Review: Shuddh Desi Romance

Did you know that the hero of Shuddh Desi Romance was to be Shahid Kapoor? It was indeed he who initially signed the project of Maneesh Sharma, director of the cult classic Band Baaja Baaraat. But then, what happened? Well, it turns out that the filmmaker had to postpone the start of filming several times, notably because of a back operation that required him to have a long convalescence. The actor, having made other commitments, could not make himself available for the later dates proposed by Maneesh.

It was then that the young Sushant Singh Rajput, revealed at the beginning of 2013 with the brilliant Kai Po Che, replaced him at short notice to play the title role of this "pure Indian romance", as its title indicates. He plays opposite the 'Yash Raj Girl' in chief, the talented Parineeti Chopra. Finally, Shuddh Desi Romance launched the career on the big screen of the young Vaani Kapoor.

For Shahid fans and others alike, you will quickly understand that he has not missed anything. Why such a strong opinion on what was announced as a lively romcom rooted in its folklore?

Raghu (Sushant Singh Rajput) is about to marry Tara (Vaani Kapoor) in an arranged marriage. After all, she is very beautiful, how could a boy like him refuse such an opportunity? However, he does not know it yet, but Raghu is a commitment phobic. During all the festivities preceding the wedding celebration, he meets Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra), an independent and open-minded young woman, who leads her life as she pleases without worrying about conventions.

Know it, the title of Shuddh Desi Romance is clearly antithetical! Because Shuddh Desi Romance is not a pure Indian romance, it is on the contrary a rather avant-garde work in the treatment of its love story. What is comforting is that we avoid the eternal muddle of the sentimental triangle without any depth. However, Maneesh Sharma misses the message he wants to deliver: the excessive sacralization of marriage. In India (as in many other countries), only marriage accredits a relationship between two beings.

The filmmaker wanted to prove that not all couples necessarily come together in marriage. That this instance was not essential to give value to the bond between two people who love each other and who wish to spend their life together. He tries to demonstrate that marriage is only a rite of passage imposed by religion and overexploited by tradition in order to control interactions between the sexes. 

As evidenced by the media's perpetual quest to fix the marriage of aging and still single stars. How many times has Salman Khan been asked when he plans to settle down? This also applies to stars who dated for a long time before taking the step of marriage. Didn't Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan see their wedding date regularly announced by the media in an erroneous manner? The same goes for Rani Mukerji and Aditya Chopra?

Marriage is culturally and religiously considered a necessary step for everyone. Indian society does not escape this and gives this institution colossal importance, to the point of condemning births outside of marriage and cohabiting couples.

Maneesh Sharma's intention is therefore to incriminate this phenomenon: why should marriage be a rite of passage imposed by society?

How does loving someone and sharing their life have to be formalized by marriage? But above all, how does marriage legitimize and give value to a relationship? We sometimes have the feeling that love only makes sense when it is accompanied by marriage. The fact is that marriage represents a commitment, if not in the eyes of God, at least in the eyes of society and the families of the people involved. We no longer just share the company, love and trust of the other, but we bind them to us in an official and lasting way.

It is a step that takes time, and even preparation for some. Telling yourself that you are committed to remaining faithful and loving one and the same person for the rest of your days... well, that can be scary!

Yet, marriages in India are conducted like commercial transactions: individuals are linked to each other by comparing their horoscopes, sometimes allowing them to talk briefly to conclude that they are made for each other. Except that it doesn't always work! But being married is above all having the feeling of being stuck, of no longer having the choice or the opportunity to back out. And it is this feeling that invades Raghu throughout the film: after the wedding, he will no longer be able to run away!

Alas, I was not charmed by Shuddh Desi Romance.

I know what you must be thinking. That I am too puritanical? That I was wishing deep down that the work would follow a more classical pattern, with a sacred union as an epilogue? Think again, I like to be surprised, shaken in my convictions and taken down new narrative paths. I do not systematically expect a wedding scene, or even a promise of marriage at the end of a romance. Films like Aashiqui 2 and Highway have been able to fully satisfy me on a romantic and emotional level without needing to include the question of marriage.

