Love stories which was forever, the core of Bollywood has taken a backseat for quite sometime with our filmmakers experimenting on several new concepts, partly westernized or inspired directly from Hollywood.However, this concept has returned back with ’2 states’ directed by Abhishek Varman and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and Karan Johar.Yes, although it has returned, but ofcourse 21st century style.
Plot/Synopsis:-
Krish Malhotra(Arjun Kapoor) and Ananya Swaminathan(Alia Bhatt) are two ambitious youngsters who manage to get their admission in IIM-Ahmedabad, one of India’s most prestigious institutes. They meet each other in college and later fall in love, only to cross one main hurdle, both of them belong to 2 different states.Krish is a Punjabi while Ananya is a Tamilian Brahmin.
The first hour of the movie is about the lead pair meeting each other at college and their interactions through which they desire to be with each other.At the time of their graduation, Krish and Ananya decide to get married. They then introduce their parents to each other, except for Kirsh’s father, Vikram(Ronit Roy) who is an alcoholic and does not attend the convocation, only to find out the reason much later.One can expect what would be the consequences of their decision, when their parents enter the scene.Unfortunately for them, both the parents are quite orthodox in their mentality.Krish’s mother Kavita(Amrita Singh) is a loud mouthed Punjabi woman who cannot dream of getting any girl for her son, except from a Punjabi household.Kavita does not get along with Ananya or her reserved parents(Revati and Shiv Subramaniyam)and is deeply annoyed by her son’s decision.
Later, both Ananya and Krish get employed in different companies, where Krish is being posted to Chennai, Ananya’s hometown.There, he gets a chance to visit Ananya and her family at their residence, but as expected her parents are hesitant in him visiting her. He gives his all in trying to win over Ananya’s father’s heart but fails miserably.
Eventually, Ananya comes to visit Krish in Delhi, pretending to be just his friend in front of his father.However, his aunt Shipra(Achint Kaur) suspects something to be fishy and on knowing the truth, becomes as negative about inter-regional marriages and keeps taunting them about it.When Krish’s father comes to know about the truth, a bitter tiff ensues between him and Krish, further leading to the differences between the son and parents.
The rest of the movie portrays the change of heart on both sides of the family and how Krish and Ananya finally achieve each other through marriage.
Direction/Performances:-
Debutante Abhishek Varman directed this Chetan Bhagat’s novel inspired film. As mentioned in the prelude, it is a love story, but a modernized 21st century version of it with less of drama and tears and more about anticipation and hopes which finally win over.
All the performances, specially the lead pair of Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt were the centre of attraction or the show-stoppers in other words, although this may sound exaggerating. Nevertheless, they turned out to be a good onscreen pair which was even appreciated by critics.Arjun played roles with grey shades in all his previous films viz Ishqzaade, Aurangzeb and Gunday, but this film portrayed a completely different but positive and somewhat naïve character who faces the same struggle millions of young couples in India face once they decide to spent their lives with somebody outside their respective communities.
Alia Bhatt too gave quite a good performance as Ananya, a Tamilian Brahmin rooted in family values and facing conservative parents in dealing with the same problem.
Ronit Roy had a brief but noticeable role as Krish’s alcoholic father Vikram, who is aghast at his son’s decision to marry outside their community.
Amrita Singh’s role was equally as appreciative as Krish’s over protective mother.She portrayed a loud mouthed and somewhat aggressive and skeptical Punjabi woman, especially in scenes with Ananya and her parents.Shiv Subramaniam, who gained popularity with a TV serial and Revathy, well established actor in the South Indian film industry, too were good in their performances as the total opposite of her rival in-laws’ nature.
Other performances such as that of Achint Kaur was a typical cunning lady who gossips behind the back and tries to poison or earwash her sister and family with regard to Ananya, was appreciative.
Music:-
The music of this film was a chartbuster several weeks before the film’s official release. Locha-E-Ulfat was among the most popular, sung by Benny Dayal, picturised on the lead pair.The other tracks include Offo, Mast Magan, Chandaniya, Iski Uski and Hulla Re, voiced by singers such as Aditi Singh Sharma, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Ariit Singh, Akriti Kakkar, Chinmayi Sripada and Shankar Mahadevan. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy composed the music for this movie.
Overall:-
This movie is something which can be watched along with family at ease.As mentioned before, there’s not much of a drama involved as one would find in a typical Bollywood love story of the 80’s or 90’s or even our daily soaps for that matter.The filmmakers this time decided to entertain the audiences with a tat different kind of a screenplay with the same old concept.