After watching I Love NY, you’d realise why Kangana Ranaut didn’t want this movie to be released. Starring Sunny Deol and Ranaut, the film is partially set in a Chicago where apparently the subway has signage in Thai. The rest of the film takes place in what is supposed to be a New York City apartment. I Love NY — NY stands for 'New Year', by the way — is a love story, about a man who gets drunk and lands up in another city and an unknown woman's apartment. Deol is the drunkard and Ranaut is the woman who finds Deol passed out on her couch. In a word, I Love NY is ghastly. Even Kangana Ranaut couldn’t save this movie! If only this movie was shelved we could have been spared of the horror of having to see sunny Deol take off his jeans to reveal Power Ranger chaddis! Avoid at all costs.

There were reports that Kangana Ranaut didn’t want I Love NY (New Year) to be released, but now after watching the film, it seems her worries were mostly fictional. In fact, she is the one you’ll noticce the most in the film, and she doesn’t disappoint either. I Love NY is much better than its run-of-the-mill trailers, but how good is actually good enough? Let’s find out. The film starts with a commentary in Randhir Singh’s (Sunny Deol) voice which is basically an exercise to make the ‘desi’ audience familiar with the popular American outlook. It’s just that the film has been released after being canned for some years and thus the Indian viewers have become used to such cultural and behavioural differences via other Hindi films. Anyway, we get to know that our guy Randhir is a hard working, coffee drinking guy whose last marriage proposal was dated 10 years ago, and now he is gathering courage to pop-up the same question to his current girlfriend Riya (Tannishtha).  The really long gap between the two proposals is necessary otherwise how will the filmmakers justify a 57-year-old hero to the Indian audience? Of course, pun intended. He chooses the New Year Eve to get the long pending work done, but a series of mistakes and coincidences brings him to New York (you get the NY drift?), where he meets a school teacher Tikku Verma (Kangana Ranaut), described as the president of unlucky club by her boyfriend Ishaan (Navin Chowdhary). This ‘chance’ encounter is the actual beginning of a story which can at least boast of sensible dialogues. The writing is not flawless despite good dialogues and the turn of events sometimes looks forced, but good one-to-one scene compensates for it. And then some really good songs come to the rescue. It is hard to imagine Sunny Deol in such a role but casting him wasn’t a bad idea at all, and the actor has reciprocated in his own capacity. He is not afraid to show his flabby belly and that’s a big thing to achieve as mainstream filmmakers for Radhika-Vinay. You see, this willingness to keep things normal makes I Love NY a good watch. Yes, it appears funny when Reema Lagoo says ‘ye ladka to heera hai heera’ for Sunny Deol, but barring a few instances, he acts his age unlike other 50-something actors who’re hell bent on making 20-somethings fall for them.

I Love NY will remain in your memory, provided you are willing to watch it, as a film where Kangana Ranaut and Sunny Deol tried honestly to come up with a believable love story. Avoid pre-conceived notions, it's a film worth a try.

I Love NY is a mind-numbing watch. It sees Kangana opposite an actor with whom she has zero chemistry despite her laboured attempts to show otherwise. He happens to be Sunny Deol, whose own attempt to do a Saif Ali Khan and be a romantic-comedy hero for a change is unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. (Deol's reindeer-print boxer short, seen in one of the posters, is the fashion faux pas of the year to beat.) The biggest flaws of the film, which was reportedly shot in 2011 and nobody wanted released until Ranaut struck big, are its shoddy screenplay, bland characters and unfunny jokes. The age difference between Ranaut and Deol - three decades according to a simple Google search - doesn't help in making the love story believable.  It starts off with Randhir Singh (Deol) frustrated with his work and ambling on the streets of Chicago. So lazy are the makers here that no attempt is made to hide the fact that they tried to pass off a station in Thailand as one in Chicago. Such inexcusable errors are spread throughout the film in which Ranaut's hairstyle changes multiple times in one scene alone. But continuity errors are the least of I Love NY's worries.  There is also a ridiculous story.  Singh celebrates his engagement to Riya (Tannishtha Chatterjee) by getting drunk with his friends. So inebriated is he that he passes security check in Chicago airport without any trouble and ends up on a flight to New York. As if that isn't silly enough, in his drunken stupor he reaches the Tikku's (Ranaut) apartment. Not only is it on a similarly named street but is also on the same level and has a common number. It's New Year's Eve and Tikku is waiting for her boyfriend (Navin Chowdhary) so that they can get engaged. But once the annoying boyfriend sees Randhir half-naked and hears the saga of how he ended up in Tikku's bedroom, he is but obviously appalled and doesn't buy Randhir's version of events.  Misunderstandings pop up, the boyfriend begins to show his true intolerable, chauvinistic self and it all goes downhill from there. There is a lot of inexplicable stuff going on including a song which takes place in a gymnasium and a steam room, the fastest engagement ceremony ever, a stroll in New York which doesn't end. But then there are rare moments when the characters speak what's going through the audience's mind such as when Tikku calls Randhir "a joke" and he concurs. When Tikku cries, "Sab galat ho raha hai", one almost senses it is Kangana's desperate plea for help. The line though is also an apt way to sum up the film.