That is not what makes a romantic comedy successful. It is in its ability to radiate a certain magic, even in a very serious or down-to-earth context. I felt it in darker films like The Lunchbox and Lootera, films that are nevertheless very far from the saccharine sweetness of more traditional works such as Vivah and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai .

The problem with Shuddh Desi Romance, then, is not this bias.

In itself, it is even commendable within an industry that sometimes tends to repeat itself. But the problem is its treatment on screen. Maneesh Sharma's direction is terribly lacking in breath. The director seems not to have known how to bring this film to fruition, and this is felt in his messy script and confused characters.

Maneesh Sharma nevertheless directed one of my favorite romantic comedies, namely Band Baaja Baaraat . A year later, he directed a more classic scam comedy, Ladies V/S Ricky Bahl , but which remained ultimately quite likeable. Shuddh Desi Romance promised to go further, to shake up consciences and to denounce the hypocrisy of Indian society, fond of modernity on its screens but which remains impervious to it when it comes to questioning archaic traditions.

The trick was to find the right balance between romance and social satire, so that the result would be as intelligible as it was entertaining. But the filmmaker never succeeds. Because Shuddh Desi Romance seems to have lost its way, lost between two paths: the path towards 'mainstream' cinema and that of more committed works. The film staggers between atmospheres and finally falls flat. Without a stylistic framework, it offers the viewer a vague and unfinished experience.

Because we never know what the vocation of Shuddh Desi Romance is. I deplore the fact that it is not, in my opinion, a romantic comedy because of its lack of magic. I also regret its lack of precision in its denunciatory dimension.

But what was Maneesh really trying to achieve? What was his approach? What was his aim in making Shuddh Desi Romance?

So, the problem is that as a viewer, we don't know from which angle to watch this film. And for my part, I don't know how to approach this review either since the genre of the film is difficult to define. When I saw the promotional videos, I was hoping for a romantic comedy. To deepen my analysis, I will therefore adopt this perspective. So, the question becomes: Is Shuddh Desi Romance a good romantic comedy? And even, is it really one?

I think I have partially answered this question previously. If we dwell on the purely romantic nature of the work, Shuddh Desi Romance does not fulfill its contract. Even in a realistic context (I am thinking of classic works such as Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and Akele Hum Akele Tum or more recently Ishaqzaade and Highway), a romance must be soaked in magic and nourished by the osmosis between its two heroes. This is the main flaw of this film, which seriously lacks both. However, it is not in its concern for realism that Shuddh Desi Romance loses its charm, but in the construction of the situations of its characters, each one more bland than the last. Moreover, it is not the substance that is the problem, but the form.

The staging and the writing seriously lack rhythm and freshness. The result is terribly dull, we do not get attached to any of the protagonists whose flaws and qualities annoy us more than anything else. And since the film lacks meaning, it also lacks intention. Where it tries to highlight a little-known but customary practice in India, that of 'hired wedding guests', it misses the mark by making us miss its point. And there, I see you coming. What are 'hired wedding guests'?

In concrete terms, it involves inviting strangers to your wedding to give it more cachet and prestige. Because the more people there are, the more people will think that the spouses and their families are important! Shuddh Desi Romance deals with this phenomenon, which is particularly recurrent in Rajasthan, but does so in a way that is too sketchy for it to have a real impact on the narrative.

And this feeling of incompleteness never leaves us during the viewing.

Everything is skimmed over, from the 'hired wedding guests' to the characters themselves, including the situations and their context. I regularly felt lost by the imprecision of the work, as if its writing had remained in its embryonic stage. The same goes for the direction of the actors. A good part of the cast seems to struggle to try to give a little momentum to this story, without much success. Parineeti Chopra, usually so luminous, struggles to make a good impression in this caricatured role of a free and independent girl.

Indeed, Gayatri claims to refuse marriage because she does not want to give in to the stigmata of society. But in the end, it turns out that the young woman is terrified of commitment, by the idea of no longer having control and mastery of her feelings.

