Since we have become a generation of Buzzfeed and because “listicles” are still not dead, am going to pick the easy route. Here are the top 10 reasons why i loved Shuddh Desi Romance and why you shouldn’t miss it.
1. Jaideep Sahni – I was wondering if he will deliver or not. This is a virgin territory for him – a full throttle romantic film. And more suspicious because he was talking like my another favourite screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman. Love versus love portrayed in films, expectations versus reality and all that jazz. Well, he not only delivers but pushes the envelope and sends it out of the park. Terrific lines all over, all that which seems so natural that it’s difficult to believe someone actually wrote it. And especially at a time when everyone is taking this dialogue route, at least in mainstream hindi cinema space.
2. Morality is Dead – A friend got a sms from a veteran journalist – SDR’s morality is falling faster and lower than the rupee. Not surprising. This film might be shocking for the conventional theatre going crowd and especially when it’s not set in any Tier-1 city. Aha, what fun, to piss of those old holy cows.
3. Marriage is Dead – Commitment is fine. But why do we need the shackles to remind us that we are “committed”. Ironically, this one comes from the same production house which is in shaadi-binness. U-Turn? Hell yeah! Mommy, are you listening?
4. Parineeti Chopra – Mommy, if you still insist, can you try her. I have been skeptical about her main-chulbuli-always-smiling-full-on-enthu avatar in the last two films of her. Are they going to typecast her? But three films down and i think we can easily brand her as “show stealer”. Put her in any film, she is bound to walk away with all the glory while making it look oh so easy. Girl, you are going far.
5. No Melodrama – It’s never been our strength. To keep it minimum, to keep it subtle and yet pack a punch. Now, just see what all can a “thanda” do in situations where there is huge scope for such drama. Am not going to explain the scenes here to kill the fun. But i wanted to get up and applaud in the first “thanda lao” scene. I don’t remember when was the last time someone played it so smoothly in such a loaded scenario.
6. So much silence – Again, another rarity in mainstream bollywood. What do you write on those blank pages where your characters look into each other and say nothing and give those strange expressions that is difficult to define. It comes only with those weird situations that you get into. SDR is full of those and director Maneesh Sharma knows how to capture them.
7. No dil-jigar-dard-tukda song – what a relief. Dil hi toh hai saala, tutne do. Devads is over and out. To quote Sahni from another favourite, Rocket Singh, bikhre nahi toh kaise nikhrogey, uljhe nahi toh kaise suljhogey.
8. Climax – 2 couples and 4 characters – what a masterstroke. The way 4 characters are stuck at the same crossroads and the dialogues were criss-crossing, it reminded me of my favourite scene in That Girl In Yellow Boots – two telephonic conversations going on at the same time. Also, the climax doesn’t try to follow the conventional route. It sticks to its core idea that its prescribing from the beginning.
9. The “repetitive” tool – I read some comments saying that lot of it is “repetitive”, especially the dialogues. I thought that was brilliant writing – to use the same stuff with different characters. You know the lines, the character doesn’t. It happens more than once and the funniest is when Sushant and Parineeti try to find out about each other from Rishi Kapoor.
10. Pigeons, Monkeys and Milieu – As the film started, i kept on smiling as it played the montage filled with these various creatures. It’s been a while since our kabootar did ja ja for Mister Saajan. They are not just props, they slowly construct that rare thing which is difficult to achieve – milieu. And being aware of the world around you always helps.
All hail Jaideep Sahni! At a time when the market is flooded with fucking remakes and sequels with the sole intention of making money, here’s the one with the original voice and daring content.
Chanchal mann, ati random
De gayo dhoka sambhal gayo re
Phisal gayo re…
– Posted by @CilemaSnob
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 
Reblogged this on kamz26 and commented:
Brilliant… absolutely brilliant. Definitely going to watch it now!
Though that “thanda lao” scene was a bit predictable for me, I laughed my lungs out when in that tensed situation, that small guy says “Mai abhi bhi Tara ji ka haath pakadne ko tayyar hoon!”
+ 1 hell yeah. was LOLing. But thanda was predictable? you are genius 🙂 i had no clue how he would tackle it.
Gaali ke liye thanks! 🙂
Predictable as in, you can sense that the character wont react normally…in fact when there’s a chair kept in the same frame and that camera shot tells you that she will sit there! Even that guy comes in to tell that just before this scene.. so you know how the tension build up situation’s gonna be handled. Writer is on “chill, we’re gonna have fun” mode right from the start.
gaali? you saw chair, guessed the reaction, you saw character, you guesses his reaction. Bhaissab, aap genius ke baap hain. Pair dikhaye apna 🙂
wad a movie it was.i just saw fr jaideep sahni sir and based on d reviews of @cilemasnob.for me whole of first half and second hlf till gulaabi song is masterpiece.then there were few problems bt those problems gel well with d story.what they tried to tell was pretty clear.i am 23 yrs old and this is the same way we talk with girlfriend.hats off to sahni sir to capture those essence. last thing.i was going through my fb profile and one guy commented #sdr is a boring movie and one gal who is intelligent academically commented the best thing about #sdr was dhoom 3 teaser and ciggarette smoking is injurious to health.really this shows how indian audiences are.i was hurt seeing suc comments.hope audiences applaud dis movie and itz a huge success.atleast fr sahni sir.
