Coming from a background in writing low-brow comedy skits for television, director Raaj Shaandilyaa has this knack for creating funny characters rooted in mofussil towns that generate mirth by engaging in rollicking repartees. His broad humour emanates from deep observation and understanding of the cultural mores of a conservative society coming to terms with socio-economic liberalisation in the 1990s. However, Shaandilya’s skill to combine the comic sketches into a wholesome screenplay is still a work in progress, resulting in a disappointing outcome.

The year is 1997. The setting is Rishikesh. It’s a time just before mobile phones, when DVDs were still predominant. Writer-director Raaj Shaandilyaa’s film opens with a shoddily executed computer graphic of a train hurtling towards a forlorn man on the tracks. This is the eponymous Vicky, played by Rajkummar Rao. It’s much like Rao’s year which has been speeding along strongly, but will eventually have to come to a halt. Unfortunately, the Rao train has been derailed by this most unintelligible 152-minute-long romantic comedy that is built around a slim plot line.

1997 का ऋषिकेश शहर। विकी-विद्या शादी के बाद हनीमून के लिए गोआ गए जहां इन्होंने अपने अंतरंग पलों का एक वीडियो बनाया। घर लौट कर उस वीडियो की सीडी देखी, खुश हुए और सो गए। उसी रात एक चोर इनके घर से सीडी प्लेयर चुरा ले गया। उसी में थी वह सीडी जिसमें था इनका ‘वो वाला वीडियो’। अब अगर वह वीडियो दुनिया के सामने आ गया तो…? यहां से शुरू हुई तलाश। तो क्या इन्हें मिल पाया वह चोर…? वह सीडी प्लेयर…? वह वीडियो…?

Rajkummar Rao and Triptii Dimri’s latest release Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video is a social comedy that focuses on the length of the story more than logic. With a shorter, more crisp story the film would have managed to give the very serious and important message it wishes to. The film is a cautionary tale in the 1990s but the fear is very relevant and still prevalent given the growing use of AI, instead of finding a way to incorporate the fear throughout, the story focuses a bit too much on the comedy punch lines and hopes a long monologue will make up for the rest. But it doesn’t.

Set in the late 90’s, the pre-Instagram era, when ‘get ready with me’ reels were non-existent, privacy had a different meaning. Without having the platform to post their private life anywhere, couples voluntarily recording their intimate moments was still a rare phenomenon. So on paper, the film’s script sounds promising. What happens when this private video belonging to a middle-class couple from Rishikesh goes missing? What are the repercussions and can they retrieve it?

The promo promised entertainment around the missing CD of a video shot by a couple on its first night. Written and directed by Raaj Shaandilyaa, the promo stirred a strong pre-release buzz. The sense of fun does spill into the first few scenes as glib-talking mehndiwala Vicky (Rajkummar Rao) stages a scene at the engagement of his girlfriend Vidya (Triptii Dimri). It ends the way Vicky and Vidya had planned it with her lawyer-fiancé walking off in a huff and the man who applied mehndi at functions, stepping in to marry his girl.

Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video has the eagerness of a standup comic. It is the sort of movie that feels obliged to make a joke before a sentence, between a sentence and after a sentence. Problem is the humour is not just pedestrian, it’s also plain unfunny. It’s a joke, Manjot Singh in a cameo points out early on in Director Raaj Shaandilyaa’s first comedy outside the Dream Girl franchise, as though embarrassingly aware of how unamusing the whole shtick is.