Rating : 2/5
Genre : Romance
Year : 2020
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Hitesh Kevalya
Cast : Ayushmann Khurana, Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, Gajraj Rao, Sunita Rajwar, Maanvi Gagroo, Manu Rishi Chadha
Kid rating : PG
Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan is a romance with a difference because it doesn’t have a hero and heroine – it has a hero Kartik (Khurana) and another hero Aman (Kumar). Said heroes are madly in love with each other, but haaye! yeh zamaana! The cruel world, which in this film boils down to Aman’s family, opposes the match (to put it mildly), and exhorts him to marry Kusum (Awasthy), the pretty girl next door. How will Kartik and Aman get the family’s blessing for their union?
Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhaan is a PSA for homosexuality and gay rights, but a good film it is not. It checks all the right boxes: a good message, heart in the right place, earnestness and all that, but the execution is so shoddy that it is all to no avail. The story is nonexistent – it is just Kartik and Aman finding acceptance with family – and there’s a lot of senseless hoopla thrown in to fill time. Events happen in the film without rhyme or reason, and the film meanders aimlessly, which makes it an annoying watch.
The characters are so overdone, they border on the stupid. They are a lot of side-stories – Aman’s dad’s kaali-gobi (black cauliflower) invention, Kusum’s besottedness with Aman, Goggle ki shaadi ki kahaani – which if handed properly could have made a fantastic film, but Kevalya makes a hash of it. He’s probably fine as a script-writer (like in Shubh Mangal Saavdhan) but as a director does not pass muster.
Ayushman Khurana hams it up as the volatile Kartik, and he’s a pretty decent actor, so I’m going to chalk this one up to the director’s misdirection. Jitendra Kumar does very well as Aman – I look forward to seeing more of him. The supporting cast is fantastic – Neena Gupta plays Aman’s mom, Gajraj Rao plays the father (pretty much the roles they had in the entertaining Badhaai Ho), Chaddha plays Chaman Chacha and the marvelous Sunita Rajwar plays Champa Chachi. I especially liked Maanvi Gagroo as feisty Goggle, Aman’s cousin and the girl at whose wedding this tamasha is taking place. Can we have a film on Goggle’s life, instead?
We’ve had films that attempt to educate the junta about homosexuality like this one and Ek Ladki Ko Dekha, but it is a pity that these films are made so badly. Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhan has some good laughs, some funny dialogs, and some important information on gay rights which it dispenses peppered though-out the film, but other than that it is dismal.
Kidwise: Kissing scenes between the two men.
