Having read the book, I was not too enthused to watch the movie. Yet, my spouse insisted on watching it as one of her 2014 wish list flicks. With the Good Friday off, it was perfectly matching the urge for a mid-month scheme.
Watch my words if you also have read the book “2 States: The Story of My Marriage” by Chetan Bhagat. This is a story about a romantic journey of two hearts from a culturally opposite family - Krish Malhotra and Ananya Swaminathan.
They meet at the IIM-A and fell in love. Towards the end of the program, complications arise when they decide to get married. It was their decision to get married with the consent of their parents. Everything goes wrong at and after the parents met. The films a jokey depiction of inter community-caste-state-lingual marriages in India.
Let me stop here on the story line assuming some readers of the review might not have read the book.
With a predictable storyline(assuming that most of us have read the book), it is the narrative elegance, cinematography and editorial dexterity that could make the difference. Albeit, acting has to supplement all of these. Desi informal flair(language) also would make the movie close to mind, than the English text. Chetan Bhagat as the master story teller has nothing to prove here. All his books have become movies and few faird extremely fantastic. Five Point Someone(3 Idiots), One Night @ the Call Center(Hello), The 3 Mistakes of My Life(Kai Po Che!) and the latest ‘2 States: The Story of My Marriage’(2 States).
The debutant director, Abhishek Varman has worked on projects like `Jodha Akbar`, `My Name in Khan` and `Student of the Year` as assistant director before taking this job from Karan Johar. As a director he has done his best in this movie. There was no glimpses of a sloppy job. Few questions though came to my mind like the use of typewriter repeatedly, sporadic narratives, a quick love affair(book gives slightly different impression), a 25k salary in 2014, etc. But those are very trivial observations. Few depictions like the dowry scene and Revathy’s song in Yes Bank function adds spice though impractical. Overall, the director clears the litmus test.
It appears, the first choice for the lead pair in the movie had been Shahrukh Khan and Asin and later, Ranbir Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan were approached to do the male lead. But Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt look very fresh and apt for such kind of movie. I just can’t imagine a shahrukh in a college guy role, any more. Alia Bhatt is very natural and sometimes extremely sexy too. After about 30 minutes, in few scenes she is half top and half bottom. She reminds Sony Razdan’s(Alia’s mother) look, to some extent. Free and juvenile looks is very appealing. Arjun Kapoor is equally good in this role. He certainly has to work on his steps if he wants to survive in Bollywood. Acting and orientation is just perfect. Ronit Roy, Amrita Singh, Revathy and Sharang Natarajan are just apt in their roles. I found Amrita Singh very very Punjabi in this movie. Unhyped Shiv Kumar Subramaniam really shines as Ananya’s father.
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy trio are good in the music score. Song "Offo" by Aditi Singh Sharma(DHOOM 3 title song fame) and Amitabh Bhattacharya(pungi fame) is good beat. Other five scores "Locha-E-Ulfat"(Benny Dayal), "Mast Magan", "Iski Uski", "Chaandaniya", "Hullaa Re" are also rightly placed. I will place the overall music as average with some nice scores, though all songs are very appropriately placed in the story.
Binod Pradhan as the cinematographer has done a nice job. With his award-winning works like 1942 A Love Story, Devdas, Rang De Basanti, Mission Kashmir, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. and Bhag Milkha Bhag he justifies his name here too.
Namrata Rao as the editor has done the best job in my view. Anyone with an understanding of movie editing, will understand how not to dilute the sequence as narrated in the book(specifchandru021y when it is a complete adaption). This yound editor has credible titles in her bag already in the form of “ Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!”, “Ishqiya”, “LSD” and made it to the big league with “Kahaani”. You will hardly be able to separate cinematography, screenplay, editing and direction and here I find the movie editing is superb.
Manish Malhotra walks with a 4 Star Kudo for styling Alia Bhatt. Ohh. yep! quite gorgeous and appealing.
Just before launching my ruling, I must be candid that no stake holder in this flick has failed to deliver. With the screenplay(talking about the book) in the hands of the audience for five years, you can’t have heaven fall on your hand. But then, we can take the example of 3 idiots. No one seems to understand Chetan Bhagat’s writing better than Rajkumar Hirani and the writer has done a blunder to initiate a bout with him. Although 2 States movie did not reach the pathetic level of “Hello”(One Night @ the Call Center) it is also unlikely to match the expectations “3 idiots”.
I will give it a 3 star with a recommendation to watch at a multiplex with partner.
PS: thanks "Ashwini_poojari" for correcting me on Ananya’s father’s name.