Shubh Mangal Jyada Savdhaan

Many of us have been at the receiving end of the aggressive promotion of this film in the past few weeks. If you have watched the interviews of the cast and the director on YouTube, or read it in the papers, you will remember Ayushman and the director, Hitesh Kewalya, saying that this film is about “normalizing” homosexuality and it is for the homophobes. And rightly so, the entire film not only tries to normalize homosexuality but is rather obsessed with it. The film is begging and pleading homophobes to change their mindset and accept homosexuals. And how does it do it? Through loads of humor. Every dialogue is a one-liner trying hard to make you laugh. And yes. Some actually do. But there is so much of it that you get overwhelmed with humor. 

The writing seems desperate to hide the issue at hand and stack up directionless, irrelevant and disconnected humor scene after scene. Its as if the director is paranoid that the film might not be accepted by the audience so he has piled every scene and dialogue with desperate humor. I, personally couldn’t follow a lot of it.  Slapstick sarcastic or plain, comedy is the heavy life saving jacket that the film carries throughout but sadly gets drowned by its own weight.

And in this attempt of survival the main theme or purpose of the film is lost. The characters are not developed. Every frame has too many people to fit in and all of them have their one liners being delivered breathlessly as if to tie down the audience to the chair. I understand that the film has to do well in the box office too. But the theme of sexual orientation is perceived to be so defeated that the first “main stream” film does gross injustice to it. Within the same premise of acceptance of a gay son in the middle class small-town Indian family, so much more could have been done. SO much more was expected. Jeetendra Kumar’s performance was a somewhat redeeming quality in the film.

The LGBT community should not have to try so hard to “normalize” itself. I would rather say, does have to try at all. But by trying so hard it once again is at the mercy of the straight community to deliver their judgement. To be accepted or not is in nobody’s control. It can be tried but not shoved down as humor hidden in the invisible cloak of comedy. It clearly shows that the makers and the cast have not understood the issue of acceptance and homophobia.

Rating – 2.5 / 5