Still, the film deserves credit for finding a surprisingly emotional story inside an almost comically trivial premise. It doesn't always maintain the same impact throughout, but when it moves beyond the novelty of its premise and focuses on the people at its centre, it becomes a warm, grounded family drama with genuine feeling.
Romanchakam isn't a particularly novel romantic story, and its emotional ambitions occasionally feel underwritten. But it has an appealing cast, a genuinely fun friends' track and enough suspense to keep the proceedings from becoming entirely predictable.