Masand: 'Luv Ka The End' is sleazy, homophobic

Cast: Shraddha Kapoor, Taaha Shah, Shenaz Treasuryvala

Director: Bumpy

There’s a reason why so many kids enjoy watching those American teen comedies. It has a certain aspiration value, or a ‘fantasy value’ if you like. Who wouldn’t want their lives to be straight out of an American Pie movie?

'Luv Ka The End', produced under the new youth movies banner of Yash Raj Films, is modeled closely after those popular American teen flicks, but it doesn’t have the inherent coolness that makes it as much fun. Aside from a few cosmetic changes, 'Luv Ka The End' is a fairly faithful rip-off of 'John Tucker Must Die'. In that film, three young girls hatch an elaborate plan to get even with the high-school jock who’s been secretly dating all three of them. In this desi version, Shraddha Kapoor plays the upset teenager who gathers her two best friends with whom she plots to bring down her boyfriend when she discovers that he’s planned to deflower her so he can raise his profile on an online website for spoilt little rich kids.

Sleazy, homophobic and intrinsically amateurish in its humor, this film fails because it’s trying too hard to be cool, while hitting all the wrong notes along the way. The characters - as they tend to be in films like these - are all genre stereotypes. You have the stud, the princess, the nerd, the himbo, the girl-next-door, the fat best friend, even the embarrassing parent. Problem is the makers of this film don’t even develop these characters on the most basic level; most of them are just introduced and then forgotten for the rest of the film.

Like its very protagonists, this is a vapid, vacuous film that seems intended for similarly shallow youngsters who’re still amused by such tired comic devices as itching powder and laxatives. Directed by debutant Bumpy, whose name serves the added purpose of describing his storytelling style, 'Luv Ka The End' has only a handful of nice moments, and just one single character worth remembering - the heroine’s feisty, overweight best friend who feels like the only real thing in this ridiculously over-cooked film.

I’m going with two out of five for 'Luv Ka The End'. Give me one of those American teen comedies any day!

Rating: 2 / 5

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