Shuddh Desi Romance

People fall in and out of love too easily. Change their mind about marriage too conveniently. I understand promiscuity but this is a different level of flippancy. You also don't get what's it about Sushant that he gets too fairly hot women to lust for him.

Sushant Singh runs away from one marriage, from the actual jai-mala stage. Because he is not sure. Neither are we about why he runs away. He seems like a typical, dil-phenkh, sadak- chhaap boy, nothing memorable about him, not much to look at either. But first Parineeti falls for him. Then Vaani Kapoor, the girl he had left at the Hindu equivalent of the altar, also does so. Cue a couple more escapes from weddings and you wonder what the hell is going on…

The only character who remains consistent, understandable is Rishi Kapoor. A man who employs both Sushant and Parineeti as fake baraati's and otherwise runs a wedding catering / baraat business. His advice, concern for the three leads remains genuine. And even though there are plenty of 'I love you's', kisses and sex, not once do you feel anything is real or heart- felt…which kind of allows the whole movie to pass you by as well, without any regard for its leads.

Some of the jokes are funny. The rustic touches are good, the atmosphere, small-town feel works and the performances sincere. Pity you just don't agree with either the overall plot or the characters created.

For years Hindi movies have drilled the same conservative, and often regressive notions of love and marriage into our heads. Shuddh Desi Romance takes that conventional wisdom propagated to us in the movies and turns it on its head. What's worth noting is that this movie comes from the stable of Yash Raj Films, the very studio largely responsible for breeding those notions through hits like Chandni, Dil To Pagal Hai and Bachna Ae Haseeno among others.Directed by Band Baaja Baraat's Maneesh Sharma and written by Chak De India's Jaideep Sahni, Shuddh Desi Romance is set amidst the bustle of middle-class Jaipur, where unemployed youngsters will happily pose as friends and cousins in a traveling baraat for a few thousand rupees and a gold chain. When he isn't conning white tourists into buying handicrafts from local merchants for a commission, Raghu (Sushant Singh Rajput) is busy falling in love. But he goes from sincere to conflicted to selfish in as long as it takes most people to change out of a wedding suit. So he'll woo a girl, win her heart, then develop cold feet at the mandap. This happens thrice in Shuddh Desi Romance, which would be tiring and largely predictable if it weren't for Sahni's crackling dialogue and the charming characters he puts on screen. Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra) is a gregarious rebel Raghu meets on the way to his own wedding. She smokes, she's had boyfriends, and she lets Raghu move in with her when he ditches his shaadi. Tara (newcomer Vaani Kapoor) is the damsel who springs a surprise on both Raghu and the audience.Like most normal couples – hence, unlike the relationships we see in Hindi movies – sexual attraction is key to our protagonists' equation, and the film doesn't make a big deal about it. In fact, to give credit where it's due, Sahni's script never screams from the rooftops about the brave ideas it pushes so matter-of-factly. Skillfully avoiding melodrama or sloganeering, the film portrays a generation where single women can live in with their boyfriends without being banished by the housing society. This is a refreshingly real middle-class India where marriage needn't be life's sole ambition for young girls, and where women can hold their heads high and carry on with life despite having been ditched at the altar.There's so much to like about Shuddh Desi Romance, including Sharma's nicely textured portrait of the Pink City. The film captures the sights and sounds of a busy metro in ways that most films don't even try. Oblivious that he's ruined someone's appetite, a cook at a jalebi stall scratches his backside with a chhanni. It's little details like these that sparkle with originality.Pity then that the movie runs out of steam in its unconvincing final act, particularly during a confrontation between the two leading ladies that comes off as contrived. In other complaints, the talking-into-camera device is now overused, and seldom works unless what's being said is profound, which isn't always the case here. This in fact, adds to the film's already verbose and occasionally repetitive feel.What cannot be faulted, however, are the terrific performances from the central players. Vaani Kapoor makes an auspicious debut, carrying off Sahni's firecracker lines with the comfort of a pro. Sushant Singh Rajput as Raghu, has an easy charm about him and unmistakable depth behind that scruffy exterior. But it's Parineeti Chopra, reminiscent of a younger Rani Mukherjee, who this film belongs to. She has expressive eyes and an endearing manner about her, and turns Gayatri into the most real woman you've encountered on screen recently. The film also benefits enormously from the casting of an excellent Rishi Kapoor in the part of a feisty wedding caterer and Raghu's father figure.To a large extent, Shuddh Desi Romance reinvents the wheel as far as Bollywood rom-coms go. It's aggressively non-formulaic, and gives us characters who refuse to conform. The minor hiccups notwithstanding, this is a charming little film. I'm going with eight ratings. You'll enjoy it.

Yes, the storyline is rather fidgety. But since when did we become so staunch about the storyline from movies under Yash Raj Films banner? Acting is above average, Rishi Kapoor tops the list, of course. No surprises there. The script is entertaining and funny. Well, more often than not.

But the 7 / 10 is mostly because of the statement or the point that this movie tried to make about marriages in India. And even amidst the inconsistency of the movie, there is enough food for thought for this generation and for the country as a whole.

As India slowly turns into an epitome of hypocrisy as a country, I have a feeling that this movie won't be acceptable by the average Indian audience though there is no sex or foreplay as such. But hey, curvy girls in bikinis running on the beach in some Salman Khan movie is just fine! As long as there is objectification.

There are however both sexual and non-sexual peeves (for the Indian audience) thrown all over the movie and I found them brilliant as well as hilarious. Go ahead, take your family to this movie. Make them a little uncomfortable and be a little uncomfortable as well. Monkeys make out, we do too. It's okay! For once, don't judge.

