Ti And Ti review: Tepid rom com about a man confused about two women

Director Mrinal Kulkarni’s Ti And Ti springs a couple of pleasant surprises. Let’s start with the less important one first. The promotions indicated that some portion of the film was shot in Europe. But after watching the entire film you realize that almost the entire story is based in Europe. Apart from London, the visuals of the countryside are pleasurable. This is rare for a Marathi film.

The bigger one relates to the traits of the characters played by Pushkar Jog (Anay) and Prarthana Behere (Sai). Generally, our movies stereotype women as romantic. But here it is Anay who is a complete believer in candyfloss romance and the movie clichés that come with it, like proposing in the rain while musicians play, stopping someone at the airport at the last moment and thus ending the story, etc.

Sai, on the other hand, is not into any sort of filmi flakiness. She is an architect who is more interested in monuments and museums around the world. 

As Anay is unable to find a match for himself in the romantic manner he would have preferred, he agrees to his parents’ suggestion to use the services of a matrimonial website and finds Sai to be a good choice. They get married and proceed for their honeymoon in London. But as soon as they land at London airport, Anay comes face-to-face with childhood crush Priyanka (Sonalee Kulkarni).

From here on, the progressiveness and modernism displayed earlier is overrun by the tried and tested saga of one man caught between two women. And of course, don't we all know he would be forgiven eventually? The irony of releasing such a film on International Women's Day!

Anay is confused whether he would be happier with Sai or Priyanka. His warped logic in trying to make this decision even after marriage is that he and Sai haven’t consummated their relationship yet.

Actually, there is no logic to Anay’s confusion. His ‘love’ for Priyanka was more of a childish infatuation and he wasn’t even close to her ever. He had last set eyes on her when she had left the city of their childhood with her father soon after Anay 'fell' for her, which was when they were in the fourth standard! So it is hard to believe, let alone understand, his 'feelings' for her when he sees her for the first time after, what, almost two decades. You also wonder why, if he were really such a romantic guy, he never fell for anyone else in all these years. 

The situation of a man juggling two women at the same time has become quite old and tattered now. It might be argued that this hasn’t been seen often in Marathi cinema. But the point is that audiences in Maharashtra have been exposed to this Govinda brand of cinema since Anay was in his diapers.

Pushkar Jog does have the energy needed to play a character caught in the chaos between two women. However, he overdoes it at times. Moreover, the likes of Govinda and Anil Kapoor — in Gharwali Baharwali (1998) — have aced such roles before, and Jog's effort pales in comparison. 

Sonalee Kulkarni is perfect as a woman with spunk. Prarthana Behere plays her part well, but she is getting repetitive in such films. Siddharth Chandekar is earnest but there is not much purpose to his character.

Like every film with such a storyline, there are moments when the 'hero' of the film tries to hide the other woman in his life, only to get exposed. Such moments are expected to create humour out of the tension. Unfortunately, this hardly happens in Ti And Ti. Any comedic effect generated is quite mild.

It is the airport scene in the end that brings some dose of laughter.