Based on Chetan Bhagat’s book by the same name, the basic premise is simple. Whereas the world over, a marriage involves girl & boy falling in love, in India you don’t get married to an individual but you get married to a family. Hence, the process is that much longer especially when the communities are different & prejudiced.
The hero(Arjun Kapoor) & heroine Ananya(played by a gorgeous Alia) belong to Delhi & Chennai respectively. They study in IIM-A, fall in love and then the story line moves to the families. First meeting of the families is not pleasant & the hero moves to Chennai & puts in efforts to woo Ananya’s family comprising her parents(mother played very well by Revathi) and brother. For this he uses his own IIT background as well as some opportunities provided by his employer(Yes Bank which has been prominently advertised throughout the film but to the extent of moving away from original script in the book).
Finally he succeeds in making them accept him and the focus now moves to Delhi where Ananya comes over for a week. The Punjabi mother(role played by Amrita Singh very well) finally accepts her as daughter-in-law after an incident in a wedding where Ananya displays gumption to taken on a dowry demand. Now final action moves to neutral location Mumbai for both families to meet again. But it ends in disaster and the main protagonists are back to square one. At this stage, Arjun’s father(who has a strained relationship with his wife & son) makes a surprise visit to Chennai & apologizes to Ananya’s family & it’s a happy ending thereafter.
On the positives, The IIM-A location especially the canteen scenes will touch a chord with anyone who has stayed in a college hostel. Story is simple but heartwarming with the basic message from Ananya being that the parents must be happy with the wedding & hence eloping is not a solution. Acting by everyone in the film is very good especially Revathi & Amrita Singh play the Tamil & Punjabi mothers well. Ronit Roy as the father also plays a restrained act. Arjun Kapoor expresses his emotions well but the prime performance in this film is Alia who looks stunning throughout the film.
On the negative side, for those who have read the book, there is some zing factor missing in the film that was there in the book. Of Course, a film gives the advantage of taking in the surroundings & emotions better than possible to express in words but anyone who has read ‘5 point someone’ & seen ‘3 idiots’ knows that it is possible to add that extra something to make a film better than the book. The humor quotient & details in the books have not come fully into the film. Then there is the small matter of detail as I quite did not understand which student uses a typewriter in today’s world. Am not sure whether IIM-A hostel rooms are really so big as shown in the film(maybe it is indeed big; I completed my studies long back).
Again, those who have read the book, will remember that the hero gets a tough time from his employer(Citibank), has problems with his scheming duffer boss, gives wrong investment advice to one woman who files a complaint against the bank & later the hero gets his revenge against the boss. Of course, Yes Bank would not have allowed a film to show their organization in poor light. So all those finer details have been thrown out & a single statement is made telling that the hero has left the bank (why is left to the viewers’ imagination). SunSilk has also got its share of advertising in this as Alia’s organization.
All in all, a movie worth watching especially for Alia but read the book also (if not already read).