‘Kaushaljis Vs Kaushal’ review: The older couple steals the show

Sahil and Sangeeta have few reasons left to stay married. They can’t talk to each other without snapping. Sangeeta (Sheeba Chaddha) despises Sahil’s love for qawwalis and Amir Khusro’s poetry. Sahil (Ashutosh Rana) sneers at Sangeeta’s attempts to make attar at home. Aren’t they better off getting a divorce?

That’s what they set out to do. But their son Yug (Pavail Gulati) and his sister Reet (Deeksha Joshi) are horrified that their parents are contemplating a life apart and try to create a reconciliation.

Seemaa Desai’s Hindi drama, which is out on JioHotstar, has a parallel track about Yug’s relationship with Kiara (Isha Talwar). Far too much time is devoted to the young lovers, as well as Yug’s attempts to get ahead in his advertising agency, when the focus really should have been on the parents.

All the best scenes and lines in the 144-minute Kaushaljis Vs Kaushal involve Sahil and Sangeeta, who are movingly played by Ashutosh Rana and Sheeba Chaddha. They deserved a movie of their own, one that would have concentrated on long-married couples who choose to divorce.

The feel-good flavour isn’t memorable either. What lingers is the horrible things Sahil and Sangeeta say to each other, which have the ring of raw honesty. Each of them...

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