Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar Review: A Meandering Rom-Com

Three friends return to their old school for a reunion, each carrying the baggage of who they were and the anxiety of who they have become. What follows is a series of romantic entanglements, reconnections, and misunderstandings that unfold across the reunion weekend and its aftermath. One friend rekindles a flame with a former classmate who is now unrecognisably different; another stumbles into an unexpected connection with someone they barely noticed in school; the third finds themselves caught between the comfortable familiarity of an old crush and the unsettling honesty of a new one. The film positions itself as a study of love's second chances, but its narrative structure is less a carefully constructed story and more a collection of scenes that happen to occur in sequence. Chemistry is declared rather than demonstrated. Conflict arises from people simply not talking to each other, a trope so worn here that it becomes the film's primary engine. The reunion setting, which should be a pressure cooker of nostalgia and regret, ends up feeling like a backdrop that nobody quite knows how to use.

Saini, who also directs with a visible affection for the genre, has assembled a cast that deserved a sharper script. Alisha Chopra brings a warm, grounded presence to her role and manages to find moments of genuine feeling in scenes that are otherwise underwritten. Sparsh Walia is charming in the way that leading men in this genre often are, but the film asks him to do little beyond look conflicted. Sakshi Vaidya and Kunal Vaid have a subplot that is - and this is not a compliment - the most interesting thing in the movie by virtue of simply having a clear beginning, middle, and end. Sargun Kaur Luthra and Tushar Chhibber round out the ensemble with capable turns that are, again, tethered to material that doesn't quite know what to do with them.

The film's most significant problem is its pacing. At two and a half hours, it indulges every subplot, every side conversation, every lingering shot of meaningful glances across a room. Editorially, it is loose to the point of shapelessness. There is a good ninety-minute film buried somewhere in here, and one can feel it straining to get out. The dialogue, which aims for the witty banter of classic romantic comedies, too often lands with a thud - jokes are set up and then simply deflate, and emotional beats arrive without the necessary buildup to earn them.

Technically, the film is competent without being distinctive. The music is pleasant but forgettable, the cinematography functional, the production design appropriately nostalgic. It looks like a film that was made with care but without a strong guiding vision. What it lacks most is specificity - the details that make a story feel true rather than assembled. School reunions are inherently funny and sad and awkward and hopeful. This film knows that intellectually but never manages to translate it into anything that resonates.

Pros

• A genuinely appealing cast who elevate thin material with committed performances
• The reunion premise offers moments of relatable nostalgia and gentle humour
• Alisha Chopra and Sparsh Walia share a screen presence that hints at what might have been
• The film's heart is in the right place, and its affection for the genre is palpable

Cons

• Excessive runtime of 150 minutes with pacing that sags badly in the second half
• Underwritten characters whose motivations are declared rather than dramatized
• Dialogue that aims for wit but too often settles for cliché
• Conflict driven almost entirely by implausible miscommunication
• A promising premise that never develops into a cohesive story

"Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar" is the cinematic equivalent of reconnecting with an old crush and discovering that the spark you remembered was mostly in your head. There are moments of sweetness, a cast doing their level best, and a premise that should work. But the film never finds the discipline to shape its good intentions into a satisfying whole. For a movie about second chances, it could have used one of its own.