VEERE DI WEDDING: FILM REVIEW

By Ambar Chatterjee

'VEERE DI WEDDING'

'A mixed bag bolstered by some quirky comedy and four divas'

Director:

Shashanka Ghosh

Cast:

Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor,

Shikha Talsania, Swara Bhaskar

"Veere Di Wedding" is the kind of film that will appeal to a very niche audience, even among the women folks. It will appeal to all those who are buggered and frustrated by the constant flustering of the institution of marriage and its importance as an almost deciding factor of their identity, no matter what they are or how successful they might be in their respective professional lives. It will also appeal to those who are married and are unhappy in their respective marriages, as well to those who had to marry against their parent's will (which is such a cliché) and as a result, had to leave their homes and all other relationships behind.

Kalindi (Kareena Kapoor Khan), Avni (Sonam Kapoor), Sakshi (SwaraBhaskar) and Meera (ShikhaTalsania) are best of friends who are dealing with the different flavors of marital woes. Sakshi is about to get divorced from the man that she thought she loved, Meera is trying hard to balance her marriage life and raising a child, at the same time learning to live without her parents whom she had to leave in order to be married to a foreigner. Avni is a successful professional but has a mom who is trying her best to hook her up with someone so that she can be married off. Things take an interesting turn when their fourth friend Kalindi is proposed by her longtime lover and she agrees to marry him, even though she is not at all ready to take the leap and the hullaballoo that comes with it.

The best parts of "Veere Di Wedding" are the ones where the friends hit it out with each other, throwing abuses and egging each other along on the way to do something that might just be condescending for the others. Their chit chats and their raunchy dialogues are the best things about this film and they will easily bring a smile or two on the audience's faces. What plays hugely in the favor of the film is that we haven't seen much of the women's side of the story in this department and the ones that we have seen have been mostly pristine and almost squeaky clean leaving a huge hole for the "Veere Di Wedding" sensibility to fill in. The lingo that they use, their back stories, as also the ease with which they make their characters adorable to the viewers, is surely going to strike a chord with the audiences.

SwaraBhaskar is the raunchiest of the lot. Hers is a really interesting character whose reasons for divorce will leave one and all in splits. Apart from the almost constant dangling cigarette from her lips which feels fake and unnecessary, her character is wonderfully envisioned and laid out. The next best character is that of Sonam Kapoor for whom this film seems interestingly timed (considering the fact that she had got recently married). Her innocence and the dynamics that she brings to her character are bound to tickle many. After every unthinkable sin, the manner in which she expresses her frustration is hilarious to watch.

ShikhaTalsania is super cute and so is the character that she plays. I wish they could do a little more with her character. Kareena Kapoor Khan's Kalindi is the most generic of the lot and is also the most boring. The fact that practically the film hinges solely on her character and its decision to get married makes me sad that they couldn't have made her character a little bit more interesting or atleast a little more not-generic. We have seen her version of "I don't want to get married" girl in Bollywood for ages now and it did absolutely nothing for me. The fact also remains that her sudden change of gears was also a bit off-putting and plain out hard to believe. I would go to the extent of saying that she is irritating at points.

"Veere Di Wedding" is made in the lines of being a comedy but it has enough doses of drama and heartbreaks to make it more than that. I couldn't help but be enamored by some of the much tried and tested tropes of evoking sentiments. These tricks never fail to get me and they do so here too. I felt warm in the end when the family members of Kareena unite. I felt wonderful to see how the arc of Shikha's character reaches an emotional climax and it was equally splendid to have SwaraBhaskar's parents react to her insane acts in a way that they do. These are some of the best parts of the film apart from the comedy of course.

Having said all that, "Veere Di Wedding" is still not for one and all. A large chunk of the boys and men will be repulsed by it, primarily because they might never have seen the other side of the fence. They will also not like the amount of freedom that the women enjoy, which to me was one of the best things that the film did. The raunchy nature of the comedy, the free-flowing expletives and the not-so-Bhartiya girls will also not exactly invite family audiences. It also has to be agreed that the film does get boring and tedious at times. I felt this particularly in the song and dance routines and also the extended holiday that the girls go for. If only they had found a better way to show the girl's transformations. Also, all the male characters in the film forever remain in the shadows of the ladies which do get a tad bit repetitive after a while. The rest of the flaws are the ones that come with a film like this and cannot be looked at as flaws. It's simply a matter of perspective and what one chooses to look for in the film.

"Veere Di Wedding" is exactly what I expected it to be. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The adult handling of the subject, some good situational comedy, and the dramatic tropes worked well for me and I believe that will be the case for one and all who are ready to give this film a chance.