Ishq Vishq Rebound Review: Rohit Saraf’s film is an aesthetic Instagram reel with weak plot, poor performances

Simply put, the acting performances are inadequate. Saraf is the best one out of the others but still not good enough.

The term ‘spiritual sequel’ confuses me, more so in the context of director Nipun Dharmadhikari’s Ishq Vishq Rebound which is unlike the Shahid-Kapoor starrer Ishq Vishq (2003) both in terms of sequel and spirit. While the former was a sleeper hit for both Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao, the latter made me fall asleep pre-interval. The cast has just about the same charisma of Splitsvilla contestants—none of them radiate main character energy. The screen presence leaves much to be desired. So does the plot. And the performances.

Ishq Vishq Rebound Plot

Ishq Vishq Rebound is set in Dehradun at Spencer college but I swear I saw a couple locations which resembled Delhi’s Hauz Khas. I may be wrong, but forgive me because after twenty minutes or so, the film became a blur—much like that shot of middle finger which was censored by the CBFC.

Our protagonist is Raghav, who is supposed to be a writer but does everything but writing in the film. A cameo appearance by Kusha Kapila introduces him as a part of writers room where he is ideating on a movie script. He then goes into flashback where we meet his equally dull friends.

But all of this is the least of Raghav’s problems. The biggest one is that he breaks the fourth wall too many times. In the pre-interval scene the fourth wall break is painfully long, to the point it seems more like a monologue. Rohit Saraf, who has cemented his place as the internet heartthrob post Netflix’s romantic comedy Mismatched comes off as endearing initially. A goofy writer sandwiched between his two friends, Saraf is fun to watch but soon his quirks become overbearing.

Ishq Vishq Rebound Overview

Raghav is third wheeling with his friends Sanya (Pashmina Roshan) and Sahir (Jibraan Khan). The couple is clearly trauma-bonded since both have daddy issues—Sahir’s dad has sky-high expectations from him while Sanya’s father has disappeared from her life after separating with her mother. Raghav falls in love with Riya (Naila Grrewal). The two meet at a protest site where Riya (as correctly pointed out by Sanya) hands out pamphlets (printed on paper) asking folks to save trees.

Ishq Vishq Rebound: Writing And Performances

Simply put, the acting performances are inadequate. Saraf is the best one out of the others but still not good enough. I couldn’t help but zone out the minute Sanya and Raghav share a kiss and go on a trip to visit the haunted sites to talk to spirits. The tour guide also tells them about ‘Hindi Halloween’, or as he puts it, “Poornmashi ki party”. I physically cringed when I heard the phrase. At one point in this party, a man dressed as a dracula screams when his cape catches fire. I was hoping for a Game of Thrones-style sudden character death in the film so it would generate interest. Sadly, that doesn’t happen.

Ishq Vishq Rebound: What Works, What Doesn’t

At 1 hour 46 minutes, Ishq Vishq Rebound is the shortest film to come out in recent times but it is still too long. I swore it had been over two hours since I was in the theatre when I checked my phone but it turns out it had only been twenty minutes. What also doesn’t work for the film is that out of the four characters, two of them—Saraf and Roshan clearly get the limelight while the other two are somewhat sidelined.

The plot is wafer-thin. It doesn’t even feel like Saraf is cheating on his friend’s girlfriend because the bromance between the two is barely convincing. What happens to this love quadrangle? Do they end up being friends? Who ends up with who? I simply couldn’t care less.

Ishq Vishq Rebound is now playing in theatres.