TMMTMTTM review: Croatia tourism + Agra mayhem = TMMTMTTM

Kartik Aaryan’s maiden Dharma film is a big bore and worryingly feels counterproductive to his career.

Rating: (1 / 5)

By Mayur Lookhar

2025 was a year when Bollywood returned to its roots- love stories. Yash Raj Films rediscovered its legacy with Saiyaara. It was only natural that Dharma Productions closed the year with a love story of its own. This one is titled Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri. Uff, it’s a fitting tongue twister, but the bane of film critics and journalists. What complicates it further is the abbreviated title: TMMTMTTM. The musically inclined viewer will likely equate it to the rhythmic sound – tam tama tam. The title may be tough on the larynx, but does it have a tale that pierces the heart and soul?

Story

TMMTMTTM is a love story that begins at Delhi airport, travels to Croatia, and faces its litmus test in Agra.

Budding author Rumi Wardhan (Ananya Panday) bumps into nosy LA-based wedding planner Rehan Mehra (Kartik Aaryan), who coincidentally shares her travel plans. From being seated next to her on the plane, Rehan also becomes her unexpected roommate on a week-long yacht trip in picturesque Croatia. More than an LA guy, Rehan behaves like a Delhi brat who’ll constantly be in Rumi’s ears. In a matter of four days, though, they get intimate-with flirtatious Rehan proposing to Rumi. The girl loves him, but there’s a big stumbling block. Well, readers, better that you discover it yourselves.

Screenplay & Direction

Produced by Karan Johar, this film poaches the writer-director duo of Karan Shrikant Sharma and Sameer Vidwans, who delivered Satyaprem Ki Katha (2023). A Dharma film naturally carries its own flavour. Far from perfect, Satyaprem Ki Katha still carried the right social messaging. Not as alarming, but TMMTMTTM too carries a message, one that questions age-old marital norms. As a bachelor, this writer is open to breaking barriers, but is it pragmatic? Well, only the millions of married couples across the globe can best answer that.

Cinema can’t change a culture that’s existed since the concept of marriage itself, but it can question it with dignity. It’s here, though, that Vidwans and Sharma fail miserably with a horror of a screenplay. The courtship in Croatia feels cumbersome, but the second-half family drama in Agra grates on your nerves. In a nutshell, this exhaustive 145-minute movie feels like Croatia tourism + Agra mayhem. While mocking her book Love in Agra, Rehan questions why, in the age of AI and ChatGPT-, she’d waste time writing organically. That’s an insult to any writer, but TMMTMTTM’s screenplay is so bad that maybe Karan Shrikant Sharma and Sameer Vidwans should have relied on GPT; it surely would’ve been better than this painstaking mess. There are just a few dialogues and brief moments that engage, but for large parts, viewers are likely to feel disinterested.

Performances

Some years ago, it was a cold war between Aaryan and Karan Johar after the latter dropped him from Dostana 2 over alleged star tantrums. A young actor taking on a legacy studio is a risky proposition; however, there are no permanent friends or enemies in the business. Necessity is the mother of invention. Kartik’s success with the two Bhool Bhulaiyaa films perhaps prompted Dharma to extend the olive branch. And Dharma offered not one but two films – TMMTMTTM and the fantasy comedy Naagzilla.  Besides, there’s a dearth of men in Aaryan’s age bracket who can pull off a rom-com. 

Enough said about the TMMTMTTM screenplay, but maybe Karan Johar banked on Aaryan’s goofy sense of humour to pull it through. When Aaryan himself rues in the movie, “Don’t make me overact,” is there really anything left to say about the performance? Honestly, this first Dharma film felt counterproductive to Aaryan’s career. Hopefully, Naagzilla proves us wrong.

Ananya Panday is a Dharma find, but having grown by leaps and bounds, TMMTMTTM feels like an obligation. Panday’s sincere, but the thin plot dampens her spirit. Rumi and the film’s idea of true love, involves experiencing a ’90s love story in the hook-up age of 2025. It’s always risky to generalise the real: hook-ups happened in the 1990s, before, and forever. But romance in Hindi, and Indian, cinema has largely been about tender moments, song-and-dance, seldom crossing boundaries. Having hooked up and gotten cozy in about four or five days, can Rumi really experience that ’90s wala love?

Seasoned actor Jackie Shroff is wasted in a poorly scripted daddy role. Given his somnambulism, it begs the question: how did Col. Amar Wardhan Singh (Shroff) even make it to the Army? Neena Gupta’s Pinky (single mother) might feel slightly personal for her, but beyond that, there’s no depth to the character. Imagine a mother proudly saying that as a young girl, she aspired to be an item girl, when the objectifying words didn’t even exist.

There’s an endeavour to evoke reactions through some edgy, quite frankly, distasteful humour. It’s not the leads, but brilliant Sapna Sand who has to endure a motherly character who crushes on Rehan in front of her son and husband. The less said, the better.

Music / Technical Aspects

Before release, the Dharma film was mired in a copyright row after ’90s filmmaker Rajiv Rai sued the studio, alleging infringement of the cult song ‘Saat Samundar Paar’ from his Vishwatma (1992). Mind you, Viju Shah’s composition was itself loosely inspired by Pet Shop Boys’ synth-pop love anthem Heart (1988). The glaring issue in TMMTMTTM, though, is how Dharma and Vishal-Sheykhar lifted Anand Bakshi’s hook lyrics. This isn’t the only track as Sameer Vidwans and Karan Johar deploy a bevy of cult hits for nostalgia or comic effect. Then the title track, with lines like “Say you love me, jhootha hi sahi,” triggers Paal Bhar Ke Liye nostalgia. It begs the question: is there an original composition in this film?

In the age of grants, Indian films ought to honour their commitments, but often at the cost of reducing stories to A, B, C tourism. It’s unimaginable for a Dharma film not to shoot in exotic locales. Here, the makers even name-drop must-see sites in Croatia. The lavender island of Hvar gets added to our wish list. Dharma’s romantic films naturally strike as aspirational, but for most Indians, these exotic locales remain a saat samundar paar dream. In a bygone era, such locations were a treat, but they should never overshadow the story.

Final Word

When you release a trailer a week before the film, it doesn’t build much confidence. TMMTMTTM plays along expected lines – dull, tedious, obligatory. As Rehan tells Rumi, “Gandhi and Nehru fought for democracy, so today anyone can say anything.” Unfortunately, a lot of our films carry that democratic spirit where just about anything gets written and played out on screen. In their first meeting at the Delhi airport, the bookseller appeals to Rehan to buy Rumi’s book, “It’s the only way we’ll make some sales.” With Dhurandhar shattering records and still going strong, plus Avatar: Fire and Ash still burning, maybe Sameer Vidwans and Karan Johar will have to make a similar plea.

Video review to follow.