We meet Aliya Raj (Shenaz Treasurywala) - a hotshot Bollywood casting director - doing yoga by the beach and introducing herself as "not your girl next door". Brand conscious ("I work bloody hard for my Louis Vuitton"), finicky about everything, and a lover of all things picture-perfect, her most annoying habit yet is speaking out all these qualities to the audience within the first ten minutes. As we're getting all this down, we're given a lowdown on her friends in order of name, profession, and that one defining quality.
We learn that this gang, including an artist, a film editor and a "gujju businessman" doesn't watch TV as they'd much rather read a book, and prefer brunches over nightclubs. But we see these supposedly modern, classy people persecuting Aliya for being single. With friends like these, who needs nagging aunts right?
And it is to appease these "friends" that she picks up a good-looking struggler Sukhwinder (Barun Sobti) and pays him to act like her boyfriend.
Sukhwinder, who has left his family in Punjab for a Bollywood career, and now lives in Mumbai's Lokhandwala area (considered the haven for film strugglers) promptly agrees. Aliya gets started on his makeover right from learning how to dress to table manners and so on.
For her gang, they're the perfect couple, but in secret they're just friends who begin to enjoy each other's company, going to the gurudwara, and eating at seedy restaurants. Director Aseem Rais even gets them to dance to the iconic Yaar bina chain kahan re... in '80s style disco costumes (a cute aside).
All's swell till trouble brews in the form of an unexpected love triangle. Aliya wonders about the importance on Happy vs. Perfect and other such nonsensical topics, which is weird considering the film tells us how smart and bright she is.
The film tries to bring some gravitas by introducing heavy-duty conversations (some terrible dialogue, here) between the friends, who are always out for dinner. The conversations are trite, the acting awful, and the background score overenthusiastic.
The lead pair (Shenaz-Barun) is likeable and holds it all together. But then, even their characterization lacks depth. We are not convinced when Aliya ditches her heels for chappals, and neither are we convinced when relationships break and mend without warning.
Among the only characters that leave some impact are Aliya, Sukhwinder, and the wife's character who takes a stand against her insensitive husband.
Shenaz Treasurywala (Delhi Belly, Ishq Vishk) is always good in these urbane roles, and she does reasonably well despite the flat sketch. Barun Sobti plays the uncultured guy who yawns at art exhibitions with aplomb and he's great fun.
The film tries bringing in comedy, but the effort falls flat most of the times. The recurring gag of showcasing bad auditions set against sitcom music is unoriginal and even condescending. So are the portions that show Aliya's disaster dates.
Finally, this story of a poor little rich girl falling for a rank opposite could have been cute in a rom-com kind of way. But everything in Main Aur Mr. Riight (that double 'i' is particularly bothersome), from the emotions to the characterization, is way too synthetic to leave an impact.
Rating: 1.5 stars