Review: College Romance 2: Fun while it runs

College Romance Season 2 (series on SonyLIV); Cast: Manjot Singh, Apoorva Arora, Keshav Sadhna, Gagan Arora, Shreya Mehta; Direction: Apoorv Singh Karki; Rating: * * and half (two and a half stars)

BY VINAYAK CHAKRAVORTY

College Romance Season 2 is pretty much be summed up by its title. It is set in a college, there's lots of romance and frolic, and it is the second season of something we have seen before.

Don't look for more, there isn't much else that is new.

On the flip side, the instant, 'purani jeans' brand of nostalgia renders a certain mush factor to the storytelling and makes it an easy watch, which should see the show sail through.

Quite smartly, given the fact that there is not much of a story to tell, they've limited the show to five episodes, each running for around half an hour, give or take a few minutes. A good joke should not be stressed and the makers know as much -- especially when similar gags have been played out in a zillion films and shows in the past.

Continuing from season one, the TVF show brings back campus buddies Trippy (Manjot Singh), Naira (Apoorva Arora) and Karan (Keshav Sadhna). As the second season opens, Naira's love story with Bagga (Gagan Arora) is going strong, though it could all end considering she plans to go abroad for higher studies.

Trippy has found new love -- or so it seems -- and Karan is chasing Deepika (Shreya Mehta), despite her ill temper, rude insults and ego trips.

The script (Sidhant Mago, Aakash Ahuja, Manan Madaan) does not reveal too much ambition to reorganise the standard campus flick beyond what is familiar in the genre, while carrying forward the stories of these protagonists. A standard formula pack of love, friendships, misunderstandings, heartbreak and patch-ups plays out, with little or no mention of studies (in fact, classroom/exam scenes are so few you can count them on fingers of one hand).

Director Apoorv Singh Karki banks on individual gag situations and (abundantly cuss-laced) dialogues to create points of interest in a script that can overall be dismissed in half a sentence -- three guys and two girls do everything in and around the campus except study.

Of the primary cast, Manjot Singh is a familiar face even if you didn't watch season one, and he brings alive Trippy with aplomb. Gagan Arora as Bagga, Apoorva Arora's Naira and Keshav Sadhna as Karan live their moments in the screenplay, though Shreya Mehta as Deepika needs to curb her tendency to ham.

College Romance 2, like many other TVF shows, is fun while it runs, but definitely nothing you would miss if you choose to skip it.

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