The boy, the girl, the big, bad, rich family.

Let me know if this sounds familiar at any point: a young carefree and rich lad from Australia, suffering from the itch to turn “monkey”, ends up love-struck by a simple village girl he meets at a cousin’s wedding; and alas, cruel society (in the form of a dastardly, controlling mother played by Poonam Dhillon), finds ways to send the lad away, attack the girl for slinking her greedy mittens into a rich family’s heir. The lad, of course, ditches the family, travels to the village, and proves that he can make it as a common laborer (or in this case a farmer), in a bid to wheedle the girl’s angry brother (a very effective, and likeable Sonu Sood).

While Ramiya Vastavaiya may be a mild offset of Rajshree’s Main Nay Pyar Kiya’s template (and the director’s own Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana –translated as: If you want to come, Will I say no?) amongst other old-Bollywood inspirations, its hands-first, quick to resolve treatment by director Prabhudeva (Wanted, Rowdy Rathore), makes the movie an easier pill to swallow than most blatant rip-offs.

A small tip of the hat goes to debutant Girish Kumar, (the lad from Australia), whose family enterprise tips (Race 2, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani) are the producers of the endeavor.

It’s a little unjustified to slam Mr. Kumar, whose simian-like antics taper the film’s unoriginality by unconcealed diversion. While jumping all over film’s production design doesn’t necessarily get cookie points for making a movie cinematically significant, the distraction – and oddly Mr. Kumar’s consistent weirdness (and his puffed-up hair) – somehow vibes well with Ramiya Vastavaiya’s general assembly. It’s a slight romp designed to get a new career off the ground and doesn’t deceive itself to be something other than what it is.

The relationship between Mr. Sood and Ms. Haasan nevertheless is a genuine attraction that gets some breathing room an hour before Ramiya Vastavaiya sidetracks into predictability (more or less before Mr. Kumar surfboards into the movie).

Apart from Mr. Kumar though, and Shruti Haasan, whose congeniality works well – at least for the first act –, no one seems to click much (if at all). Ms. Dhillon, Govind Namdeo, Nassar, Sathish Shah, Vinod Khanna and Randhir Kapoor efficiently fit into their monotonous stereotypes, alleviating and aggravating as per requirement and screen-time quota.

Mr. Prabhudeva, who opens the movie with the sprint of a marathon runner (the background establishes itself before the title sequence ends), initially often finds brief moments of touching sibling love to lay down Ramiya Vastavaiya’s foundation, and then continues to dash through the screenplay as if he’s in a race against himself (and the lackluster songs by Sachin-Jigar).

The uncannily set momentum stops Ramiya Vastavaiya from becoming something far worse than a rip-off: it never turns into a boring, rip-off. If that’s not a plus, then I don’t know what is (at least, in the context of this movie).

Directed by Prabhudeva; Produced by Kumar S Taurani; Screenplay and Dialogues by Shiraz Ahmed; Cinematography by Kiran Deohans; Editing by Hemal Kothari; With Music by Sachin-Jigar and Lyrics by Priya Panchal.

Starring: Girish Kumar, Shruti Hassan, Sonu Sood, Poonam Dhillon, Nassar, Sathish Shah, Govind Namdeo, Vinod Khanna and Randhir Kapoor.

Released by Tips, Ramiya Vastavaiya is rated U/A for some crude animal humor and general quirkiness. Dung-humor ahoy!