Reg. point no. 10, Maneesh Sharma probably likes opening his movies with a shot of pigeons considering he has done the same in BBB where both the halves start with a shot of pigeons. 🙂
Repetition worked fine when it started. Case in point the scene you talked about. Even to some extent when Tauji is being welcomed by the guests as he disembarks the bus. But too much of bathroom and too much of eloping. There is not a single wedding that goes through. Not saying it’s not possible, but too farfetched to be funny.
What I loved though was the lead was not the only couple. There were always all parallel stories going on. How that weird guy says “Mai Tara ji ka haath thaamne ke liye taiyyar hu” right aftwr Raghu elopes, and the climax you talked about. Made them feel so human and not center of the universe unlike how Bollywood usually treats its couples.
Absolutely loved all your 10 reasons! Jaideep Sahni is the baap of writing and dialogues; Incredible is the word. The movie was engaging and superbly cast. The sudden trough in the second half made me a bit skeptical but the story unfolded quite well thereafter.
I don’t know how you praise a script like this. Jaideep Sahni didn’t know what he was writing post the interval. The first half was a great film in itself, but seriously lost it afterwards.
well, da frst hlf was jst brilliant. then it started drgrading. wen u r so frank wid a girl to kiss her on da day of ur wedding, da grl wu u reco as ur sis, u cant convey a simple msg to her dat u hav wedding jitters..cupl of mrg-fleeing was enuf..last one was unnecessary.. da intention of putting a mrg-fleeing scene in da climax marrs da pace n is vry unfunny..da end convo btwn dem 2 sumwht acts as da saving grace..
n one more thng, it seemed dat gayatri alredy knew it dat she wud get to meet raghu once agn, n den convey to her dat she really luvd him, n only fleed coz she thot he wud..cmon man, so illogical n uncool..wen u r so frank wid man, u sleep arnd wid him, live in wid him, u cant convey ur feelings?
overall a nice watch, grtt songs, no melodrama n all, splcy liked da way dey tlk to each other..nice attepmt at an unconventional plot, cud hav been so so better…
Sir thodi jyada hi tareef nahi ho rahi writer Sahab ki? I mean, I remember Chak De India and some of the scenes written were so stupid I wanted to slap the characters uttering it.
Cricket vice captain telling his fiancé that she should leave her sport as its not worth it: “Kahan Cricket aur kahan tumhara gilli danda” seriously?
the association chairman making sexists remarks at the drop of hat. Kya chutiyapa tha woh Sab?
That reflects the psych of the Indian male towards women sports and is very much true.Rightly pointed out without being didactic. That’s where the writer excels.
I haven’t met even a single sportsperson, a genuine one, who disrespects other sports. Neither any of these fucked up association heads would have the balls to say such things in the open even if they feel so in their heads.
Where is all the subtlety?
Association heads never say that in open/public in the movie,they are in their office with the other members who share the same prejudice.Ask all the oppressed hockey players about how much they hate cricket and the money that goes into it,ask tennis players how much they despise table tennis.In the film the cricketer says that to his GF within their confined bedroom never in the open,he too is cynical about the state of women hockey in india like the association heads.This cynicism about women sports is what the writer was trying to address.
While I appreciate your views, the film didn’t work for me. I lost all interest when I saw the guy running away from his own wedding.
it was shit movie n i dont know why its being promoted here… personal views u will says
The movie had a strong anti marraige commentary.it repeatedly focuses on marraige’s with fake baraati’s who pass for genuine. the writer wants to focus that there’s hardly any difference between the real and the fake ones when it comes to the pompousness of the Indian ‘Baraat’ even in the scene where Vaani Kapoor’s mausa tries to get violent she retorts by saying “aap door k mausa hain,rehne dein”.There’s a subtle sexual energy which plays like music in the entire film,its seen when rishi kapoor,though a traditional indian guy says ‘aadmi pant k pappu ka ghulaam hota hai’.
I saw ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’ and liked it…I think the reason for liking it instead of loving it was solely Tara…I absolutely hated her smugness.If you hear her lines,I don’t think they were as smug but just the way Vaani spoke them was,uff…,disconcerting..,It was further brought out by the absolutely stunning performances by Parineeti,Sushant and Rishi Kapoor…
Ishq wala love ho gaya hai bhai Parineeti se. Bahut zor se, woh bhi!
Time to write 10 reasons why I hated it. The dialogues of Sahni were the equivalent of Kadar Khan’s dialogs in late 80s – “ameeri ke aate ko gundh kar, lalach ke ghee me jo pak kar roti banti hai…” type
Reblogged this on Much Ado About Something and commented:
This is yet another fantastic write up on Shuddh Desi Romance. A very good read…
I have noticed that usually your and my choice of films are alike. But in this case I feel your bias towards Jaideep Sahni has swayed your opinion unduly. This is not Shuddh Desi, this is basically a typical Hollywood rom-com mash-up set in Jaipur. No originality either. And Parineeti and new heroine’s character are almost similar. As you said main-chulbuli-always-smiling-full-on-enthu avatar. Where is the character differentiation. And you know what were those scenes where the lead characters talk to the camera? Poor writing!! Coz they know audience cannot relate to these inexplicable characters and hence they are trying to ‘explain’ their point of view to the audience. The movie is full of boldness which looks to forced! I mean why wud a girl like Gayatri (or whatever Parineeti’s name was) suddenly start kissing a guy like Sushant Singh after talking to him like half-an-hour and that too without any interest?! Being bold just for the sake of it!