Shuddh Desi Romance — Tom & Jerry & Tom…

Claiming to be a modern take on love and relationships for today’s young India, ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’ explores live-in relationships and the growing fear of commitment. However, to drive the point home, it uses fiction a little too much thus preventing itself from being the truly memorable film it could’ve been.

The plot is set in the beautiful, earthern setting of Jaipur. Raghu (Sushant Singh Rajput) is a confused wanderer who gets by duping foreign tourists besides posing as a fake baraati at arranged marriages. In one such act, he comes across the free spirited and shockingly unconventional Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra) and falls for her. In the process he runs from his own wedding with Tara (Vaani Kapoor) and ends up living in with the cautious Gayatri. From then on, a game of cat and mouse ensues with Raghu shuffling between Gayatri and Tara with each trying to avoid the dreaded monsters of commitment and marriage.

Director Maneesh Sharma applied a rustic, middle class approach in his debut with ‘Band Baaja Baraat’. He carries the same into his second film, making characters and instances extremely relatable to the common Indian viewer. The film has some fantastic moments with the crackling chemistry between Sushant and Parineeti and the unconventional portraiture of women smoking, kissing and having sex extremely casually and on multiple occasions.

Moreover, the fun poked at Indian arranged marriages and the hypocrisy of our mindsets strikes a chord with the viewer. It is true that the concepts of marriage and commitment are being questioned more each day and the film makes an earnest effort to tap these changing times. One of the last dialogues about how coming and going out of a house at will appears fun as compared to being told that you can’t leave the house ever again sums up the intentions of the makers of this fare. However, towards the second half, the film starts feeling repetitive and a little too irrational, thereby frustrating you and losing connection with the happenings and characters. One could even suspect if the film was intended to be a satire, one not to be taken too seriously, one that even makes fun of its title.

Sushant Singh Rajput is terrific as Raghu. An extremely confident actor, Sushant is not a star, he is a true artist and is definitely amongst the finest young talents. However, he is a little let down by a character that is fun at first, but confusing, monotonous and weak later. Parineeti Chopra is fantastic yet again as Gayatri. One only fears her getting typecast in similar roles. Vaani Kapoor is confident but doesn’t emote too well and in fact looks awkward as well. Plus, her character makes some incomprehensible moves despite being publicly humiliated right at the start. Rishi Kapoor is in top form yet again as Gupta. The cinematography is top notch and the beautiful locales of Jaipur are captured beautifully. One wishes the script was tighter and editing harder, especially towards the end. The music is good and the audio as well as video of ‘Gulaabi’ deserves special mention.

All in all, once again a tale that works and should be applauded for its bravery but reprimanded for not capping it off with an appropriate climax.

3/5