Rating : Poor (1.5/5)
Genre : Romance, Comedy
Year : 2020
Running time : 2 hours 5 minutes
Director : Puneet Khanna
Cast : Vikrant Massey, Yami Gautam, Ayesha Raza, Rajiv Gupta
Kidwise : PG
The trailer promised a lively rom-com so I was rather looking forward to Ginny Weds Sunny. But this dull, annoying film is one to be missed.
Satnam Sethi aka Sunny (Massey) must wed, per Papaji, who has promised him the family restaurant at marriage. Fueled by that motive, Sunny goes looking for a woman. One lovely young woman is ready to step onto the marriage mandap, per her mother, but is headstrong and must be wooed with romance. Sunny, floored by the lovely Ginny aka Simran Juneja (Gautam), and nursing a secret crush, makes plans to do the needful. But Ginny already has another suitor waiting in the wings . . .
This film reminds me of Fukrey, in that it is also the story of an utter loser trying to woo a woman out of his league. Now if said loser had some redeeming qualities/showed growth, the film could still have been interesting, but that’s not so. Sunny, while played affably by Massey, doesn’t have much to recommend him. He hopes to have Daddy give him a restaurant, and that’s his big goal. He’s not very interesting or good-looking. Plus he assumes that the woman he marries will automatically give up her life and aspirations to help him run this restaurant. Your standout Bollywood charmer, this one! Ginny isn’t that wonderful either but she at least has 1) an opinion 2) looks 3) a job.
Ginny Weds Sunny follows the typical Bollywood trope where we 1) Harp on the Punjabi-ness 2) Try to pass off worthless young men as great husband material. The film’s storyline is shaky, to put it mildly. It is basically Sunny wooing/stalking Ginny in long, boring encounters. He walks out of his home on a trip to follow Ginny to Mussoorie, like he’s going out to war. Comedy? I think not. And while I can see his family egging him on to bring home a lovely, susheel, sanskaari bahu, I cannot see why Ginny’s mom thinks less-than-desirable Sunny is the man for her daughter.
The film tries to build the comedic scenes with Punjabi-laden dialog, but the characters, who are supposed to be Punjabi, can’t get out a proper Punjabi accent. So the (cheesy) jokes fall flat and seem fake. Also annoying are the “sound effects” that accompany each “joke” – because apparently the audience needs help identifying the funny parts!
Ginny Weds Sunny fails on many counts – the insipid characters, the weak writing, lack of chemistry between the lead pair, the poor casting choices. It is not that these actors are not capable – Massey is a fantastic actor but is not a good fit for this role. Yami was lovely in Bala and Vicky Donor, and she’s good here too – but the script and the characterization let her down. The film is a snoozefest, and even stalwarts like Ayesha Raza-Mishra, who plays Ginny’s mother, can’t perk up things.
Ginny Weds Sunny is another shallow romantic caper – no freshness or oomph. So, why, oh why would one waste time on it?
Kidwise: Clean. But why would you put your kids through this? They will not thank you.
