In the cinema produced/directed by Shoojit Sircar, Bengalis and Punjabis seem to make strange but very successful bedfellows. If it was Vicky and Ashima in Vicky Donor then its Shonku and Milky here, the first couple that the unique start-up, Running Shaadi, systematically helps in eloping and marrying. With a simple motto—“Bhagayenge hum, Nibhayenge aap”—a booming venture of runaway marriages is born till the vagaries of the entrepreneur Bharose/Chhotu/Little’s (Amit Sadh) own heart make things complicated.
There is a timeless arc to the film-journeying to discover true love-but it’s the little things that happen within the larger voyage that work for it.
The Punjabi-Bengali combination works at yet another level for
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It’s lovely how oddities are a given. Everyone is quirky. Period. Idiosyncrasy is normal. The conversations (right down to the grammatically incorrect English of some) and the humour remain earthy, organic and rooted than attention-seeking. The many twists and turns get negotiated gently. Love blossoms, at the very start, under the most unusual circumstance. Somewhere in the middle of the film, love does threaten to go all filmi and sentimental but the girl dances in the boy’s baaraat and the (dis)order is restored. It is heartening how easily the gender equations and role reversals get redefined without making a big deal of it. The “caring” hero washes clothes and the heroine’s hair; the “irreverent” girl drives the scooter while he rides pillion. He is her confidant before a lover. And they live happily ever after, perhaps. Running Shaadi is a quaint film that keeps you smiling in a mellow way.