Veere Di Wedding - Movie Review

This week’s big release is the much-awaited ‘Not a Chick Flick’, Veere Di Wedding (VDW), starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam K Ahuja, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania. Directed by Shashanka Ghosh, who earlier helmed Khoobsurat for producer Rhea Kapoor, returns with a promising concept that tries to explore female friendships, which was largely left unexplored in Bollywood. What could have easily been the female Pyaar Ka Punchnama, thankfully, does not end up being a show of misandry.

As it is evident from the trailer, the movie is the story of four childhood girl-friends, whose friendship is thicker than their bonds with their families. Kalindi Puri (played by Kareena Kapoor) is a commitment phobic girl, who finally agrees to get married to her long-time boyfriend, Rishabh Malhotra (played by Sumeet Vyas). Owing to her disturbed childhood, Kalindi AKA Kalu finds families and relatives to be claustrophobic and develops a cold-feet after meeting her fiance’s loud and large family. Her best friends or veeres as they call themselves, arrive to support Kalu. The first Veera, Avni Sharma (played by Sonam Kapoor) is a ‘Divorce Lawyer’, whose mother is relentlessly pursuing her to get married. Then comes Meera Sood (played by Shikha Talsania), mother to a two-year-old kid from an American husband. And the last one, Sakshi Soni (played by Swara Bhaskar), a motor-mouth firebrand on the verge of a divorce. The movie is essentially about how the Veeres help each other face their demons, generously showered with profanities from Delhi.

Director Shashanka Ghosh, much like his previous film Khoobsurat, makes the movie over-the-top at certain places. The entire childhood sequence seems contrived and so do the flags outside Meera’s house in USA. And like Khoobsurat, VDW suffers from half-baked characters and the lack of a depth or emotional connect with the audience. If you compare this with other major movies about friendship, like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara or Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, it is noticeable that the director in such cases gives some time for characters to develop an emotional connect on screen, which is missing in the case of VDW. With a crisp run time of about two hours, the makers could have elaborated on the backgrounds of each of these characters, helping us build a connection. Just like Khoobsurat, VDW also has a variety of vibrant characters – loud and funny Punjabi families, the typical ‘Mohalle ki Aunties’ and an openly gay couple - but some of them only end up as caricatures, for the lack of depth. There are quite a few jokes on the nouveau riche from West Delhi, with their eccentricities that are laugh worthy. But the movie seems conveniently contrived towards the climax.

Having said that, VDW is not completely unwatchable. There are some genuinely funny and real moments too – like a nervous bride gulping vodka shots on the stage and asking the photographer to edit that out or the hilarious, quintessential and loud Punjabi guy from Delhi, who is after Avni. Given the producer, Rhea Kapoor’s love for making movies about India’s elite, she chooses the problems of urban rich women to make a movie. Their problems range from avoiding an extravagant wedding to a Bentley-driving woman abusing her blackmailing husband. Some of these moments are filled with laughter, while others just seem forced.

Kareena Kapoor Khan, has the better role among the other half-baked characters. As Kalindi, she delivers a decent performance, especially with her entertaining ‘dream sequences’. She is supported well by two good actors, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania, who seem more real and have good comic timing as well. Swara, as the cuss-word lover Sakshi, is good, but towards the second half, her half-baked character starts to feel like an exaggeration. The last ill-formed character is that of Sonam K Ahuja – in the form of a perfectly styled fashionista, claiming to play a lawyer. Like in Aisha, where Sonam was in the company of two better actors, Amrita Puri and Ira Dubey, being surrounded by three better actors in VDW make her look like a weakling, in terms of her acting chops. As I mentioned earlier, the supporting cast, especially Kalindi’s fiancé, RIshabh played by Summet Vyas, appear vibrant. But, not using them to their full potential makes them appear shallow. There are movies in the comedy genre like Golmaal, where the depth of the character becomes secondary as you look only for laughs. Then there are movies like Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani or Dil Chahta Hai or the guys gang flick, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara – all the movies which treated their characters well, to build a bond with the audience. VDW sways between a Rohit Shetty madcap and a Zoya Akhtar/Ayan Mukerji emotional comedy, resulting in a slightly disappointing fare.

VDW had a great potential to be a heart-warming tale of friendship between girls, had the treatment been right. Probably, I expected a Zoya Akhtar or an Ayan Mukerji kind of craft, which left me disappointed. But, going by the hooting and cheering in the packed theater, with women filling more than two-thirds of it, Veere Di Wedding seems to have struck a chord with some viewers. Unfortunately, I am not one of them.

My Rating – 2.5/5

PS: This movie can become a B-School case study for the dozen-odd product placements done in the movie.