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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