Friday, September 09, 2011
Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
Hello Brother!
A man falls in love with a woman who is engaged to another, and she reciprocates Then he uses lies and subterfuge to break up the couple and marry the girl himself. Everybody can identify that as the plot of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. With a little variation, it makes up yet another YRF film—Mere Brother Ki Dulhan. (Replacing Bhai with Brother makes it more original, or what?)
Still, as a character in the film calls it, for today’s “sms generation,” Ali Abbas Zafar’s film does provide some popcorn-aided ‘timepass’, with a liberal dose of Indian hypocrisy. A girl who claims to be wild (she smokes and drinks) says she never crosses the boundary (ie she draws the line at sex). Also, the same 27-year-old London-born and bred girl, agrees to an arranged marriage, because she wants a rich, sorted out NRI whose money she can spend. No career goals of her own? Strange.
Katrina Kaif is named Dimple Dixit in the film—combining the names of Dimple Kapadia and Madhuri Dixit. This is just one of the homages and in-jokes the film is full of. A bit tiresome to see that an enthusiastic first-time director needs to wear his influences on his sleeve so obviously (There’s even an autistic character like SRK in My Name is Khan.)
The plot that takes liberally from Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai, Dan in Real Life,Sorry Bhai and of course DDLJ, has one major diversion. Kush (Imran Khan) is entrusted the task of finding a suitable girl for his London resident brother Luv (Ali Zafar), who has just broken up with his girlfriend Piali (Tara D’Souza) and wants an arranged marriage.
After meeting the usual line-up of psychos and their parents, Kush meets Dimple, who he has met five years earlier in her rock-chick avatar. Now she is demurely carrying the tea tray to impress her prospective in-laws. She has a video chat with Luv, during which she quizzes him and both agree to a marriage without even meeting.
So the band, baaja, baraat starts in Delhi, Kush realises that he is in love with Dimple and she with him, but he will not elope. They will find a painless, face-saving way of solving the problem. And they do… today’s “sms generation” does not believe in heabreak or pain. Never mind that they have to resort to deception to avoid it.
Katrina Kaif is spirited and uninhibited and fun to watch, can’t say the same about the guys. The songs are catchy and exuberantly choreographed—theMadhubala number in particular. Why crib, originality is never an issue — MBKD is a frothy entertainer.
Labels: Cinemaah
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