Tanu Weds Manu was the love story between a fearless, feisty Tanuja Trivedi (Kangana Ranaut), and the docile Dr. Manu Sharma (Madhavan). This chalk-meets-cheese story made for a fun film, climaxing in marriage – but what happens after the ‘happily ever after’? Especially when your ‘ever after’ is with someone you have nothing in common with?
Tanu Weds Manu Returns opens four years into their marriage in a hilarious yet outlandish counselling session (suspiciously set in a London mental asylum), where the couple argue about how intolerable they have become to each other. As Tanu puts it, she stills loves Manu but does not like him anymore. Driven mad by Tanu’s tiring zest for life, a trait more endearing in a lover than a wife, Manu explodes and is admitted into the asylum. Tanu returns to good old Kanpur.
Now, it’s certainly of great credit to the director Anand L. Rai (and the earlier film), that Tanu’s homecoming feels like one of our own… the people, the places, it all comes rushing back, and it also brings Tanu back into her elements. After reaching Kanpur, she gets on a rickshaw driven by an ex-boyfriend whom she mischievously asks, “Aap mere bare mein sochte ho? Kab sochte ho?” (Do you still think about me? When?) Add Tanu’s sly sneer to his silence and you realise how much you’ve missed this spitfire, who really is the stuff of legend (she is even referred to as Batman in her
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Pappi (Deepak Dobriyal, brilliant in parts) joins in and so does character name (Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, an Anand Rai staple, who plays a lawyer who has moved into Tanu’s room), and the first half of the films rolls on like an German sports car.
It is as this point that Pappi goes to London to fetch Tanu from the asylum. After reaching India, Manu’s father advises him about the compromises required to make a marriage work — a chat that happens while Manu’s mother bickers non-stop. Ignoring this, Manu decides to file for divorce.
Later, when Manu attends a medical conference, he sets his eyes on Datto (the short-haired Haryanvi lookalike of Tanu). It is love at first sight for him and what ensues is a beautiful little love story during which we keep cursing the film’s title that suggests an inevitable return of Tanu and Manu. For Manu, Datto is a Tanu of a more manageable kind. As for Datto, Manu is someone who loves her, even when he is most afraid to love.
As the divorce gets expedited, thanks to character name, Tanu realises what she could be missing and tries, immaturely, to make Manu jealous by bringing ex-lover Raja Awasthi (Jimmy Shergill) back into the picture.
It is when Tanu meets Datto for the first time that we get the film’s best scene. With a judgemental smirk, Tanu blows her fuse in English, going to the extent of calling Datto a gawaar . Tanu underestimates Datto and expects her to crumble in embarrassment, so when we see Datto stand up for herself, speaking about the independence she has earned, we realise how we’d mistaken Tanu’s (mere) outspokenness for independence. Datto really is a more evolved Tanu… a more evolved woman even (this explains the scene where Tanu tries on a wig to look and become more like Datto).
But after this, the film takes a turn for the worse. From a sparkling comedy with great moments, it begins to dispense social commentary. The director, who gave us two love triangles in his two previous films (including Raanjhanaa ), adds a further side to this one, making Tanu Weds Manu Returns a love quadrilateral of sorts. Like his earlier films, we begin to see the cracks in the narration, leaving us to wonder why this director gets so many things right early on, only to falter in the second half.
As the film comes to a predictable ending, one realises just how selfish both Tanu and Manu are. At each stage, we see them doing exactly what they wanted to paying no heed to people around them. Recalling how unfair they were to Raja in the first film, you hope against odds that Manu doesn’t do the same to Datto – a character so strong yet so vulnerable that you can’t stop falling in love with her every time she’s onscreen.
But like the climax suggests, the film isn’t over with the end credits. Considering how selfish both Tanu and Manu are, we shouldn’t be surprised to see a Tanu Weds Manu Returns Again… and if they do, I hope they bring Datto back.