"Soch nahi, swad wahi", is a line said by Alia Bhatt's Rani within the movie and it's perfectly apt for this Karan Johar directorial. Rocky Randhawa and Rani Chatterjee fall in love while fearing their differences in culture, ideologies would clash, resulting in destroying their love. To fight for their love, the duo decide to exchange their respective families for 3 months where Rocky goes onto live with Rani's Bengali family while Rani moves in with Rocky's Punjabi family run by the Matriarch Dhanalakshmi Randhawa (Jaya Bachchan). How their love story survive despite the ideology clashes forms rest of the story.
I wasn't prepared enough for a progressive Karan Johar family entertainer. Having said that, KJo is in full form as he is not trying to ape any other director or even please the current generation. He reclaims his identity and plays to his strength. Karan Johar is meant to narrate rich people stories and add to that a love story + lots of family drama, you get the recipe for a KJo blockbuster ready. What this films lack is good songs which again is made up by the usage of old classics.
RARKPK is not without it's flaws but Karan Johar fills it with enough memorable scenes, heart touching ones, that I had to stop complaining about the lengthy runtime. Speaking of standout scenes, both first half and second half delivers them back to back. Alia shines whenever she gets to but it is Ranveer who owns the film while letting the veterans to take over their respective scenes. My only major complaint would be the Dhindora Baje song as Dola Re bit before that had already done the magic, also that bit was my paisa vasool moment.
Karan Johar truly upgrades his arsenal, while the standing upto the matriarch might be the major plot point, several other issues are highlighted sensibly and kudos to the team. Sure, the initial scenes are jerky, trying a bit too hard while introducing the two main leads but after that it's a smooth narrative. The ode to classic songs or to other films' famous lines including the one from K3G, Karan Johar has packed a solid entertainer.