Aap Jaisa Koi Review | A Promising Breezy Romance Undone by Hammy Messaging

The new Netflix film Aap Jaisa Koi is a story about a man in his early 40s trying to find a life partner. It is your conventional three-act structure romcom where the guy falls in love, and then a conflict arises, and eventually there is a resolution to that conflict. The good thing about this movie by Vivek Soni is the fact that the romance feels pretty breezy and fun. However, when the movie enters the conflict and then tries to resolve it, it starts to feel like a lecture against patriarchal mindsets, and the messaging is done in a way that the writers are oblivious to the existence of Zoya Akhtar.

So our main man, Shrirenu Tripathi, is a Sanskrit teacher, and he is a 42-year-old virgin who has almost given up on finding a life partner. His sister-in-law is a hopeful individual who constantly tries to find someone for him. And one fine day, through her, Shri gets to meet this Bengali woman named Madhu Bose, a French teacher. Madhu understands Shri’s insecurities, and things were going really great for them. But at one point, a secret about Madhu shatters Shri, and how they deal with that scenario is what we see in Aap Jaisa Koi.

The intent of the script written by Radhika Anand and Jehan Handa is very noble. They want to normalize a lot of the things the old-school society has forbidden women from doing. And like I said in the beginning, in the first half of the movie, when the romance is blooming between a 42-year-old and a 32-year-old, there is a charm and rawness to the cheesy bits. It is like Madhu is helping Shri to get rid of all his inhibitions about a relationship. The seed for the conflict is laid in the very first act of the movie, and we are pretty sure about how it will affect the relationship. But the switch in the tone of the film, while that twist is revealed, is jarring.

Dil Dhadakne Do was released back on June 5, 2025, and anybody who has seen that movie wouldn’t forget the scene featuring Farhan Akhtar and Rahul Bose where Farhan’s character questions the “allowing” man’s attitude. Later, in Kumbalangi Nights, we have seen Syam Pushkaran mocking the allowing attitude with that classic Shammi dialogue. Then, during the pandemic, we witnessed the pan-India OTT hit The Great Indian Kitchen. All these movies had elements that criticized the patriarchal mindset in a very subtle and efficient way. Maybe the fact that there are still men out there who think women need to be under men and inside a kitchen, Aap Jaisa Koi has no plans to place its ideology on a subtle level. When you see those scenes where both the hero and his elder brother are demanding an apology, you really feel like asking Are you targeting the single-screen audience through a Netflix original?

Vivek Soni wants the visuals of the movies to be very cinematic. The usage of colors is very evident in every scene, and the lighting is also pretty theatrical. Debojeet Ray is using those precise frames to make us feel the unrealness of the setting. There are these recurring uses of shadows in many scenes to show the emotional state of characters. The staging of scenes where characters are placed looking outwards the frame also gives the visual language of the movie that peculiarity. The music and the background score also elevate the film in those pleasant patches in the movie.

R Madhavan, as the insecure and old-school hero, convincingly portrays that role. Even in areas where the lack of nuances is making that character somewhat of a caricature, he is able to make that character real through the way he delivers those lines. Fatima Sana Shaikh as Madhu Bose performs the graceful and enabling nature of that character with the required charm. Ayesha Raza as Kusum gets a memorable character, and the way she underplays that character enhances the realness. Manish Chaudhary, as the elder brother of Shri, is given a character that is deliberately designed as the most ignorant old-school guy, and somewhere, that decision makes the whole film look silly.

The romance that happens in the first half of Aap Jaisa Koi has that vibrant energy to put a smile on your face. But what unfolds after that may have the support of great cinematography and fitting background score. But, the messaging is so on-your-face that it almost feels like the writing was doing a disservice to the efforts in general to make orthodox people think about what’s wrong with their problematic views.