Because love is very nice. At the beginning, we try not to give too much while making sure that the other does, as if to keep control of the relationship. We seek each other out, we circle around each other, we test each other… With the conviction that we will not give in, while expecting our partner not to follow our example. We would like a partner who loves us and who does not hide it. But we refuse, out of pride or fear of rejection, to reveal our own emotions.

Gayatri has locked herself in this need to lead the boat when she is in a relationship. When Raghu decides to marry her, she feels the situation is getting out of hand and prefers to run away rather than lose power. However, until the end, the director sells her to us as the strong and self-confident woman that she claims to be at the start, without trying to make her progress. I would have liked to see this vulnerability much more exploited in Gayatri, which resides in each of us. This is mainly why the character is poorly written, because he lingers on Gayatri's facade instead of exploring her deep being.

Tara, played by Vaani Kapoor, is the third clichéd side of the love triangle in cinema. Indeed, Bollywood has already given us some in this regard, with varying degrees of finesse through works like Dil To Pagal Hai , Kuch Kuch Hota Hai , Mujhse Dosti Karoge and Jab Tak Hai Jaan . The problem with Tara is that she is a character with wobbly psychology, who takes philosophically the fact of having been rejected but still wants to take revenge. Vaani Kapoor does what she can but fails to leave an impression on the viewer, cramped in a role that left her no room anyway.

The biggest disappointment, however, lies in the performance of Sushant Singh Rajput, who had a great presence in his first film, Kai Po Che.

Here, I had the impression of watching a low-cost version of Ranveer Singh. He inherits the role that was initially supposed to be played by Shahid Kapoor. Well, you can't imagine how relieved I am that Shahid ultimately couldn't do this film! Raghu's character is flat, weak-willed, atonic. He's yet another incarnation of the commitment-phobic, as we've seen in the cinema many times before, without originality or research. Above all, the actor's acting seriously lacks verve, probably not helped by the flabby nature of his protagonist.

As far as I'm concerned, I sincerely regretted the frankly easy ending of the work. I'm not necessarily saying that Raghu and Gayatri should have been married to satisfy me. No way! But what I would have liked is for this conclusion to cover a real explanation and analysis. Here, the ending is rushed and does not give us the opportunity to understand Raghu and Gayatri's choice. Two hours of film for that? Are we at the same point? They love each other but do not want to commit... Why? I will never find my answer...

On the musical level, this is the first time that Yash Raj has called upon the composer duo Sachin-Jigar. The album is like the work: disappointing. If there are a few good surprises, the whole remains very messy and clearly forgettable. Among the positive points, there is "Tere Mere Beech Mein", sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and Mohit Chauhan. The two artists breathe real freshness into this tasty ballad. The title "Gulabi" by Jigar and Priya Saraiya pays superb homage to the pink city Jaipur.

With "Chanchal Mann Ati Random", we can at least appreciate the unique voice of Divya Kumar. The title song, performed by Benny Dayal and Shalmali Kholgade, is nice but doesn't stick in your memory after watching. While the influences of Rajasthani folk music are present, they aren't enough to engage us, as Dor's album, released in 2006, did.

In conclusion

Shuddh Desi Romance cruelly lacks congruence, coherence and dynamism to serve its ambitious purpose: to denounce the closure of Indian society to extramarital relationships and, in passing, to reveal the economic and social stakes of the celebration of marriages. Besides that, Shuddh Desi Romance also fails to be a quality romantic comedy, the ambient magic and the alchemy between its actors being terribly lacking.

We will especially remember the photography of Manu Anand, which nicely highlights Jaipur and Rajasthan without overdoing it. However, the problem is there: Maneesh Sharma probably had the concern to make a minimalist film and far from the legendary grandiloquence of his production company. But he restricts himself much more on the script and emotional level than on the visual level. I did not like Shuddh Desi Romance because I did not understand it.

I had the impression of being tossed between two genres without really being able to detect one concretely. Parineeti Chopra received a Filmfare Award nomination for Best Actress and Vaani Kapoor won the Best Newcomer Award. I admit I didn't understand why the film deserved such accolades. Perhaps India considered Shuddh Desi Romance a major step forward in the collective consciousness, as evidenced by its respectable box-office success.