Pati Patni Aur Woh Do review: Praja-pati ki cringe kahani

While director Mudassar Aziz breaks free from the franchise’s infidel theme, the silly plot and cringeworthy screenplay make you squirm in your seat. It may boost or stretch an individual’s career, but it doesn’t add to the legacy.

Rating: (1 / 5)

By Mayur Lookhar

B.R. Chopra’s Pati Patni Aur Woh (1978) tells the story of a man who cheats on his wife by having a secret affair with his secretary. Such a subject can be taken lightly once, deemed a joke the second time, but by the third time, it is no longer funny.

Back in 2019, writer-director Mudassar Aziz made a remake starring Kartik Aaryan, Bhumi Pednekar, and Ananya Panday. Despite its flaws, the film was a fairly successful one. Eyeing similar success , and perhaps a career saver, Aziz has now come up with Pati Patni Aur Woh Do (2026). There’s a husband, a wife, and two more women in his life. What’s going on here?

Story

Prayagraj forest officer Prajapati Pandey (Ayushmann Khurrana) is stunned by the visit of his former collegian Chanchal Kumari (Sara Ali Khan). She makes a strange proposal for a fake relationship, one that would eventually help her elope with her boyfriend. Rather surprisingly, Pandey agrees to her request, but soon this fake relationship threatens his marriage. If one alleged extra-marital affair wasn’t enough, his journalist wife Aparna (Wamiqa Gabbi) gets strong reason to suspect that her husband is also in a relationship with Dr. Nilofer Khan (Rakul Preet Singh). Best you watch the film to discover how we’ve arrived at this mess.

Screenplay & Direction

The big pleasant surprise here is how Aziz and his writer Ravi Kumar have broken away from the franchise’s flirtatious, infidel theme and opted for a comedy-of-errors narrative. One welcomes that, but the silly plot, insipid screenplay and cringeworthy characters make you squirm in your seat. It’s hard to believe how a man who didn’t even call Chanchal to his wedding would instantly agree to her bizarre proposal. Also, what’s the logic in having a forest officer as a protagonist? Is there an obligation to promote Prayagraj and its woods? In the opening scene, Prajapati is called to catch a leopard on the loose. Phew, the manner in which he catches the leopard would defy logic too. There’s a bait near an abandoned village home, the leopard arrives, charges, then Prajapati lands from above and throws a net over it. Well, the climax sees a visit from a wolf. For a man accused of polygamy, maybe a lion gatecrashing here would have made some sense. The forest setting, though, eventually helps Prajapati and the other characters escape a potentially life-threatening conflict. Though a tad short of 120 minutes, the poor screenplay and loud, trashy humour make it an exhausting experience.

We’re in an age where many corporates greenlight stories after they pass the data/algorithm parameter. Given how most Hindi films are of poor quality, is all this data/algorithm talk just a convenient gateway to ward off ‘outsiders,’ or to justify corporate salaries? Sure, the data shows that the previous film succeeded, but what are creative heads in big production houses smoking to greenlight such a shambolic script? Despite a poor record, Aziz continues to ride his luck in Bollywood.

Acting

Ayushmann Khurrana mostly looks out of depth and breath in trying to be this Praja-Pati. Well, he who tries to please all pleases none. Here is an actor who has largely earned his stripes through quality, entertaining films with subtle feminist messaging. Perhaps to break the monotony and escape his box-office rut, Khurrana opted for Dream Girl 2 (2023), an edgy comedy. Its success perhaps encouraged him to pick an equally cringe-worthy Pati Patni Aur Woh Do. This may stretch careers, but it does not add to one’s legacy. Khurrana has previously said he sees himself as the Farooq Shaikh of his generation. But Dream Girl 2 and Pati Patni Aur Woh Do, this cinema is more Shakti Kapoor than Shaikh.

Comparatively less experienced, Wamiqa Gabbi too seems to have opted for mindless comedies to boost her career. A few weeks ago, it was Bhooth Bangla (2026), and now we are made to endure Pati Patni Aur Woh Do. Gabbi, though, is sincere and fairly competent as Mrs Aparna Pandey. That she plays a journalist does not, however, earn brownie points from us.

Playing Chanchal Kumari carries its own subtle caste dynamics, but Sara barely convinces here. Once you devise a silly plan, it only leads to more chaos. Rakul Preet Singh tries hard to play a UP Muslim woman and, early on, even attempts the Allahabadi or Banarasi tone, speaking with her mouth wide open. It just doesn’t land, and you almost want her to pop a Banarasi paan and shut that mouth. This was perhaps too much to ask of a Delhi born girl.

Among the women, Ayesha Raza is the one who gets the accent right and truly imbibes the spirit of Uttar Pradesh. Chanchal’s Bua ji (aunt) is very talkative, but Raza is convincing and hilarious. She is the saving grace in an otherwise cringe film.

Tigmanshu Dhulia’s sitting MLA Gajraj Tiwari is the most feared man in this story. He does not hide his caste and gender prejudice. Then there is Jumman, an effeminate subordinate of Pandey. Well, is that really gender empowerment? The most bizarre character is Vijay Raaz’s local cop, notorious for his moral policing – a dig at UP’s infamous Romeo Squad. He wears a loose wig, and strangely, when it comes off, you are surprised to see short, white, but fairly good hair on his head. If it was about grey hair, the officer could have simply dyed it rather than sport that hideous wig.

Music

Here’s another T-Series album where you find over half a dozen composers but not one memorable track. Classic songs are used as BGM to create comic effect, but they do not amuse. The Kali Teri Choti Hai remake is simply atrocious.

Final Word

Despite its flirtatious theme, B.R. Films’ original Pati Patni Aur Woh (1978) was still enjoyable and memorable. But the banner is much more than just Pati Patni Aur Woh. Sadly, for this current generation, the studio’s legacy has been reduced to the Pati Patni Aur Woh franchise. The great man, B.R. Chopra, and his gentleman son Ravi are no longer around, but one wonders what they would have made of Aziz and the grandson turning Pati Patni Aur Woh into a franchise.

In Gangs of Wasseypur, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Ramadhir Singh blamed cinema as the root cause of all evil. Here, in Pati Patni Aur Woh Do, he chides, “Bollywood should be bombed.” We would not advocate such extreme actions, but any sane viewer would feel like banging his head after watching Pati Patni Aur Woh Do.

Video review below.