Guddu Shukla (Kartik Aaryan) works as a news reporter cum anchor for a cable news channel in Mathura along with his friend Abbas (Aparshakti Khurana), who is his the cameraman. Rashmi Trivedi (Kriti Sanon) is the daughter of a political head honcho (Vinay Pathak), whose party indulges in moral policing and is staunchly against girls and boys indulging in love before marriage.

Guddu Shukla (Kartik Aaryan) is the star reporter at a cable news channel in Mathura. The channel seems to be literally functioning on one editor, one reporter and a single camera person - Guddu's best friend Abbas Sheikh (Aparshakti Khurana).

There is something about Pankaj Tripathi. His presence in a film/web series/advertisement/music video/on a juice stall poster makes you believe that whatever he is a part of will be wholesome and fulsome. You want to order that glass of mix juice because you believe it will be a more honest glass of mix juice. You hope that the political parties don't find out about this superpower of Pankaj Tripathi's because who knows how they will use it.

Vishnu Trivedi (Vinay Pathak) a powerful politician in Mathura is running a morality crusade against living -in relationships. What happens when the daughter of the powerful right wing crusader Rashmi (Kriti Sanon) desires to have a living - in relationship with her colleague Guddu (Kartik Aaryan) - the popular local cable TV news channel anchor/reporter?.

LUKA CHUPPI is the story of a couple living-in with their family. Superstar Nazim Khan (Abhinav Shukla) gets into a controversy when it comes to light that he is living-in with his girlfriend and is unapologetic about it. The moral police come out in full force to protest against his 'indecent' act. One such organisation is Rashtriya Sanskriti Manch and in Mathura, it is led by Vishnu Trivedi (Vinay Pathak).

Mathura's Vinod "Guddu" Shukla is a reporter of a news channel, and its name is as predictable as the basic plot of this film - Mathura Live. He comes from a very ordinary family, having an elder brother unmarried, a crazy uncle and a blackmailing nephew. Guddu meets Rashmi "She doesn't have a pet name" Trivedi (Kriti Sanon), who wants to be a journalist and gets the job in the same news channel. Rashmi's father (Vinay Pathak) is a politician who is against the live-in culture and blatantly oppose it publicly.

First things first- Kartik is playing the character of Guddu, a star reporter from a local TV channel. On the other hand, Kriti plays a Mathura girl Rashmi who had gone to Delhi to study journalism and now is back in her hometown to intern in the same local station. They obviously fall in love. In fact, Guddu wants to get married to her, but Rashmi wants to see what's the hype about the modern age set up of living in.

In the 2013 romantic comedy Shuddh Desi Romance, a young couple pretended to be siblings in order to disguise their cohabiting status. In Laxman Utekar's version 2019, live-in relationships are not just frowned upon, but discovery of such an arrangement can be humiliating and lead to violence.

There is nothing lazier in Hindi cinema these days than the social message comedy. Maybe the social message drama, but that's a crisis for another day. The problem lies in how most of today's filmmakers perceive the "comedy" part. Those of yore devised the sociopolitical satire, some used the behavioral comedy-of-errors trope, some the sanitized situational comedy and others as recent as Stree even blended horror into the genre. In short, there has to be a voice attached to the generic comedy - like a famous star attached to an average project, or a cable add-on pack piggybacking the primary package - in order to sell the social message.

One Word Review... Luka Chuppi: WINNER. A situational comedy with a message... Relatable premise, clean humour, foot tapping music, loads of entertainment... Superb climax... Kartik Aaryan top notch, Kriti Sanon damn good. Recommended!

Hindi cinema's misanthropic counterpoint to Ayushmann Khurrana's genial everyman finally steps out of the Pyaar Ka Punchnama universe created by Luv Ranjan. Kartik Aaryan headlined four of Ranjan's films and played variations of the same character in three of them: a smug North Indian male specimen who distrusts women and soppy sentiments and finds many reasons to justify his misgivings.

A small town in North India. Check. A whimsical joint family. Check. A ballsy girl and a boyish boy. Check. Actors who've found success in such movies. Check. A cool concept like live-in to crow about. Check. A social obstacle like sanskari moral police (think Anti-Romeo Squad) to sermonise. Check. Old Bollywood songs recycled anew. Check. It's like the makers (Director Laxman Utekar, Writer Rohan Shankar) took one look at Bollywood's current rom-com trends and hurriedly compiled a list of things they need to make a movie.

Laxman Utekar's Luka Chuppi explores the concept of live-in relationships in small-town Mathura and Gwalior, where they are heavily frowned upon. However, despite having top-notch performances and hilarious moments, the film leaves much to be desired as it only manages to scratch the surface.

Director Laxman Utekar's film frames its topic straight off the bat by showing us that 'living in' is still a practice that is much frowned upon in small-town India. Nadeem Khan, a star-cum-youth icon sets the cat among the pigeons when he inadvertently makes a comment that is perceived as promoting practices that go against the 'Bhartiya Sanskriti' and so on. Interestingly, live-in relationships have been featured previously in urbane flicks like Arth, Salaam Namaste and even one in a small-town- Shuddh Desi Romance but only intermittently.

A meet cute between Guddu (Kartik Aaryan) and Rashmi (Kriti Sanon) soon escalates into full-blown love. But in a daring attempt, the girl wants to try living-in with the boy before settling down for marriage. This even as their small town in North India is up in the arms against live-in relationships, thanks to protests led by none other than the girl's own father, who is a local right-wing party leader.

Somewhere deep inside Luka Chuppi is the film it wanted to be: a send-up of the tiresome rituals and hypocrisies which bind socially-sanctioned relationships, and an attack on religious bigotry. But the writing and the treatment is so slack that the intent rises to the surface only occasionally.

A contrived comedy about issues that are anything but funny - the pros and cons of live-in relationships, the role of oppressive conservatism in the lives of young people, and the scourge of moral policing and political expediency - Luka Chuppi, cinematographer-director Laxman Utekar's first Hindi film, plays hide-and-seek with logic and often loses its way. The outcome, without being a total washout, is an unpersuasive romp that falters frequently owing to the superficiality of the central premise and the facile nature of the treatment of a serious theme crying out for more informed satire than scattershot humour.