‘Parvarik ManuRanjan’ movie review: Pankaj Tripathi brings flavour to an undercooked family recipe

In times when actors are obsessed with playing characters against type, Parivarik ManuRanjan reminds us how comforting it is when performers lean into their natural essence. Pankaj Tripathi effortlessly embodies a gentle, unassuming everyman, while Aditi Rao Hydari brings an innate serenity and grace.

Together, they guarantee a film filled with Lucknow’s muted charm. Ranjan (Tripathi) is single at 40. Having spent his youth getting his three sisters married, he now lives alone in a crumbling mansion his father left him.

He works in the electricity department, yet his own life has little light. His nosy colleague, Rajaram (Brijendra Kala is also the co-writer), is keen on finding him a match, though nothing sparks. Exhausted by the search, they place a newspaper advertisement for a housekeeper.

The bulb finally blinks to life when Helen (Aditi) walks into his world to answer the ad. Her very name stirs their conservative neighbourhood, raising hopes that director Varun V. Sharma is aiming for social subversion in the guise of an unlikely bond.

Soon we learn that Helen’s real name is Manu, and her mysterious past brings the police to Ranjan’s doorstep, sending shock waves through his family and the locality. Is Manu an imposter out to rob him? Can a female live-in housekeeper share a roof with a single man without igniting a scandal?

Or is she a plot device, a female Bawarchi, designed to test the middle-class stereotypes we grew up with? By pairing a soft-spoken man with a woman escaping hardship, the film questions the idea that a man must be domineering to deserve love.

Ranjan’s heroism lies in his patience, respect, and the emotional safety he provides to Manu. Manu entering the household as a live-in caretaker shows how domestic work often goes unseen and unheard until someone shakes the status quo.

The film hints at the blurred line between employing someone for care and genuinely valuing her as an equal partner. However, unlike Manu’s delicacies, some ideas stay undercooked while others feel overexposed. The narrative gradually stagnates, feeling like a 1970s script that the pioneers of middle-of-the-road cinema left behind at a turning point.

Manu’s backstory, key to the film’s landing, fails to hold interest because it relies on mundane, predictable melodrama that deflates the intrigue built in the first half. Tailor-made for Tripathi, the role gives him room to shine, and he effortlessly strikes a familiar jugalbandi with Kala, until the makers decide to get into lecture mode and turn him into an archetype.

Aditi looks appealing as always, yet she never quite convinces as a mysterious woman who appears soft on the outside while carrying a feisty soul within. The writing fails to flesh out her character, leaving Aditi to overplay the goody-two-shoes persona.

Watch it if you seek a streak of sunshine in the otherwise dark OTT universe. Parvarik ManuRanjan is currently streaming on SonyLIV.