Movie Review - Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana – by Suhel Johar

Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana Is A Predictable and Clichéd Love Story.

 

Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana, the Rajkummar Rao and Kriti Kharbanda film, is a take on love, ambition, family and the age-old concept of arranged marriages. Set in the Hindi heartland, shuttling between Kanpur and New Delhi Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana is a predictable love story that is unable to rise above clichés in favour of a fairly loosely-knit narrative.

The film starts off on a frivolous note, wasting no time in getting to the heart of the matter and a meeting between Satydendra ‘Sattu’ Mishra (Rajkummar Rao). and Aarti Shukla (Kriti Kharbanda). Satyendra works as a clerk in a government department while Aarti is a post graduate who aspires to be an IAS officer some day.

The duo agree that a decision on marriage is not taken in ‘30 minutes’ but end up doing precisely that, aside from being agreeable on most things and while falling for each other too. While Satyendra is boyish and eager with his questionable English pronunciation,

Roughly an hour prior to the wedding, it dawns on Aarti that she has cleared the provincial civil services examination and that her to-be MIL would not be too keen on her career.  Aarti makes it clear that she would want to work after the saat phere. But the Mishras don’t want their going-to-be daughter-in-law to work and earn. From here the Satyendra - Aarti love story takes an unfortunate twist and both of them choose to go their ways.

Five years later destiny brings them together followed by a few loud and dragging sequences.  Now, Aarti is a government servant doing well for herself when she is embroiled in a corruption case.  As fate would have it, Satyendra is back (more successful than her), and in-charge of the ongoing probe against her.

Since, Satyendra is in a revenge mode for the humiliation suffered by his family, he belittles and embarrasses Aarti at every turn. It is at this time that Ratnaa Sinha’s first directorial effort starts to fall flat a bit - when it leans more on Kharbanda to force the issue.

Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana is a predictable film which is placed in the context of a small town with all its quirks and loads of melodrama . The film lacks a coherent script that was required to make the film interesting and watchable.. Written by Kamal Pandey, the film has traces of films that belong to the same genre incliding the recent ones like Badrinath Ki Dulhania and  Bareilly Ki Barfi. First-half is breezy bur the momentum tends to fall flat in the second half  and you feel that the film is stretching just that little bit extra and it should end.

The film’s weakest point is that it’s story is very predictable. The viewer can easily understand what is going to happen in the next scene. So maybe it could have been written better and also edited better. Its predictable plot makes most of the film look forced thanks to the melodrama and repitition in the narrative. The unconvincing turn of events in the tale make watching the film an unendurable exercise.

Debutante director Ratnaa Sinha is filmmaker Anubhav Sinha’s wife and her work in the film varies from good to confused to really bad and that could be because of some weak writing.

Kamal Pandey’s story is the weakest point of the film while his screenplay and dialogues are below average. Cinematography by Suresh Beesaveni is good. Editing by Ballu Saluja is not upto the mark and could have been crisper.

‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’, the saying suits well for the music in the film with multiple composers given the task to work on the compositions. But the music can still be considered a weak link with not a single song that you can remember after walking out of the theatre. The composers who worked on the film include Anand Raj Anand, Arko, Kaushik - Akash - Guddu, Rashid Khan and Zain - Saim – Raees.

Performancewise, Rajkummar Rao wins your heart yet again. He is effortlessly endearing and sails through his role. Kriti Kharbanda manages to hold her own in scenes with Rao. She looks charming and performs well. K.K. Raina, Govind Namdev, Navni Parihar and Vipin Sharma lend adequate sipport.

On the whole, Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana is an invitation you can surely afford to miss unless you’re a ardent fan of Rajkummar Rao.