Veere di Wedding is Both YAY and NAY! Here's Why?

I feel blessed with the incredible talent of being able to figure out, how a film will actually turn out just by watching its trailer. And on most occasions, my assessment is ON POINT!

So when almost a month ago, the Veere di Wedding trailer came out, I was supremely excited to watch the film despite the profound realisation that it is most likely to turn out to be an ALL SURFACE- NO DEPTH SHOW.

The YAY Factor

The primary reason for my excitement was that I love these look-good, feel-good kind of films. I can sit through a two hour brainless entertainer for the beautiful actors, locations and costumes. I will critique it once I come out of the theatre only to re-watch it when it comes on TV.
Also lately the North Indian middle class concept has been selling like hot cakes, so Bollywood hasn't been churning films belonging to this genre. Veere di Wedding was a respite.
So I went to watch the movie with abysmally low expectations, despite some very good reviews and I was NOT at all disappointed.

The reason I liked it was because it is a Bollywood film with women protagonists giving the Hollywood feels of a Sex and the City meets Bridesmaids.  (#IamNotAChick Flick, who are you kidding bruh?). The movie wasn't about feminism but it wasn't about male bashing either, something which could have been a part of the makers agenda in their bid to depict liberal, empowered women in a story.

The fact that it normalised Homosexuality in a way no other mainstream Bollywood film has done before made me go WOW! There were no behind-the-curtains talks of homophobia nor was there an in-the-face gay rights activism for the gay characters who blended in the narrative on the same level as others.

The NAY factor.

The story revolves around a girl getting married and her friends who come to attend the wedding, which eventually gets called off  to make way for an Arijit Singh number after which they zoom off for a vacation. (This is what the trailer and songs have revealed already, so I am not giving any spoilers). In the conclusion, like all Bollywood movies, the immediate concerns of the characters get resolved, despite that the evolution of characters or  remains ambiguous. Simply put, there are no layers, it is extremely superficial.

The movie was aggressively promoted as a film about female friendships something along the lines of Dil Chahta and Zindagi naa Milegi Dobara. But female bonding which was supposedly the central point of the story was not adequately visible. And I say this because I followed every interview/ media interaction involving the four women prior to the film's release and their  camaraderie on those occasions was way better than what translated on screen. Also unlike these movies, Veere didn't have a coming-off-age towards the end. If you're looking for a more realistic take on female bonding, watch Parched or Angry Indian Goddesses. They're not too mainstream but nevertheless entertaining.

Even after having consciously decided not pursue the legal profession actively, I will continue to be critical of characters of lawyers being portrayed in films. Bollywood is known for misrepresentation of the profession in courtroom dramas, but Sonam Kapoor playing a matrimonial lawyer in Veere made me cringe. Whatever little reference point she had of her job in the screenplay, she got it all wrong.

One of the scenes trivialises domestic abuse making it so comical that I could hear people laughing in the theatre. Our very own "divorce lawyer" Sonam Kapoor  offers to get her maid a DIVORCE  who is crying after being brutally beaten up by her husband. (Woman! there are laws for domestic violence, read up on those first)I wish the makers could understand that  Empowerment shouldn't be confined to women of South Delhi.

Clearly, there's more NAY than YAY so WHY WATCH IT THEN? ( If you haven't that is)

• For the brilliant Swara Bhaskar who'll make you forget that she's been the Anarkali of Aarah, once upon a time. 
• For those witty one liners of Shikha Talsania who is such an under-rated and under-utilised talent.
• For the fact that Kareena Kapoor hasn't done a film in a long while and might not do another one for a  long while.
• For a very well put together act by the supporting cast.
• For the fact that Sonam's sister Rhea has done an excellent job both as an EP and as the stylist. 

Moral of the story : It may not be flawless but it is certainly refreshing.

(Don't expect me to say good things about Sonam because even though it was great that out of the four "modern" "independent" women in the film, only she was the one with a real job,  it was a very shallow representation of one of the country's most serious and sought after professions. And I am definitely not letting go of that)