Tanu weds manu movie review | Tanu weds manu review and ratings
The small town is spot on. The girls learn dance moves from Nach Baliye, learn English in 180 days, scream the hoardings in every marketplace, wedding guests drink whisky in steel glasses, everyone wears Kurt Cobain T-shirts without knowing about Nirvana, and all important decisions are taken in the presence of the entire family, including the old grandmother on the khatiya.
The boy from London is a straight arrow who has ticked all the must-do boxes of a successful young man. The girl from Kanpur is a romantic in love with the idea of rebellion. He falls for her. She is in love with someone else. So far so cliche. But then the heroine’s friend is a spitfire, the hero’s friends are more than cardboard cutouts, and the parents are long suffering rather than overbearing.
R. Madhavan gets a role worthy of his dreamboat status in the South though he does tend to look like the Incredible Bulk-he indeed is a “darling type of aadmi”, as Kangna calls him. Deepak Dobriyal’s foxy face conveys a wealth of sly and subtle emotion. KK Raina (so wonderful to see him back) is the well meaning dad who has never triumphed his domineering wife. Swara Bhaskar is a phataka as the independent minded, pragmatic friend. Even the normally blah Jimmy Shergill does brooding well.
But the star is undoubtedly Kangna Ranaut, who cusses, drinks Old Monk neat, smokes grass, and gets her boyfriend’s name tattooed on her chest. Her expressive face is always way ahead of her alarming diction but few films have done as much justice to girl power as Tanu Weds Manu. “Why make pacemakers,” she says at one point to the hapless Madhavan, “when I serve that purpose?” Indeed as she dances to Kajra Mohabbat Wala, rides a motorbike, utters Amitabh Bachchan-worthy dialogues (darti to main apne baap se bhi nahin hoon), she shows why she’s her very own Jhansi ki Rani and her very own Sarojini Naidu.
Sure, it’s basically Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge between Kanpur, Lucknow and Kapurthala but aren’t all romances in India essentially variations of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge? What’s good about Tanu Weds Manu is the level of detailing. The singing in the train compartment when a family travels together. The cutesy cushion in the girl’s that squeaks when it’s sat upon. The late night round of tea when a family crisis is on. The Sunil Dutt songs playing on the terrace in the moonlight. And the joys of eating garam puris on the way back from Vaishno Devi.
Fun and feisty, just like Ms Ranaut, this is a movie worth watching. My favourite lines? All with Dobriyal. Sarkar abhi bhi bachayi ja sakti hai, he says. My name is Pappi. Bol ke doon, ya kar ke?
RATING: 3 and 1/2
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