Post VICKY DONOR here is another brave attempt experimenting with a bold and fresh subject of ‘Temporary Erectile Dysfunction’ handled with care. But where VICKY DONOR was a highly descriptive and courageously verbal film made with a clear vision, SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN remains a very carefully conceived, conservative film on a bold subject that never gets into explanations and keeps dealing with clever dialogues, symbols and expressions pointing towards the problematic issue.
And this actually comes as a surprise, since its original Tamil film KALYANA SAMAYAL SADHAM is a much superior, courageous, verbally expressive and immensely enjoyable film visualized by the same director R.S. Prasanna. In fact SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN clearly reveals the difference in cinematic vision of the regional language cinema being made in our country and Hindi films.
However keeping that comparison for the later part of the review, this can easily be recommended as a light-hearted, family comedy that turns out to be a fair one time watch entertainer due to its novel subject, lead performances and many supporting acts. Cleverly written dialogues (including the double meaning ones) remain the major attraction of the film related with its sexual theme and you do enjoy them all, especially the lines mentioning Alibaba and the mysterious Cave (Gufa) in the mother-daughter’s mutual conversation.
At just 105 minutes of a well-edited duration, the film tries to accommodate a lot of things that look fine in the first half but get messed up in the second unnecessarily. For instance the added track of an old girlfriend coming back in the wedding house looks foolish (particularly their bed/cot sequence right in front of the kids and family), Jimmy Shergill’s cameo is a waste and the final sequence isn’t able to deliver the punch expected in the crucial climax. Still you don’t mind these avoidable minuses while watching the film and have a fairly good time enjoying a fresh narrative.
Ayushmann Khurrana gets back on track post a laid back performance in BAREILLY KI BARFI and his chemistry with Bhumi Pednekar is just perfect for such family comedies. Bhumi yet again displays her exceptional talent of excelling in the simple, non-glamorous roles, which certainly isn’t an easy choice to make for a Bollywood actress. Just watch out for her effortless performance in the sensual scenes with Ayushmann and the discussions with her mother in particular. Seema Pahwa (as the mother) is another major asset of the film and so is Brijendra Kala and all talented, well-chosen actors in the supporting cast.
Cinematography, art direction and background score are able to build an authentic, entertaining environment as required. And the soundtrack does have a few catchy songs as ‘Laddooo’, ‘Rocket Saiyyan’ and a well-composed/sung ‘Kanha’. But once again we do not have a song that can represent the film after months or even weeks as usual.
SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN actually scores due to a likable direction of R.S. Prasanna handling a tricky subject sensitively along with maintaining the entertainment value. At times a few sequences and dialogues do seem to be over the top, forced and unrealistic shying away from the actual terms, but they still keep you decently engrossed and you don’t consider them as any big negatives. Despite the sexual theme, the director and his writer never get into vulgarity or any obscene zone that certainly deserves praises. However I personally felt the film dealing with too much symbolism deliberately avoiding the verbal explanations, which eventually does reduce the overall impact that could have been much more solid and entertaining.
Overall, SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN becomes a fairly good entertainer because of its fresh subject, lovable warmth, sweet genuine performances and hilarious one-liners.
In the end coming back to the comparison explaining how the Indian Regional Language Cinema is miles ahead than our Hindi cinema (and its audience), just one point mentioned below will give you a clear idea of the same.
In the present Hindi version, though the film is all about ‘Temporary Erectile Dysfunction or Impotence’ resulting in an embarrassing situation, not even a single character is willing to talk about it clearly or even say the specific words in the entire film. Whereas in the Tamil original KALYANA SAMAYAL SADHAM, it’s actually the girl who handles the situation calmly and types ‘Temporary Impotence’ in Google, to help her tensed fiancé.
That one instance alone (besides many others) should give you a clear scenario of what brilliance the film has in its original that completely goes missing in the remake. So if possible do also watch the actual film (with English subtitles), especially for the adorable Lekha Washington who is simply outstanding as the supportive girl.
Rating : 3 / 5
(The article also got featured at UC-News mobile app in September 2017)
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Shared below are views - Beyond the initial writeup with more interesting insights.
As a fresh Hindi remake, no doubt SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN can easily be referred as a decent one time watch family entertainer made on a novel theme. But it nowhere stands closer to its original that remains a highly appreciable, expressive and bold film made for a different and (honestly) much mature audience.
Putting it bluntly, if the same director has to take out all verbal and pictorial references from his film to make it more audience friendly while re-writing it for the Hindi belt, then you can easily guess the difference between how films are being made in the Indian Regional languages and our Hindi cinema.
For instance, where the girl never tries to say the exact words or help in any way in the Hindi remake, she calmly moves out of the bed (after the disclosure), reaches the laptop and types ‘Temporary Impotence’ in Google to help her tensed fiancé. A clear revelation, how a director has to tone down his film when going for a Hindi remake along with adding many forced sequences, a cameo and other avoidable sub-plots.
In short, would like you to watch both SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN (Hindi) and KALYANA SAMAYAL SAADHAM (Tamil), in order to study how a film gets remade distinctively for a different kind of audience existing in the same country.
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