Once again revolving around a Punjabi Wedding, Hindi Cinema continues to bank on Punjabi references in their key projects, but the word VEERE here in the title is not actually used for the brother (as in Punjabi). The film is about the individually chosen lives and relationships of four girls (as fast friends since school) and is certainly not any usual girls-movie witnessed by Hindi Cinema till date. It has its own controversial firsts which were actually also responsible for creating a wide-negativity in the social media just after its ‘uncensored’ online trailer released a month back.
Interestingly this is a new promotional strategy followed by the PR department, to first release a trailer with all clear cuss words and uncensored language. And then rectifying or toning it down as required in the censored version of the film like an obedient student. Anyway keeping this debatable feature for the last, would first like to talk about the film entirely focused on the group of four spirited girls and their reunion.
VEERE DI WEDDING is absolutely clear about its target audience and simply focuses to give them a good time in the theater without caring about the rest. So if director Luv Ranjan conceived his PUNCHNAMA series and SONU KE TITU KI SWEETY keeping the boys in mind. This is Ghosh and Kapoor’s much bolder answer targeting purely the girls with a few over-the-top insertions and avoidable exaggerations.
The film largely provides the entertainment to its majority of target audience and that too without any intentional male bashing, moving far ahead of the films mentioned above (relying heavily on the same from the other perspective). The narration fairly keeps you engaged showcasing a believable female bonding despite the too glossy looks, over-stuffed backdrops, designer costumes, at your face branding and the language used. Further the cool references of Delhi’s South and West regions, Tees Hazari court, Khalsa College, the uncles and aunties, their typical gossips along the golgappas add their own charm into the film at regular intervals.
The dialogues are genuinely funny in some scenes and a few characters are loud yet lovable like Manoj Pahwa and Ayesha Raza as the would-be-inlaws, Vishwas Kini as Bhandari, Vivek Mushraan as Chachu, Neena Gupta as the mother and the three taunting aunties along Sumeet Vyas playing the straight-faced, understanding would-be-husband. Surprisingly it has a gay couple too as a part of the family without any issues raised or getting a biased mention in the dialogues.
But above all VEERE DI WEDDING actually becomes interesting due to a clever and apt casting of the four loving friends as Kareena, Sonam, Shikha and Swara. No doubt the girls are made to over-react and be intentionally loud too in some specific sequences. Yet they overall remain likable and relatable too led by a terrific Kareena Kapoor who successfully manages to be subtle as well as elegant playing the confused character. The second most natural act comes from Shikha Talsania bringing in certain warmth and realistic feel into the film (except a couple of instances where she too becomes quite loud unnecessarily). The girl definitely needs to be given more chances here in much better films.
Swara Bhasker playing the most controversial part performs it with great confidence but she actually begins to impress in the latter part of film and not in the initial sequences. She specifically nails it adapting the Delhi lingo, just perfectly saying words like Maatey and Malhotrey in her quirky dialogues. Lastly Sonam Kapoor tries her best to be natural and candid in her complex character and she does well too, but not better than the other three in the group giving them their deserving due.
The film is appealing in parts due to the affection between its various characters and the sub-plots decently used in the second half, especially the climax. Remaining focused on the girls, it can easily be called the first mainstream Hindi film which is strictly interested in narrating from the girl’s perspective without any holding back. It definitely falls short of being called the girl-version of DIL CHAHTA HAI due to various limitations, but unarguably rises much above ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES and PARCHED without getting into any moral preaching or pretending to be straight.
Among the downers, one can see partial but clear inspirations taken from different sources (mainly SEX AND THE CITY - 2008) and deliberate loud insertions made just to make it controversial and gain some extra attention. At times the cuss words included in the dialogues clearly look like spoken on purpose conflicting with the otherwise cool persona of the character in her other scenes. Toning down of abusive language and boozing surely could have helped the film a lot in terms of gaining more audience. But avoiding the forced ‘masturbation’ scene, would have benefitted the film the most, as that is what’s going to be hugely disturbing for the Indian viewers, who are probably still not ready to see a film from the female perspective…… including the women.
If truth be told, no one would raise an objection if a Hindi movie has a leading male actor doing it on screen or making a strong mention of it (that has been there in several films). But we do follow different rules when it comes to women portrayal in our films unarguably.
In support of the above statement, just a couple of months back we had Irrfan Khan taking the pictures of his boss and colleague’s wife to the toilet for his personal pleasure in film BLACKMAIL. But no-one found it objectionable and no one mentioned it on the social media too, as that is okay and acceptable if done by men as allowed by our social standards.
But having said that, I still felt the scene inserted just to create a controversy more than anything else and could have been avoided. Also because the rebellion, outspoken character of Swara was already well-established by then in the script, before the purposeful insertion.
A noisy soundtrack, a loud background score and an at-your-face art direction also makes you feel the attempt of adding an extra punch into the narration without any need as such. Strangely the most famous track “Tareefan” is not included in the film but in the end credits getting insanely wasted. Further a sudden trip to Phuket (just to get them in their swimming costumes) surely makes you feel the desperation.
I haven’t got any complaints for its thin basic plot as its mostly a film revolving around characters and their individual state of mind. But what I missed was any surprises in the end as it all becomes completely predictable heading towards a usual happy ending forgetting all about breaking free or being a social rebellion.
Agreeing to the criticism against the film, yes in certain scenes it does feel like a forced attempt made with a misguided vision of feminism. But at the same time it also gives some rare severe blows to patriarchy that should not be the basic cause of your personal issues with the film.
Putting it differently, does every movie revolving around young girls has to be the one talking about ‘woman empowerment’ with specific sequences of moral values, preaching and teaching? If a PUNCHNAMA or SWEETY can be made for the boys from their point of view, then why cannot there be a film specifically made for the girls from their point of view too focusing on entertainment. In short why cannot there be female version of DIL CHAHTA HAI or FUKREY simply talking about a group of girls (from both affluent and middle class families), having fun in their college life or later years.
And regarding the language or cuss words, yes it doesn’t appear to be anything close to natural at times, but as men, do we really know how girls talk in their friend circle when there are no boys or family around? No we don’t!
Moreover, since this is a film made for the girls, let the girls decide whether its worth watching or not in the coming days and the rest can easily avoid as per their individual choice.
But sharing my personal viewpoint, I truly enjoyed all Luv Ranjan films made for the boys and fairly liked VEERE DI WEDDING made for the girls too, which surely could have been much better as a film, minus all the artificial insertions.
It also made an impact as it reminded me of the fact that how many of us are still having the same group of friends in our third or fourth decade of life as we had in our school or may be college life? As we grow-up, the old friends get lost in the changing sceanrio and new ones keep coming in as a continuous process.
But how many of them in reality can be called as FAMILY?
At the same time, VEERE DI WEDDING also loses a lot in terms of ratings, when I think about so shameless brand promotion wherein they are even eating Bikaji namkeen mixtures in their foreign tours and amazingly praising Air India for their professional timing, comfort and value for money.
Come on! Kindly don’t treat your viewers as completely blind people sitting in the theaters, not capable of catching such poor and brazen games being played in the name of cinema.
In short VEERE DI WEDDING is a fun-filled girls flick, that is both going to be loved as well hated by different sections of the viewers in the days ahead. Just take a look, which section you belong to as a viewer and re-check the reasons too.
Rating : 2.5 / 5 (It loses an additional 0.5 for the shameless brand promotion)
(Note : Almost two decades back Subhash Ghai’s YAADEIN was also hugely criticized for a similar kind of onscreen brand promotion and incidentally there too we had Kareena Kapoor playing the lead along Hrithik Roshan.)
