Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana is yet another addition to the growing number of “set in small town UP” rom-coms . A wannabe Bareilly Ki Barfi that takes us to Kanpur (and later Lucknow), not a small town any more technically speaking; the overriding concern is an arranged marriage, between Satyendra (Rajkummar Rao) and Aarti (Kriti Kharbanda) getting engineered by their respective parents and mamajis.
Luckily, it turns to love when the two meet and hit it off from the word go. As families get busy with the wedding preparations and the dowry (shown so matter of fact that it hurts), the couple sings songs and plans drunken trysts and honeymoon in Mussorie while the audience wonders where the film is going. Will it be a shaadi video and nothing more? When will it come to the point?
It does, exactly at the interval, and in a manner that is quite akin to Badrinath Ki Dulhania, in even more extreme way.
- Director: Ratnaa Sinha
- Starring: Rajkummar Rao, Kriti Kharbanda
- Storyline: Satyendra and Aarti meet for an arranged marriage, fall in love and then something unexpected happens on their wedding day
- Run time: 137 minutes
Suddenly, the gender angle becomes paramount but sounds utterly hollow and unconvincing in the light of the fact that the same women who make a great deal about women’s right to work couldn’t take a stand earlier against something as repulsive as dowry.
There is also the class angle implicit here — the excise department clerk as against a civil services officer. At this point, you actually end up feeling bad for the jilted guy than the empowered girl who doesn’t seem to exercise her mind while taking significant decisions of life.
Post-interval the film takes a totally different turn to become an implausible revenge saga with a sudden twist in the end. All to eventually show the man’s goodness and superiority over the woman.
The film has a solid ensemble cast — Alka Amin, Manoj Pahwa, Vipin Sharma, K.K. Raina, Govind Namdeo — there is also a cigarette- smoking-sex-talking elder sister to give us a token glimpse of the progressive side of the conservative world. Together they can’t rescue the film. Kriti Kharbanda could be Kriti Sanon, they all look so similar and replaceable these days. Rajkummar Rao is earnest and tries to give his best to a film that doesn’t deserve it.
