands were painted as victims of villainous wives. Young men across the country found their voice in Kartik Aaryan’s monologue, and Pyaar Ka Punchnamabecame a cultural moment.

As a young naive girl, I laughed and enjoyed it back then too. But as my naivety grew into nuance, I began to understand why people called the film misogynistic. You see that the problem isn’t that men don’t suffer in relationships or that all women are saintly “devi ke murti” but it is in how Luv Ranjan chose to tell his story. As a woman, I get those female characters who appear to be naive, bimbo-like, but are manipulative underneath - it’s a type we’ve all seen. But I also know that this“conniving woman apparently plotting and planning" is largely a projection of the male gaze. For years, men whether to feed their ego or avoid feeling threatened have often preferred women who are easy to impress, not the ones who might challenge or outsmart them. And many women have learned to play along, because it’s a game built by men in the first place. Still, I can understand where men are coming from too, especially those who’ve fallen for the wrong woman. Both sides simply deserve some empathy for simply choosing wrong, not loving wrong. But that’s exactly what’s missing in Ranjan’s films as they often feel more like a fight for men’s justice than an honest look at understanding between two people who just happen to be from different genders.

In both Punchnama films, it’s not that I don’t get how those women stayed with these men, manipulated them, and eventually left. I just wish the films allowed space for those women to be confused or flawed, instead of painting them as all-knowing schemers. That lack of complexity in their characters, which is only human nature, makes it hard to fully root for the “fight for men’s rights” the movies stage. This one-sided worldview reached its loudest form in Sonu Ke Tittu Ki Sweety, where the woman becomes almost witch-like, trying to tear apart male friendship. It echoed a familiar, dangerous idea that men are innocent children, and women are the manipulators who ruin their lives. It’s not just unfair; it’s lazy and at its worst, it’s validating. These films are so entertainingly convincing that their misogyny seeps in reinforcing old stereotypes in new packaging.

Also Read: 8 characters who’d have been so much happier if they just stayed single!

I’ve also seen glimpses of something deeper in Ranjan’s work. Most people don’t know he made Akaash Vani(2013), a film that compassionately explores a woman’s journey through emotional abuse and rediscovery. It’s one of my favorites of his because it uses romance and humor to highlight gender dynamics in a way that feels human, not hateful. That sensitivity, though faint, flickers again for me in Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar. As when Nisha (Shraddha Kapoor) wants to break off her relationship with Rohan (Ranbir Kapoor), it’s not out of cruelty or fickleness, but fear of losing her independence, herself, and becoming just like her mother disappearing into someone else’s family. That’s not villain-like; it’s vulnerability. Similarly,De De Pyaar De, despite of slipping into clichés, does not just explore the age gap between Ashish (Ajay Devgn) and Ayesha (Rakul Preet). It’s a love story caught in the struggle between two people at different stages of life, one who has already lived a full life, and another who’s only just beginning hers.

But as I stated earlier, the issue with Ranjan’s films isn’t what he wants to say, it’s how he says it, which leaves me conflicted every time! He touches on something revolutionary but he undercuts it with a regressive joke or a tone-deaf storyline. Take TJMM for example, where the solution to a woman’s need for space and freedom in marriage ends up in everyone convincing her that she can find it while living with the family too. The better, more balanced ending would’ve been the couple finding a compromise by living close to family instead of with them. Maybe this is Ranjan’s cinema, where hope often goes hand in hand with disappointment alongside some sexism. His revolution lies in the idea, not in the execution of it, making his films masquerade as “fun entertainment” while normalizing every regressive gender stereotype out there. 

My hopeless heart still hopes that De De Pyaar De 2, where a man faces his young girlfriend’s parents, might offer something new - maybe somewhere between empathy and entertainment. Because beneath all the provocation and problematic laughs, there was once a filmmaker who made Akaash Vani, a film that healed more than it hurt. Maybe it’s time he finds his way back to that voice - the one that understood both sides, not just one!

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