Research & Publications
Research & Publications
"Most of the time I move around in the steel braces of subconscious inhibitions…" Indo-Anglian writer, the late Sasthi Brata, had written in his much a c c l a i m e d autobiography My God Died Young
. He was referring to the frustration of surviving the imperceptible obstacles a high context society such as ours sets up. Sometimes,
there is no way around the obstacles except for breaking away. As Arati Shukla, played by Kriti Kharbanda in Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana, realizes before she cuts loose on her wedding day.
The film opens with the main female lead p r o t e s t i n g against the m a r r i a g e arranged by her family to a clerk at an excise office.
Predictably,
the protests fall on deaf ears as the tyrant father (played by Govind Namdeo) cannot visualize career prospects for his daughter who happens to be far more capable than his son. What he does not realize is that Arati has taken her PCS exams on the sly and qualified the prelims.
The same tyrant of a father does not blink twice, however, when it comes to acceding to dowry demands from the prospective in-laws’ side. Double speak and double standards rule the roost in a conservative society, something the film brings out clearly.
The love story that had taken the tried and tested "arranged" route turns into a revenge saga when the girl decides to become a runaway bride on her wedding day. It is the day the PCS final results are announced. It is also the day the (prospective) mother-in-law unequivocally expresses her opposition to allowing her prospective daughter-in-law a career. It is at the exhortation of her elder sister Abha (Nayani Dixit) that Arati decides to choose her head over her heart even as it breaks into splinters. The lady’s determination to become an officer versus a housewife dominates the softer emotions.
Cut to five years hence. The heroine’s
"misdemeanor" is forgiven by her immediate family as she rides high on her PCS career. But soon there is
a spoke in the wheel in the shape of a land grab scam. It does not take a child to guess the identity of her investigation officer. The audience is treated to a real surprise, though, as Rajkumar Rao does a complete turnaround as the suave District Magistrate as opposed to his clerk avatar in which he was believably "awkward". Bristling with feelings of revenge he takes on Kriti in every sense of the word scoring several brownie points in the bargain.
The other actors like KK Raina, Alka Amin, and Navni Parihar, too, sync with their roles with believable ease.
Director Ratnaa Sinha’s directed story gels well with the audience. With a nudging gaffe, though. The film appears to be complicit with the dowry system. As the hero goes on a retribution spree, not once does Arati remind him of the financial harassment her own family had been subjected to thanks to the avaricious demands of his mother and uncle. One wonders how a woman director with a string of family soaps to her credit (or even without them, for that matter) could have missed such a vital point.
It is this fly in the gel that sours a believably good film.