Revisiting “Shuddh Desi Romance” : A smart and charming little film
Maneesh Sharma is the man to count on when you have to tell a hard-hitting and unconventional story through the means of commercial storytelling, marrying meaningful cinema and . He did it in 2010 with his first movie, Band Baaja Baaraat, and he did it again in 2013, with Shuddh Desi Romance. Except this time, he made one of the most ballsy, witty and path-breaking commercial movies Bollywood has witnessed in a long time.
Shuddh Desi Romance, directed by Maneesh Sharma, is the story of Raghu, played by Sushant Singh Rajput, a commitment-phobic youth, who decides to enter into a live-in relationship with his girlfriend Gayatri, played by Parineeti Chopra, after running away from his own wedding which was to happen with a girl called Tara, played by Vaani Kapoor. When Tara enters his life once again, things get complicated, spiralling into a crazy story of passionate love, raw emotions and societal expectations.
The location and writing of SDR is smart. The location of Jaipur offers a traditional Indian setting for the story to unfurl : thick with towering societal expectations and the shame associated with unconventional concepts of romance, a feeling heavily contrasted by the live-in relationship that Raghu and Gayatri enter into. This dynamic lends itself well to laughs and has an innate awkwardness that runs throughout the movie. The writing is localised, intelligent and respectful, never bordering on being crass or sleazy, given its sensitive subject matter. There are multiple well-etched running gags, including a pivotal one regarding bathrooms that is central to the movie’s narrative. This particular gag does catch fatigue, but the writing powers through, even when the story gets lacklustre. It has quick-witted one-liners that keep you invested in the proceedings. The dialogues have an interesting Rajasthani twist to them, and the World created around the characters seems authentic.
The story is fun but slightly confusing and overly long. Especially in the extremely iterative second half, where the story looses its grip and sense of purpose. But the first half is brilliant. It has masterful character writing. It establishes the character of Raghu well, making you fall in love with his charming, childish and perpetually confused nature. He is frustrating and immensely likeable, all at once. The movie focuses on him, as much as it does on Jaipur, and the sense of claustrophobia and captivity regarding marriages. SDR, all in all, is about breaking free and living the life you want to, and shattering societal expectations along the way if you have to. Maneesh and Jaideep Sahni, understand and execute this concept like no other. The movie doesn’t become excessively preachy, not treating its characters as devices for imparting moral learnings.
The acting is phenomenal. Leading the way is Sushant, showing a maturity and ease unheard of, completely making us forget the fact of this being his second movie. He is a delight to watch and has the right amount of swiftness and charm to steal your heart even when he’s downright immoral, even when he fools naive foreigners to buy overpriced Indian cloth. He has the slickness that makes Raghu likeable even when he is frustratingly clueless about his love life. He anchors the film with a sort of breezy performance that makes you fall in love with his shenanigans. Parineeti Chopra as Gayatri is formidable and her bits with Sushant are some of the best in the movie. It’s fun to watch their romantic banter and most of her dialogues are laced with eccentricity and awkwardness that she beautifully internalises to give a surprisingly grounded performance, despite the movie’s loud character writing. Holding her own in a considerably smaller performance, is Vaani Kapoor, displaying confidence and flair in her debut film. She is almost insignificant in the movie but gets her moments to shine, and she owns those moments, not letting you take your eyes off the screen when she’s in the frame. Rishi Kapoor as Tauji, the quintessential dadaji, is flat-out hilarious and holds your attention due to his well-written character and quirks.
The music is effective and has a Rajasthani touch to it, that works to its advantage. My favourites were Gulaabi, sung by Sachin-Jigar, is set against the vibrant backdrop of the colour pink, lending itself to a bright and visually arresting play of colours. Chanchal Man Ati Random, sung by, makes for a quirky and hummable song that perfectly encapsulates the sentiment of the movie and the title track is well-choreographed and memorable.
The movie attempts to make extremely sensitive and important comments about how society cages our ambitions and how our concept of love has an unneeded rigidity and orthodox nature that limits individuals it explore their sexuality and their love life they want to. The film also tries to say that its fine to let loose and live by your own terms, turning a blind eye towards the society that never got what you were doing. These are difficult issues and SDR handles them with grace, despite having strong commercial sensibilities.
It walks the tightrope very well, never discounting its core idea for an all-out entertainer or getting carried away. SDR remains true to its core and
Maneesh falls into that exclusive bracket of filmmakers who have a story to tell and choose the most over-exploited medium to tell these fascinating stories, and make magic happen! SDR is a testament to his niche school of storytelling.
Love is subjective, and there exists more than one concept of love.
SDR has the maturity to accept this fact, never imposing on you its own concept of love, but rather respecting your intellectual capability to make up your own mind.
It’s this sentiment that completely wins you over!
