Wedding Wreckers:
The title does evoke some curiosity, which the promo quickly dispels. Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari is a romcom with the template of My Best Friend’s Wedding and The Wedding Singer, in which the main concern was to get the lead character/s matched with the one right for them, before they marry the wrong one.
Of course, the plot and its humour rests on the audience rooting for this too, because the protagonist in danger of being left on the shelf is so endearing, and how can the object of his/her affection not see that?
In this film, directed by Shashank Khaitan, who has also co-written with Ishita Moitra (the dialogue is the best part), the four playing romantic noughts and crosses are equally vapid. Anyway, all that is needed for this Dharma Production (so Karan Johar plays a cameo as himself!), is a “ameer logon ki shaadi” at a grand Rajasthan hotel, stylishly dressed characters, and Varun Dhawan doing the heavy lifting.
Sunny (Dhawan), the good-for-nothing son of a jeweller (the shop is called Sanskari!), is left holding the ring when his girlfriend, Ananya (Sanya Malhotra) jilts him for the wealthy Vikram (Rohit Saraf). The girl he has ditched is Tulsi (Janhvi Kapoor), who is a teacher, so has to be bespectacled, boring and, according to Sunny “lower middle class.” But, she has to be recruited to crash the wedding of the exes and break it up.
So she loses the glasses, acquires a new, sexy wardrobe, slathers on excessive make-up, loses her inhibitions overnight, and lands up on the arm of Sunny at the hotel where the wedding is going through the seven-day cycle of rituals. Of course, they cannot be unchaperoned, so his sidekick Bantu (Abhinav Sharma) is in tow; hers lasts only as long as the shopping spree. If the “ameer log” were really that wealthy, how come they neglected to book the entire hotel for their wedding guests? Never mind! Because the competition is to turn the blood of the exes green with envy, as Sunny puts it. Which is more dance reality show that a rekindling of sparks. There’s a Holi dance, without Holi!
In a funny, but actually sad scene, the Tulsi and Ananya puff up their chests, hold in their stomachs to show off their slim figures; the guys have a pissing-in-the-pool contest to compare, well, the obvious. The young women are actually interchangeable, both willing to fit themselves into ideal wife mould. Tulsi is seen at a school but Ananya has an unspecified job, which she loves, but gives up to be Mrs Vikram Singh.
Vikram is a mamma’s boy, but Sunny is a woke—he drops awww so sweet lines about how women should not give up their identity after marriage and realise their true potential. He also has to run a lot, to reach one girl or another!
It is one of those mindless fluff kind of date movies, where there is no real conflict, lots of singing and dancing in fancy outfits (as brief as possible for the ladies), some humour which is left to Sunny-Bantu and a show-offy wedding planner (Maniesh Paul) to employ. For its flimsy plot, which the title gives way, it’s much too long. One big thing in its favour—no macho posturing by the guys. And, everybody dances well, but Dhawan is the clear winner in this as well as the comedy and emotions departments.
(This piece first appeared in rediff.com)
