Saturday, July 12, 2014
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania
Original
Fake
In Humpty
Sharma Ki Dulhania, the leading lady is obsessed with getting a designer lehenga for
her wedding. She goes to a shop where is shown a Manish Malhotra design for a
fraction of the price. It’s “100% original fake,” says the saleman.
This sort
of describes Shashank Khaitan’s film, a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le
Jayenge, with some cosmetic changes. The two characters live in
North India, not London; the girl’s father (Ashutosh Rana instead
of the late Amrish Puri) wants Kavya (Alia Bhatt) to go for an
arranged marriage to an NRI she has never met, instead of a groom from a Punjab
village. The boy, Rakesh aka Humpty (Varun Dhawan) is a cheerful duffer on the
lines of Raj in DDLJ.
It’s been
nearly 20 years and not much has changed. Kavya is “modern” only to the extent
that the self-proclaimed “pataka” from Ambala drinks more and faster that the
boys and hops into bed with Humpty after one kiss. No talk of education,
career, personal goals, or even a wish to see the world, like Simran from DDLJ. Her
older sister (Mahnaz Damania) got divorced after a love marriage, and this has
not been forgotten or forgiven.
Kavya
helps Humpty to cheat and pass his exams, and in turn he offers to get her lehenga and
also to help her friend, who is in trouble with her nasty boyfriend. Humpty,
who is “Vidya Book Centre ka iklauta waris” is first seen emerging
from the toilet with a girl, but we are supposed to see him as a “achha
ladka.” This is considered modern for a guy.
After the
usual song and dance, with Humpty’s sidekicks Shonty and Poplu always in tow,
they fall in love. Humpty lands up in Ambala, and is beaten up. But
Kavya’s father is not a monster—he gives Humpty five days to prove that the
NRI, Angad (Sidharth Shukla) is not worthy of Kavya. Angad proves to be Mr
Perfect, a “designer dulha” as Kavya calls him, but she still sees a better
future with Humpty and, really, it would be tough to see why.
In spite
of being a low rent DDLJ, this film is light and breezy, and will
probably be enjoyed by teens as a no-brainer date movie. More so, because Alia
Bhatt and Varun Dhawan are superconfident and easy on the eye.
Labels: Cinemaah
