Saturday, 7 September 2013

Film review Shuddh Desi Romance






Love Me Do   

 Film: Shuddh Desi Romance
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Parineeta Chopra, Vaani Kapoor
Directed by: Maneesh Sharma
Duration: 2 hrs 15mins
Rating: * * * 1 / 2

            Director Maneesh Sharma who gave us the eminently likable Band Baaja Baraat, returns to his familiar terrain of weddings, once again. The result is a film that breaks new barriers and goes into this uncharted territory of unconventional romances. For years, we’ve been fed with the staple diet of the same old formula when it comes to romantic films and romcoms, but this one dares to be different, very different and that’s a good reason to celebrate Shuddh Desi Romance.             
Good writers in Bollywood are as rare as good politicians in the country at the moment. Jaideep Sahni (Company, Chak De, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Rocket Singh) belongs to this rare breed of writers and he has pulled it off yet again by writing the story, screenplay, lyrics and the dialogues. The scenes are well crafted, the characterization is superb- it was most heartening to see the women characters stand out, usually they get a raw deal in films but here there is no typical portrayal of them and after Gangs of Wasseypur (which was long time ago), for the first time I’ve seen women on an equal footing as the men. Bravo, way to go Jaideep Sahni.
Cut to Jaipur then and meet the tourist guide Raghuram Sitaram (Sushant Singh) but he prefers to be called just Raghu. He is about to get married to Tara (Vaani Kapoor) but being a commitment phobic guy he dumps her at the altar, or rather the mandap, as it is in this case. Before you can say runaway groom, he falls for Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra), attraction becomes mutual and there is much more to it.
Tara is back on the scene and our Raghu is kind of caught between Scylla and Charybdis but in a far more positive way than that Odysseus had to face. Rishi Kapoor plays an elderly man trying to put some sense in the young man’s head. 
 Post the intermission or bathroom break as it is referred to in the film, it is not as scintillating as it was in the first half. But yet the triangular love story is several notches above the flaky Jawaanis, Deewanis and what have you. Relationships as we know them, have changed considerably over the years, something that Saini’s screenplay acknowledges very well and something that our other films never really focused on. While it doesn’t provide answers, it raises some questions about the institution of marriage or rather the lack of it.
On the flip side, there was no particular need for those scenes where the actors look into the camera and address the audience. In an otherwise well crafted film that was an aberration.
Manu Anands cinematography captures the colors and essence Jaipur including a couple of shots that have the wow factor. On the acting front, Rishi Kapoor is a delight to watch as always. Considering it is her debut, Vaani Kapoor is quite impressive. Sushant Singh Rajput delivers a good performance and shares a good chemistry with the ladies. But the one who really knocks it out of the park here is Parineeti Chopra. This is the best performance by an actress I’ve seen in 2013. For her savoir faire and many other good things, you should pay a visit to this Shuddh Desi Romance.


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