BY SUMAIYA SHEIKH
Story:
Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari is set in the year 1955 in Bombay which is now Mumbai. The film starts and we see Suraj Singh Dhillon (Diljit Dosanjh), a 28-year-old bachelor making a video to find a ‘pativrata ladki’. Suraj Singh Dhillon’s father Gurunam Singh Dhillon (Manoj Phawa) marries to love of his life (Seema Bhargava) and gets 22 buffaloes as ‘gift’. They move to Bombay, cut to 1995, Mr. Dhillon is now a stabilised businessman and has his Jai Matarani Doondh Bhandar.
In the other part of the city, we see Madhu Mangal Rane (Manoj Bajpayee) in a woman’s avatar doing puja with another lady, soon it’s established that Madhu Mangal Rane is a private detective. He works for families who wants to do a background check for their future son in law. Rane has so far exposed 48 grooms or what he says ‘lafangaas’.
The film takes a turn when Rane went on to expose his 49th groom who is non-other than Suraj Singh Dhillon. Eventually, Rane succeed and Dhillon is left without a bride. However, Dhillon decides to take revenge and that’s how he finds Rane’s sister Turshi Rane (Fatima Sana Shaikh). Dhillon and Turshi fall in love and the story gets spicier when Rane finds out the truth.
Writing:
Rohan Shankar and Shokhi Banerjee have definitely succeded in making us laugh. There are some of the punches which literally make your eyes tear out of laughter. However, the elephant in the room must be called off. There are some patriarchal and stereotypical lines in the film which is sometimes disturbing. It is also odd to hear sexist, ageist comments directed more than once for a film which seems progressive. Other then that large parts of of the film is genuinely entertaining.
Direction:
Abhishek Sharma did a decent job, special recreating the iconic DDLJ climax with a twist. The director took out the best from the actors, while the screen timing was justified for all the actors.
Music:
Javed–Mohsin and Kingshuk Chakravarty gave some of there good shorts. Overall music of the film is good and take thumbs up from us.
Performances:
When you have actors like Supriya Pilgaonkar, Anu Kapoor, Manoj Bajpayee and Diljit Dosanjh then the half work is already done.
Even though it was odd to see Supriya Pilgaonkar as Manoj’s mother in the film, her dialogues and quirky character makes it a treat to watch.
Manoj Bajpayee and Diljit Dosanjh are the show stealer and their freakish war is fun to watch. While Diljit had some of the funniest lines in the film, Manoj’s acting win all the rewards.
This was not Fatima Sana Shaikh’s best shot. She single-handedly pulled the energy down and instead of her anyone else would have done the role better.
Annu Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa, Seema Pahwa, Vijay Raaz are amazing in the film.
Verdict:
Though Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari was set in the 90s it was quite confusing at times. The characters don’t look like they are in the 90s mostly because of their appearance. The makers tried to do some political satire which is decent. SPMB is one such film that we can enjoy with the entire family.
Critics Rating:
