I love this movie. I love the simplicity and how realistic it is. I could say that this is the first movie about arranged marriage that dealt with what happens in the honeymoon. Most of the movies I have seen about arranged marriage are so unrealistic. The awkwardness is meeting the person for the first time and then, boom, after you get married, you fall in love with him and then it’s happily ever after. But this movie shows the awkwardness, miscommunication, fear and pressures of an arranged marriage.
I mean really, how do you sleep or make love with a stranger even though he is your husband? I love Esha’s character in the film and I love how she portrayed it. Rithika is modern yet very traditional. She is outspoken but only to her family and friends. She is put in this situation, an arranged marriage, to a complete stranger. Another thing that should be kept in mind, why she is so hesitant and uncomfortable, is that she obviously has never been with any man, I’m not talking about sex here but she was never in any romantic relationship with a man, before. So clearly, she is clueless about intimacy. She doesn’t know how to act, what to say and everytime she tried to talk to Fardeen’s character, to explain herself, after apologizing, he was out the door. And he clearly was very upset. So she is in the dark, on how to react to his anger.
Although she realizes that he is a nice man, but is that enough for her to let go of her apprehensions? No. I really felt for Esha’s character in this movie. This is the second movie of Esha that I saw. The first one was Yuva. I have heard comments about her acting and her looks. To me, she isn’t the best actress but she also isn’t the worst. She has improved tremendously. I like her personality. She’s not boastful and yet she’s very honest about herself and she takes criticisms in stride.
I was never a fan of Fardeen until I saw this movie. I liked his character here. And to me, his character’s reactions were realistic and justifiable. Yeah, he was a jerk in not understanding her in the latter part of the movie, but she also misunderstood his intention that night and basically accused him of only wanting to have sex when all he wanted to say was that he likes her. The pressure from his sister and brother in law, to do the deed, got to him. He is after all a man.
I also like the other couples in the movie. The message also being conveyed here is that, things are not always what they seem. Anu and Rishab, so passionate and so in love but as it turned out, she was only his mistress. Anaya and Shoaib, she’s known him since childhood and always had a crush on him but he always saw her as a little sister. So it was really cute how uncomfortable they were with their new statues as husband and wife. The older couple, though they argue all the time, they love each other dearly and could see themselves without each other. You have to learn and love the person you are married to. He will have his faults and she will too but learning to accepts those faults, the little ones, is what will determine the success of marriage.
And though the climax was a little too extreme, but this is Bollywood, and I thought that it was nice of her to realize that all the qualities that she wanted in a man, Abhay has them. And it was also nice that she took the initiative to tell him that she wanted them to have a real honeymoon. So besides Cheeni Kum, Just Married is my next favorite romantic Hindi movie.
I also love the songs in the movie.