A commitment phobic bachelor, Randhir Singh (Sunny Deol) who is a banker in Chicago, is fed up of his humdrum life and decides to settle down in matrimony with Riya (Tannishtha Chatterjee), who he has been with for a while now. That is his New Year resolution. Riya too is happy and they are both set for a romantic dinner for two, to usher in the New Year. Arrangements have even been made to pack off his father (Prem Chopra) who he lives with, to a club with his friends for a party. Celebrating with his friends in the Health Club, which is his annual ritual, Randhir has too many drinks and is completely sloshed. A funny turn of events land him in New York at the same address as his in Chicago, in the bedroom of a house where Tikku ( Kangana Ranaut) an orphaned music teacher, lives with her flatmate Vidya, an air hostess. A one night story on New Year's Eve, where a series of misunderstandings take place between Tikku and her boyfriend Ishaan (Navin Chowdhry) owing to the presence of Randhir, forms the crux of the film. Although it is intended to be a rom-com and evokes a few laughs, the entire premise of the film is silly and far-fetched. The writing lacks credibility and depth. The love story offers a few moments of relief and surprisingly, the chemistry between Kangana and Sunny Deol is palpable in a few scenes. Sunny Deol as Randhir is definitely not the best choice to play a romantic guy at his age. And of course he is severely lacking on the performance front too. In the scene where he desperately tries to look and behave like a young man, seemingly unsure about how to propose to a girl, he is extremely unconvincing. Kangana Ranaut, even in a nondescript film like this, gives a good performance and plays the vulnerable girl seeking love, with conviction. She is sincere and endearing in several scenes although her character of a girl being dumped seems regular now. The scene where she is trying to woo her boyfriend who is angry with her, through a song, is definitely one of the, or perhaps, the only highlight of the film. She looks beautiful and lights up the screen with her natural portrayal. Tannishtha Chatterjee as Riya looks smart and glamorous and performs competently, albeit with limited screen time. Prem Chopra plays the loving father with ease, but does not have too much to do. Reema Lagoo and Maya Alagh in a one-scene role are completely wasted.

I Love NY is criminally unremarkable. I Love NY opens with Sunny Deol’s (protagonist Randhir Singh) voiceover over snapshots of Chicago, who describes the city he resides in as mechanical, unimaginatively designed, mundane. Ironically, he does so in a manner that is passive aggressive in the sense that it conveys a secret pride in his internalised Indian-Americanism more than the intended weariness. One can blame it on Deol’s famously blasé dialogue delivery -- remember how even a ‘Balwant Rai Ke Kutton’ or 'Tareekh Pe Tareekh’ had an absurdly lyrical quality to it? -- or on a horribly misguided brief from the director.That pretty much sums up this Deol and Kangana Ranaut starrer that was stuck in the cans for the longest time and owes its release to its female lead’s sudden ascent in Bollywood fueled by the recent spate of box office and critical hits. Deol looks suitably ill-at-ease in a rom-com setting. He doesn’t know what to do with his hands for the most part, his mostly incredulous expressions and tone belie the sugary dialogues he’s spouting, all this while his hairdo (a weird hybrid between a buzz cut and a toupe) vies for our attention. It’s not all Deol though.The story lacks the vigour that makes a rom-com truly stand out. No compelling reasons are established for the events to unfold the way they do in the film. Kangana does manage to salvage a scene or two with her now-famous screen presence. But that’s pretty much it. Give this one a miss if you love New Year’s Eve. Or New York. Or both.

Since Tiku's parents are no more, loneliness gets to her and makes her settle with Ishaan, her wannabe Anglicised douchebag boyfriend. He is high-handed, unreasonable and disrespects her but she makes a compromise, hoping to feel loved and wanted. Incidentally, on New Year's Eve as she returns to her apartment, she finds a drunk stranger (Randhir) in her bed! Apparently, Randhir who is all set to marry girlfriend Riya (Tannishtha Chatterjee) after being single for the longest time, gets drunk and accidentally boards the flight to NY. This hard to believe story gets weirder when his building, flat number in Chicago and even house keys match the ones of Kangana. Terribly Hungover, he enters her house thinking it's his own and that jeopardises Tiku's relationship with Ishaan. Randhir tries to mend things but things only escalate further. The plot tries to touch upon the thought that how one can find solace in the company of complete strangers, who at times end up understanding you more than your loved ones. Randhir and Tiku's chance encounter, strange bond and mutual admiration which finally culminates into friendship and love is bizarre yet believable. Kangana is delightful to watch. She did this film before Queen happened, proving she always had it in her. What a performer she is turning out to be. Your heart goes out to her when she tells Randhir "Ishaan pe mat jao, Baaki log meri kaafi izzat karte hai'. Sensible, real, funny...she is your quintessential girl-next-door. Sunny Deol looks odd for the role he's cast in but delivers an earnest performance, which helps him sail through. It's a pity that certain multiplexes cancelled shows of this film, owing to low occupancy for its actually a decent romcom that you won't mind watching once. And it doesn't look stale either.