Rumi (Taapsee Pannu), a rebellious hockey player from Amritsar is attracted to a commitment-phobic dreamer DJ Vicky (Vicky Kaushal). But when life offers her a chance meeting with dependable, marriage-material banker Robbie (Abhishek Bachchan) from London, she feels she can learn to love him eventually.

Anurag Kashyap, popularly known as a gritty filmmaker, has finally unleashed his lighter side with a seemingly light romantic film. As almost every Bollywood filmmaker fantasises of making that universally acceptable romantic drama, Kashyap's latest 'Manmarziyaan' feels committed to making us believe that he yielded to the same temptation.

When Anurag Kashyap hits the ball out of the park, he has the ability to get it across an ocean and over to another continent. When he is good he is so smashingly good, it becomes hard to remember the occasions when he is not. His last two films - Raman Raghav 2.0 and Mukkabaaz - were gripping to such a beautifully excruciating degree, that it hurts to acknowledge how tepid Manmarziyaan is (except when its killer humour rears its head).

Vicky (Vicky Kaushal) and Rumi (Taapsee Pannu) are deeply in fyaar, as in love+lust, with no strings attached. One fine day, under family pressure, Rumi decides she wants marriage; Vicky gets cold feet. She figures enough is enough and moves on; yet not quite. Sex keeps pulling them back together over several similar cycles of kabhi haan, kabhi naa.

Two girls are break dancing on a foot over-bridge overlooking a busy road in Amritsar. They dance past an anxious woman torn in between her lover and husband. It's difficult to understand whether she is mourning her decision to get married, or she is actually looking forward to happy times.

Rumi is defined by her rage. She can't sell a hockey stick without flaring up at a customer for not knowing the right brand. Anger is not a state of being, it is who she is. Even the name Rumi on her feels like a simple nickname, short for something prosaic, since a girl like this - accurately described as "atom bomb" by one of the characters - can't possible have anything to do with the tranquil 13th century Persian poet and mystic so frequently quoted on Instagram these days.

Bollywood is primarily known for love stories and many of the films belonging to this genre have been huge successes. A lot of these have been love triangles. But soon it emerged that it doesn't project the reality, especially the confusion that prevails in such situations. Anurag Kashyap, known for dark and hard-hitting cinema, decides to switch gears and make a light-hearted romantic story dealing with three characters.

Set in Punjab, the film revolves around Rumi (Taapsee), who is in a passionate relationship with Vicky Sandhu (Vicky Kaushal), a man-child who is the exact opposite of the mature and dignified Robbie Bhatia (Abhishek), the guy Rumi's parents want her to marry. When Vicky doesn't show up at Rumi's house to ask for her hand in marriage despite being told by Rumi to do so, she ends her relationship with him in a fit of anger and decides to tie the knot with Robbie.

This film starts off with a full-length song, or music video, if you may, with a pair of twins (a random motif that appears throughout), cracking it with their dance moves, setting the tone for what's supposed to be a musical, after all. The relentless drama that follows, by the minute, in the lives of the volatile lead couple (Vicky Kaushal, Taapsee Pannu) in unhinged love, will make you feel thoroughly relieved about your own staid existence though.

Manmarziyaan, as per its title, does as the heart pleases. Kanika Dhillon's script has a reckless individuality to it in which, unlike many of director Anurag Kashyap's previous undertakings, the world is a mere bystander. "What will people say?" is a mythical question. Lovers elope, but return because they don't know whom they're running from. This is the kind of rebel-without-a-cause, selfish and inelegant blueprint of tier-2 love that the country's elders might gleefully cite as a 'cautionary tale': see, this is why you kids need us to control your choices.

What's the meaning of love? Is it pure animal attraction, where you can't wait to take yours and your partner's clothes off and jump in the bed every time you get some privacy or does it exist at some deeper level where it's important for the hearts to beat as one as well and not just the bodies. Is it what you say to your beloved or what you do for him/her that's important.

Rumi (Taapsee Pannu) and Vicky (Vicky Kaushal) are in love and they can't stay out of the bedroom. When they're caught red handed by Rumi's family, pressure builds up to get married. But Vicky has cold feet and keeps avoiding Rumi's request to bring his parents over and ask her hand in marriage. Eventually, she gives up on him and agrees to an arranged marriage.

Anurag Kashyap's first full-on love story, Manmarziyaan is also the first film that the director has made from a screenplay not authored by him. He, however, loses no opportunity to inject an exaggeratedly campy style into the genre and juggle with its time-tested conventions to deliver a film that is fun for the most part. Well, almost.