Ishqeria is a chick flick. A gaggle of girls get together to get their best friend hitched to the most eligible bachelor in college. Sounds like fun on the surface and it can be if executed properly. The first thing one should get right is the casting. Fresh off the boat actors are the best bet. Try hard as they might, Neil Nitin Mukesh can’t look 21 and Richa Chadda can’t look 18. It’s not the 1960s where you had middle-aged lead stars masquerading as college kids. That looked ridiculous even then but the audience was more forgiving. In today’s time, you do it if you’re aiming for unintentional laughter. The other way even a bad casting can be salvaged is to make the drama so engaging that the audience overlooks the lapse. But instead of creating drama, the director has opted for melodrama. Neil Nitin Mukesh harbours a grudge against his screen father Raj Babbar because the latter didn’t want him born and had told his wife to get an abortion. Richa Chadha misses her periods and thinks she’s pregnant. He marries her thinking of doing the right thing and when she gets her periods on track, accuses her of lying to him and runs away abroad. Seven years later, he comes back to India to get a divorce with a fiancee in tow but instead of talking to her like adults and getting out of something they both clearly don’t need, he starts having feelings for Richa again. He’s shown to be eternally confused and so is she. There is a line in the film -- Sabko confuse karna band kar do. That was the director talking to herself but alas she didn’t listen to her own advice.