Bottomline: Definitely entertaining. Definitely funny. Yes, it is a little mindless and the story wanders off at times. But it's worth the watch!

Admittedly, the most important name in SHUDDH DESI ROMANCE was not Parineeti, Sushant or Maneesh but Jaideep Sahni for me, since I really love the way he writes his films with a rare realistic texture and simplicity. However after watching it in an almost full theater of mostly college students, I was somehow disappointed 'in the end' since the film neither had anything Pure (Shuddh) or Tratitional (Desi) nor truly Romantic in its 140 minutes of content, revolving around Live-In relationships to be precise. So since the main focus of the film was all around casual flirting, pre-marital sex and live in relationships, I strongly felt the title of the film just opposite to its concept as SHUDDH DESI ROMANCE very frankly.

Besides, this is the first time ever that I felt the writing of Jaideep Sahni (Story, Screenplay, Dialogues & Lyrics) very confusing and unconvincing with every single character of his, not exactly knowing what he/she really wants in his/her life and who do they love from their heart seriously. But fortunately, a viewer gets to think all this in a negative mode, only when the film reaches in its last 30 minutes and not before that.

Therefore, the good news is that till the complexities between its three leading characters reach their concluding moments, the viewers have nothing to complain at all as far as entertainment is concerned. And the film undoubtedly remains a fairly enjoyable venture both before and after the intermission with many entertaining sequences & dialogues to keep you glued. But once it reaches the finale, all the fine build simply crashes down with some absurd decisions taken by its characters and a very weird kind of conclusion is there promoting an entirely different concept of the present society (i.e. the live in relationships) which is certainly not any SHUDDH DESI ROMANCE as they have named it.

So if you are just interested in having a good time in the theater, laughing at all the unjustified & highly unrealistic kind of scenes, wherein everyone is behaving in a confused or weird manner, then SDR might interest you a lot since it is exactly packaged to provide the same. It has some great intimate kisses, many hilarious dialogues in a local lingo and some good performances too. But in case you are interested in watching an exceptional love story with a deep emotional base supported by a realistic logic then you might get disappointed like myself as the end credits start rolling.

Having said that, the smart thing about the film is, that it actually never makes you feel the absurdity till the last few minutes. And its only when the film is over, that you are forced to think "Yaar, Yeh Hua Kya?", followed by more questions about the entire storyline which have no logical answers at all in the film itself. For instance, a young man runs away from his marriage's mandap just before the "Jai-mala" and knowing it, the immensely beautiful bride takes it very casually and asks for a Thanda instead! Now there are many more similar sequences in the film which certainly have no realistic reasoning behind them, not expected from a project written by Jaideep Sahni. But maybe this time the writer and his director were more interested in making the people laugh on these absurdities only, quite intentionally for a change.

Anyway, though its basic plot is just the same (of confused partners), the film is still presented in a highly likable manner and I too enjoyed it a lot in its initial hour. But towards the final half an hour, the interest was all lost, leading to an utterly confused conclusion, supported by no reason at all. Actually SDR keeps progressing at a very calm pace without any peaks of excitement in the script. Yet it majorly keeps you entertained because of the loving chemistry between its three charming characters and their natural performances. As a strong merit, there are no dull moments in the film at all with many hilarious dialogues in its initial 90 minutes. Still at times one might think that there is too much talking going on instead of Pure Romance in a repetitive mode.

Musically SDR has some good tracks but also has a signature tune in the background music exactly similar to the notes of "Kiklee Kaleer Di" from LUV SHUV TE CHICKEN KHURANA. Thankfully the songs don't come into the narration abruptly, which is another saving grace of the film and Cinematography also provides a good support capturing the local feel brilliantly.

In performances, Sushant Singh is remarkably natural and impresses once again post KAI PO CHE!. He is fresh in looks and gets some great lines to woo the audience too.Parineeti Chopra is fine with another of her 'bindaas, spontaneous' performance playing the bold & beautiful. She is no doubt good but now needs to move on, away from her typical 'Carefree' persona displaying some different acting skills in her next projects. Rishi Kapoor is lovable as usual and Rajesh Sharma does it well once again. But the surprise element in the film is Vaani Kapoor who looks stunningly gorgeous and amazingly confident in her very first performance on screen and could have made much more impact with a better role written for her (having some logical reasoning).

To sum it up, SHUDDH DESI ROMANCE is a young film at heart particularly aiming at the youngsters with many light, entertaining moments to win over them smartly (overstepping the Indian traditional setting of a marriage). It could have been a great film, if it had a more logical conclusion given to the 3 confused characters in the final reels. But in the present form, it has a winning build-up, the impact of which gets more or less ruined by a weird and irritating climax quite surprisingly.

Director Mr. Maneesh Sharma work is good. He has taken the movie ahead from the script. Script is written by Jaideep Sahni, and it is average. Story line is new but very thin. Scenes are fresh but they get slow very often, especially in second half. Dialogues are good. Actually, what has been shown in promo and trailer, is undoubtedly best part of film. All characters in the film are somewhere underplayed and somewhere exaggerated. There are very few scenes which succeed to touch the heart, actually it just pat the heart and then move away. The main emotion in this love story is the confusion of characters, rather than love, so they reflect fake at the places. It is difficult to relate with any one of them completely. Look of the film and approach towards every scene is new. Director of photography, Manu Anand work is impressive. Performance wise Sushant Singh Rajput as Raghu, is natural and good. Parineeti Chopra as Gayetri, is fine. Vaani Kapoor as Tara, is impressive, especially her cute smile, which she used in max of the scenes. Rishi Kapoor is on the top. Fine actor Rajesh Sharma as Mausa ji , is wasted. Music by Sachin Jigar is good, title track is very good.