Director: Luv Ranjan
Stars: Nushrat Bharucha, Kartik Aaryan and Sunny Nijar
Rating: 3 Moons
The film starts with Titu's difficult girlfriend, Pihu. When her boyfriend snoops on her, checking her Tinder account, she throws in the towel. How dare she really? I mean women can't be on Tinder when you are dating someone. Says who? Men. Duh! So Titu's best friend Sonu drills into our system that Pihu is mean, disloyal, controlling and manipulative.
Five minutes later, Sonu asks Titu to choose between him and Pihu. Err... so much for emotional manipulation bro?
The characters of women in this film are path-breaking. From a difficult girlfriend, we move to saas-bahu drama where they are at loggerheads because all our moms and grandmoms are meant for some entertainment. In fact, one of the elderly mature men in the family rejoices at the idea of welcoming a strong daughter-in-law anticipating which side she would take - the saas's or the bahu's.
And it doesn’t stop there. The film doesn’t have a heroine. The film has a villain. The lead actress rolls her painted lips in style and says, ‘Main heroine nahi, villain hoon, villain.’ Wah, what women empowerment! We don’t even know what her mean motives are. She just sashays in designer clothes and an anglicized voice whispers, ‘she is a gold digger.’
The women in the film are compared to a deal, to even poison. There is a scene where a family is assessing their future daughter-in-law. It’s regressive yet so real. She is called ‘too thin’ ‘too tall’. Everything is quickly checked on social media, from the brand of the car she drives to her political choices. It’s written really well; alas the humor around it makes it disturbing! It somehow normalizes that it’s ok to reject a girl on the basis of her clothes/style/friends and other inconsequential things.
The film scores in atmospherics. From family conversations to mata ki chowki, it nails the Punjabi environment, so typical of North India.
Among the actors, Kartik Aryan (Sonu) is used to delivering long lines. Remember his hit monologue from Pyar Ka Punchnama? He mouths his dialogues in this film in the same tone! Sunny Singh (Titu) looks the part with his cute, innocent smile and that unsure look. He gets his moment towards the end of the film and he manages to emote well. Nushrat Bharucha (Sweety) gets such one dimensional character to deal with that her mean-Ekta-Kapoor-show looks and eyes can’t infuse any depth to the role she plays. Also the film has our sanskari Alok Nath who is everything but sanskari, mouthing expletives practically every third second.
The first half of the movie is entertaining in parts. Sonu and Sweety are in a constant war, claiming their right over Titu. They reminded me of Aruna Irani and Madhuri Dixit from Beta. But the second half is a painful drag. There is a song for every occasion. Bachelor Party. Song. Come back to India. Song. Sangeet. Song. Pool party. Song. Mehndi. Song. Shadi. Song. Oh my good lord, I nearly watched my beard grow and grey during these songs.
In short, if wife slandering jokes that you get on WhatsApp are your thing, you would roll in laughter. Else maintain a safe distance from it.
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