Genre : Drama, Comedy
Year : 2018
Running time : 2 hours 17 minutes
Director : Luv Ranjan
Cast : Nusrat Bharucha, Sunny Singh Nijjar, Karthik Aaryan, Ayesha Raza, Deepika Amin, Alok Nath, Viendra Saxena
Kid rating : A
Remember Pyaar ka Punchnama? Remember how it reeked of misogyny? That reek taints the atmosphere yet again, because director Luv Ranjan has churned out another one. This time the story is a little different. Yes, there is still a bromance, a strong, strong bromance between Sonu and Titu! Titu (Nijjar) is the emotional fool, falling for unsuitable young women again and again, breaking and shattering his innocent, golden heart into a million pieces, sob! Sonu (Aaryan) is called upon to come pick up said pieces, wipe away the tears, put Titu back together back again, kinda like Humpty-Dumpty. Usually, this is easy-peasy for strong Sonu. Until Sweety (Bharucha) comes along, and wraps Titu around her itty-bitty finger.
She is beautiful, seems sweet and considerate, and Titu is oh-so-ready to marry her. Sonu however, thinks her too good to be true. He has a “feeling” he says. Sweety meanwhile is no shrinking violet and is ready to show Sonu his place! It will be a battle of the titans. And the prize, the prize you ask (with bated breath)? Sonu, yes, Sonuuuuuuuuuuuuu (wipes tears)!
The plot of the film is a little thin; cracks appear even to a very casual observer. Sweety is branded an evil witch by Sonu because she is too good to be true (!!), AND she has the gumption to challenge Sonu outright (his ego takes a beating, what). Yes, she is wily, all narrowed eyes and arched eyebrows, but her machinations never have a sound reason; the evilness is never quite proven. Also, it was never really made clear why she was being all Bond-villain-ish, without doing anything vile – she had Sonu’s parivaar eating out of her hands anyway.
The film then is a tug-of-war between Sonu and Sweety, with Titu being led, lamb-like, this way and that. By intermission, the deck was stacked against Sweety – we saw how wily she was, and were firmly on Sonu-Titu’s side, believing that her nefarious motives were to be revealed and thwarted by the awesome twosome. Yet, nothing like that ever happens. We don’t get to see the nefarious motives, or any real damage she does. What we do see is Sonu scheming to bring her down because she’s getting the upper hand in this three-cornered relationship.
Time has flown. It was in 2011 that Pyar ka Punchnama had me barfing up my dinner, but it seems like yesterday; I’m bringing up my food again. To be fair, SKTKS is well-paced and director Ranjan knows how to make a mountain out of a molehill and keep it suspenseful. However it also brings in to play all the sexist stereotypes there are. The women in this film are cast either as home-makers or gold-diggers. Titus mom (played by the lovely Ayesha Raza – you might remember her from Dil Dhadakne Do) runs around organizing food and festivities, while the grandma holds the purse strings and gives the nod for her husband (Nath) to accompany Titu and Sonu on their bachelor party in Amsterdam, while Sweety stays home and organizes mata-ka-jagrans. Double standards, I hear you say?
SKTKS displays a mindset steeped in deep misogyny (so deep it actually cavorts as comedy), where the women are disposable, essential only for house-wifely roles, and holding down the fort smilingly as the men go gallivanting around the world for their pleasure. This world-view does the men no favors either; they are either simple-minded baboons like Titu or creepily possessive petty thinkers like Sonu, who can’t suffer a dented ego even for the sake of his best friend’s happiness.
Sonu and Titu are both unlikeable, and our Sweety is no crowd-pleaser either. You’ll enjoy this film only if you agree with this film’s misogynistic philosophy.
Kidwise: Nothing reprehensible about this film except the way it reinforces the patriarchal mindset. Enough danger in that to keep the kids away from this juvenile film.
