Shimla Mirchi is Ramesh Sippy"s first outing as a director after ages. The film was reportedly stuck in limbo for around five years and is said to be aimed at an OTT release. The film borrows its basic idea from the legend of Cyrano de Bergerac. A letter meant for someone is passed off to another person, leading to complications.
Rukmini ( Hema Malini) has been separated from Tilak ( Kanwaljit Singh) but hasn"t learnt to let go and hence is hesitant to sign the divorce papers, much to the disgust of her daughter Naina ( Rakul Preet Singh) . Avinash ( Rajkummar Rao) is a young man who can"t make himself ever confess his love towards any girl. He comes to Shimla for a family vacation and falls in love with Naina, who is in the process of opening a cafe. To be near to her, he joins her cafe as an employee and slowly starts solving all her problems. To make her realise his feelings towards her he hits upon the idea of writing her a letter but signs it off as a secret admirer. Naina copies the content of the letter and passes it to her mother, thinking it might buoy her spirits. This leads to a different kind of complication, as Rukmini is flattered beyond belief that a much younger man is in love with her.
Ramesh Sippy made films in an era where the narrative took its own time unspooling. Though the length of the film is two hours and 15 minutes, this unhurried style of filmmaking makes it appear longer than the actual length. The basic conceit of the film - that of an elderly woman mistakenly falling in love with a younger man isn"t developed to the extent it should have been. There should have been more scenes between Hema Malini and Rajkummar Rao to spell it all out properly. Instead of exploring that and teasing out a situational comedy out if it, Sippy has made the one-sided romance between Rakul Preet and Rajkummar as the centrepiece, thereby distancing the narrative from a unique idea. There"s nothing in Rajkummar"s and Rakul Preet"s love story that we haven"t seen before. They make for an interesting pair alright but are following a tried and tested path.
Rakul Preet"s good to look at and essays her role with utmost sincerity. And Rajkummar channels his inner Shah Rukh Khan and makes sure you notice his shy, good-natured lover act. Hema Malini"s comic timing was once the industry benchmark and while the veteran still hasn"t lost her touch, she is stymied by a poorly defined role. Such high on melodrama movies of yore were redeemed by great music but that isn"t the case here.
Watch the film to catch a whiff of a bygone era where romance was all about a boy meeting a girl in picturesque locales. Shimla is no longer the visual paradise it used to be and sadly the formula too is past its sell-by date.