Shuddh Desi Romance Review

Rating: 3.00/5

Critic Rating: (3.00/5)

We needed Jaideep Sahni, the city of Jaipur and a major studio to talk about live-in and commitment issues. Though we had films about live-ins, thankfully this is set closer to home and it has a better coat of wisdom than the washed out NRI setting. Sahni has a knack of picking up issues that plague this giant whale of a democracy. Be it land mafia, the underworld, ignored national sport or the politics of marketing, he made sure to give his screenplays tremendously researched insights which is rare for an Indian screenwriter.And for his first love story (more or less) he chose to explore the attitudes and ambience surrounding a fragile livein.

Plot

Raghu Ram makes his money attending weddings as part of the fake baarats Goel (Rishi Kapoor) gets together for his wedding contracts. Opening on the day of his own marriage a sceptical Raghu Ram meets Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra), also an employee of Goel’s fake baarats. And when Gayatri tries to talk Raghu out of his arranged marriage blues, things go wrong and it only leaves Raghu all the more confused.

The tension between Raghu and Gayatri keeps escalating to the point of Raghu ditching his beautiful bride (Tara played by Vaani Kapoor) to as to not live a lie. But, Raghu finds it increasingly difficult to decide on what truth he stands for,was the instant connect he had with Gayatri worth nothing and why does he want Tara so badly when he runs into her later in life.

Shot on real locations the film takes us into the streets, corners and homes of Jaipur with a kind of indie flare to its  cinematography. And Namrata Rao cutting it helps in shedding a little of the YRF fluff. Parineeti plays the focussed, seen it all modern girl with panache. Sushanth on the other hand suffers with the sameness of Manish Sharma’s protagonists. Rishi Kapoor takes less than 10 seconds to convince you of Goel, thereby landing the film’s best performance. 

Issues with the film

How can an accomplished writer such as Sahni leave much to coincidence and why do the leading ladies have seemingly similar personalities?

Why break into songs in the middle of such a tight drama?

What’s with the obsession with a two hour plus running time when this could have been a perfect 100 minute feature?

Verdict

The film makes its case against locking youngsters in relationships they are not sure about, which happens to be seemingly very unhealthy. It’s high time this country learned that.

 

Reviewed by Rohit

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