Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, which marked the directorial debut of Shashank Khaitan, is an ode to Aditya Chopra’s 1995 release, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ). Shashank establishes this point right from the opening credits, where our hero, Varun Dhawan, is seen crying (probably for the 100th time) while watching the train sequence of the age-old classic.
Adapting a widely-loved film is fine, but it’s important to cut out all the problematic bits that seemed okay to the audience in that era. Sadly, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania introduced a few more. In this week’s Wahiyat Wednesday, we point out those problems.
The film tells the story of Kavya (Alia Bhatt), a spunky Ambala girl who has been betrothed to a Mr Perfect NRI munda, Angad (Sidharth Shukla). Kavya wasn’t asked, she was told. And since she doesn’t have a say in the most important decision of her life, she accepts her fate and decides to get some happiness by buying the ‘designer’ lehenga of her choice. Or is it really about the lehenga?
In lieu of buying the perfect lehenga, Kavya heads to Delhi, to live one month of her remaining single life to the fullest. There she meets Rakesh ‘Humpty’ Sharma. The film starts with Humpty’s introduction, which is a cringe-fest itself. We see his friends wait outside the men’s loo, banging on the door, worrying that their friend might get late for the exam. Then we see a girl walk out of the loo, and our hero calmly says, “Mujhe sab aata hai.” In the next scene, we see him leaving the answer sheet blank. This will be followed by manhandling a college professor to get passing grades in that very subject. Wow!
The college professor turns out to be Kavya’s uncle and so our lead pair meet, starting a whirlwind romance.
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania released in 2014 when both Alia and Varun were two years into the industry. Their innocence is starkly visible on the screen, which works in favour of their characters. Their chemistry in the film is bang on. The ease with which they deliver their dialogues is commendable. And though the script is a bit sketchy, Alia and Varun’s performance and dialogue delivery gives us the strength to go on.
However, a film cannot entirely depend on its actor to lift it up. In Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, we see an appalling sequence where Kavya, Humpty and their gang, set up cameras in a hotel room and make a sex tape of a guy from whom they seek revenge. They also blackmail him, and the woman he was involved with for money. This sequence is handled like a comedy scene by the director, which makes it even more problematic.
There is also a scene in the film where Humpty’s father and friends, who met Kavya just two days ago, decide to give her their life’s savings so she can buy her lehenga. It just doesn’t add up.
The film has a stretched gay angle, which is dealt with in a tasteless manner. Hell-bent to prove that Angad is wrong for Kavya, Humpty asks his friend to find a loophole in his personality. His friend digs up Angad’s Facebook photos getting close to his male friend. The gang assumes he is gay, and one of them says, “Kahan hum isse stud samajhte they, ye toh gay nikla.” Because gay men are not manly, yes we get it. This, while the Dostana score, ‘Gay, Gay, Gay,’ plays the background.
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania is the modern-day version of DDLJ. Here, our lead pair aren’t coy. They drink together and are comfortable getting into a physical relationship. Unlike Kajol, our heroine doesn’t submit to her father (Ashutosh Rana) completely. She walks up to him and loudly states that she loves another guy.
Ashutosh too isn’t the eye-bulging Amrish Puri, who doesn’t allow his family to have their own voice. He listens to Kavya and gives Humpty a chance to prove himself.
But despite these improved plotlines and decent performances, the film doesn’t stand out. In one scene, Kavya and Humpty go to a lehenga store. The salesman shows them a copy of a Manish Malhotra lehenga and says, “100 per cent original fake hai ji.” We wish the film was more than that.
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