Jyotika Cheema for BeyondHeadlines
We have all adored a girl named Tanuja Trivedi aka Tanu whose life is full of passion and fire, a girl who gives damn to the taboo(s) set by family and society both. A girl who cherishes every single moment of her life in such a vehement way that even if she didn’t sound good for the people around for then, she just became our favorite…… And yes we treasured the sweet and chubby character of our young Munda from Delhi, Manoj Sharma aka Manu. A boy every girl would love to date, marry and spend her life with. A character whose virtuous smile stole hearts of all the youngsters and parents in 2011, without even uttering the words. Although the journey seemed accomplished for a while when the female lead Tanu chose Manu over all the created-odds in her life. As viewers we didn’t really expect much after that since it already seemed perfect for then. But the Sharma and Trivedi families returned to our lives after four years……… So did this returns actually fulfilled what we expected from our love-birds or it disappointed us on some paths???
Director Anand L. Rai who is known for filling in those little shining shades of small-town ‘happiness’ and ‘colors’ into our lives so beautifully through both his earlier attempts, Tanu weds Manu(2011) & Raanjhanaa(2013), which most of us do miss as a part of our roots of the small cities we belong to. He created those narrow-streets and chaurahe of both Kanpur and Banaras in a way that we found ourselves watching that newly blossoming love of Kundan & Zoya standing alive nearby a chaat-thela or a golgappa-redi. And that’s exactly when we wanted our dear Tanu to choose Manu as her love of life. The ‘rain-scene’ in Lucknow didn’t just pour the soul of Tanu, making her sensing a reality, she never experienced before but it also drenched the viewers completely in that chauk-bazaar.
The returns once again is full of blossoming-romance, colors from small town, shades of notorious yet protecting friends, ever-changing-emotions, stupid-laughter and inevitable-tears. The witty dialogues written by Himanshu Sharma once again give intense feel of the existing reality, comprising a range of emotions. These dialogues have worked as the Spine of the film without which it would have been any other ordinary story but not Tanu Weds Manu Returns!
Pappi remains Pappi who is still Manu’s shadow in all the ways and wishes best for his Manu bhaiya…. Wooohh and he could go upto any extent for that ‘one smile’. No matter the plot is about anyone in the film but he instantly grabs all the eyeballs through his idiotic yet innocent acts. Be it getting off the stretcher or walking as a handicapped with two daandiya sticks, Pappi wouldn’t have been played any better by anyone except Deepak Dobriyal. Raja Awasthi remains an idol Chhota shahar ka Bhaiya ji! who has learnt to move on with his life after four years of his girl’s marriage but exactly then Tanu returns to spice it ahead. The love story of Jassi & Payal remains the same, filled with those little arguments yet the pair is bestowed with love. The newly introduced character of Chintu played by Zeeshan also stands firm with all his bad(s) who is straight forward to carry on living his life the way he wishes to…… He will get all what he wants from life and he knows how. All these characters remain firm except the two leads of the film, Tanu & Manu. Tanu has just returned from London knowing nothing about her upcoming life! Well…. She never knew that before too. She is taking again those bike rides in search of that little happiness or lets say spice from her past-love-chapters which is missing from her life. Whereas our firm Manu has decided to ‘move-on’ with his life and hence falls in love with another firm and independent young girl Kusum Sangwan aka Datto. Datto takes up responsibilities and stands straight. She attracted Manu for her unique quality that she doesn’t believe in dilemma and doesn’t make others’ life a rollercoaster. Manu, who is actually finding one such person falls in love with Datto, in a hope for a better tomorrow.
The rollercoaster finally comes to an end and the leads are united but was it actually what we expected through this journey? No!!!! Rather we always chose to ‘choose’ the ‘good’ over the ‘bad’ and that’s the reason we were happy when Tanu chose Manu over Raja, one of her own choices only. And the choice was quite evident as Manu was our Rama and Raja seemed the Ravana for a while who came in between the love birds getting united. So what happened this time when it was Manu’s turn to choose the Sita for him. Well Datto had all the qualities of a Sita our Rama was looking for but the fact that her faith and hope in a ‘considered’ Rama were finally brought down. So where did the eye for choosing the ‘good’ go this time? And that’s where the film lost its Soul idea.
We even chose to shun this fact for a while that the film portrayed the existence of ‘families’ and ‘relationships’ in a mocking way where the ‘respect for parents’ was just a hit away from kids’ toes only to make things go haywire for their ever-changing wishes. We liked the Part-I attempt by the filmmaker, considering the fact that ultimately the ‘good’ happened and as they say that All is well if the End is well. But this returns didn’t stop making parody of both, the parents and relationships, in a way that all this film had to offer for parents was to travel all the distances, only to land in a non-welcoming place and about Decisions or taking Seggestions!!!! Well our leads anyway would not consider them, especially when it is Tanu. So all what Mr. & Mrs. Trivedi had to do is to see the drama, madam Tanuja would create next. Now that’s what have brought down our expectations as viewers that the existence of elders in today’s’ scenario isn’t valued anyway. Well that’s a point what is showcased and already in all our arguments of who started this fashion? Films, which are supposed to be the mirror of what the actual-reality is, or the viewers who are taking up such practices more after seeing such enactments portrayed in a very romanticized way. The answers are within…….. and such questions would keep coming up if we would read any film-content with a view which looks beyond its presentation and dialogues which makes it charming for then. But all what it is serving wrapped in those shinning packing, has to be observed well before availing.
One line Sarcasms portrayed brilliantly in the film:
- Asking an intelligent question to a moron about the issue could cause him a serious heart problem.
- Whatsapp chatting friends even at 3:00am could not guarantee love and marriage henceforth.
- Intelligent boys like Chintu do understand exactly when they are being used, so don’t think they are stupid! They are clearing their own paths.
- The earlier Indian marriage-videos were amazing in terms of editing.
- Never ask a tailor if he could stitch a Kafan (shroud) as well….. You will end up losing the wedding suit too.
- Don’t choose between Reebok and Ree-buk! Go for Adidas or Nike. Else you will end up wearing your old shoe only.
- Don’t break your old friendships even if your friends work as rickshaw pullers now…. Who knows when they turn up into something useful.
- Do change your Kedia-dhoti (Gujrati attire) after the function has ended, no matter you have any urgency on this planet.
- Behaving in the most nonsense way still makes woman a normal creature. So Take Care! else you might end up in a mental asylum.
