Delhi is poetic. A city of prepositions. A city of congruence. Shashanka Ghosh captures a different face of Delhi, one that is loud and flashy, in his latest outing Veere Di Wedding. His projection of Delhi will resonate with the popular perceptions of the city in the minds of Mumbaiwallas. And he makes no efforts to change it.
Manoj Pahwa essays a father who wants to flash his wealth in his son Rishabh’s (Sumeet Vyas) wedding. The plan is to invite 1,000 guests, and the engagement ceremony takes place on a crescent moon, which lifts the bride and groom into the air when they exchange rings. Neena Gupta plays the role of a mother whose ultimate motive is to get her daughter (Sonam Kapoor Ahuja) married, even if she has a career in which she feels more or less settled. Add to that a lot of swear words and booze.
At the heart of this 'not-a-chick-flick' is the wedding of Kalindi (Kareena Kapoor Khan); as she starts rethinking her decision to get married, her friends Avni (Sonam), Shikha (Swara Bhasker) and Meera (Shikha Talsania) deal with the crisis. Simultaneously, they grapple with their personal demons. We are introduced to the friends as adolescents. Even after a 10-year leap the movie takes at the beginning, they hardly seem to come out of that frame of mind, especially when it comes to making big life decisions.
Kalindi struggles with the idea of an opulent wedding, besides combating the broken equations in her family after her mother’s death. Shikha, who is liberal with her lifestyle and use of cuss words, is in the middle of an ugly divorce—the reasons for it are bizarre. Avni, a divorce lawyer, has an eventful past—she tailed a boyfriend to Pune just after school, and had an affair with her boss. But nothing has come close to marriage for Avni, who wears fake eye-lashes and full make-up even at the courts. On the insistence of her mother, she is trying to persuade herself for an arranged marriage with corporate lawyer Nirmal, who broaches the subject of a prenup in their first meeting. Meera, now a mother to a two-year-old, eloped with a white guy. She is not struggling with marriage, or the idea of getting married, but a bade papa who still hasn’t come to terms with the big decision.
Amidst all this, the girls share a tight-knit friendship. One of them sponsors a group trip to Thailand—how else would the film show a foreign location where the girls have a ball, gyrating at strip clubs, with copious amounts of booze and cigarattes. The friendship doesn’t seem fake, but fails to evoke any emotion. The profanity in the script by Nidhi Mehra and Mehul Suri stand out more than any issue the girls are struggling with; they hardly seem close to reality.
Kareena plays her part well. Sonam reprises many of her previous characters (Aisha, Khoobsurat)—nothing new, nothing exceptional. Swara and Shikha have a field day. Swara has played similar roles in films like Tanu Weds Manu and its sequel. Vyas, even if good in his part, seems to have borrowed a leaf from the book of his character in the popular web series Permanent Roommates. Except for the song and dance sequence that he has to take part in, he is the same sweet, simple guy who would do anything that the girlfriend/fiancé wanted.
The movie establishes itself as a female road trip flick, but fails at many levels because of its lack of seriousness in dealing with issues; it needed a reality check. It is somehow a cross between the Hindi version of Sex And The City and the female version of Pyaar Ka Punchnama series, but nosedives courtesy a lack of originality.
Film: Veere Di Wedding
Cast: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Swara Bhasker, Shikha Talsania, Sumeet Vyas
Director: Shashanka Ghosh
Rating: 2.5/5