Oh boy, spoilers time! For me at least, there is nothing more stressful than a love triangle. I am always worried that the wrong couple will end up together. If you want that stress removed, you can read this and know how it ends. But on the other hand, a lot of the entertainment of the film is not being sure how it will end and trying to guess. So if you want that entertainment, read the No Spoilers review instead.
Whole plot in two paragraphs:
Vicky Kaushal and Taapsee Pannu have been having a sexual relationship for a year. He lives next door and hops terraces to visit her. Her cousin who she shares a room with knows, and her aunt and uncle and grandfather that she lives with suspect. Finally her aunt catches them together and her family throws him out and tells her they want her to get married. She goes to Vicky and gives him an ultimatum, says he has to come to her house and propose or she will agree to an arranged marriage. He doesn’t show up, and in anger she tells her family to find her a groom. Meanwhile, Abhishek has just arrived from London trying to find a bride. His family shows him pictures and he is immediately drawn to Taapsee. He looks her up on Facebook and asks around and gets a good sense of who she is (former Hockey player, angry, messy romantic past) and is still interested. Taapsee and Vicky have made up again and now are planning to elope. Only once they are on the road, she realizes he isn’t really ready for this and has him turn the car around. Instead, they agree he will come by her house and just arrange an engagement, not a marriage but an engagement to hold her family off. Only, he doesn’t come. In anger, again, she agrees to the arranged marriage and meets Abhishek. Abhishek can tell she is distracted and not thinking about him, and is confronted by Vicky in a club that night, but still wants the marriage. Vicky then goes and attacks the marriage broker, Taapsee finds out about it and goes to his parents’ house and begs them to keep their son away from her. The night before the wedding, Vicky has a change of heart and stands outside the house until she finally comes down and talks to him, and they decide to elope again. She goes to tell Abhishek she won’t be marrying him the next day, and Abhishek decides to call Vicky’s parents, see if he can get them to break up that way. Vicky’s parents try to talk him out of the elopement by convincing him he isn’t good enough for her, he doesn’t know what he really wants, it’s just immaturity. Taapsee waits for him, but he doesn’t come. The next day, Abhishek and Taapsee get married. INTERVAL
Taapsee is miserable and heartbroken over Vicky. She spends the wedding night watching TV all night, then they go to Kashmir for a remote honeymoon and she goes for a run by herself and cries, then comes back and ignores Abhishek. Until that night when she puts on a negligee and asks him to have sex with her. Abhishek asks if she is sure, she says yes. And the next morning she texts Vicky that she had sex with Abhishek. He sends a message in return claiming that he has moved on and is having sex with someone else (a fake, it is his friend’s girlfriend). Taapsee is distracted and asks Abhishek to take her back home. She takes off to visit Vicky as soon as they arrive, telling him to leave her alone but also clearly still attracted to him. Back home, Abhishek is slowly getting to know her, drinking with her and joking with her and making her laugh. She tells him she is done with Vicky and wants to be in this marriage, he tells her not to hurry, to take her time. And then Vicky meets with Abhishek, in a suit, and tells him everything. Taapsee is furious, but Abhishek tells her it was nothing he didn’t already know, and he doesn’t care. So long as she is honest with him. Taapsee is touched and invites him to have sex with her again. And then the next day she goes to talk to Vicky and they have sex too. Afterwards she immediately regrets it, goes home and cries on Abhishek’s shoulder but doesn’t tell him what happened. She goes to Vicky again to say good-bye and this time Abhishek follows her. He sees her talking to Vicky and the chemistry between them, and Vicky asks her if when she is with Abhishek, she keeps her eyes closed and pictures Vicky and it is clearly true. Abhishek is hurt and spends two nights out drinking while Taapsee stays up waiting for him. The second night, he explodes at her, tells her he saw them together, he loves her so much and put up with all of this, but she is never going to grow up and they deserve each other. He calms down the next day and apologizes and tells her they should get an annulment. Taapsee goes back home, sadder than ever, all the gifts are returned and the marriage canceled, Abhishek takes the blame. Vicky and his parents are now talking to Taapsee’s family about marriage, but she is distracted thinking of Abhishek. Finally at the formal “first meeting”, Taapsee takes Vicky aside and breaks up with him, tells him he was a wonderful first love but now she is moving on. She sees Abhishek again at the annulment in the court, he doesn’t soften and signs the papers but offers to walk her home afterwards. On the walk, she babbles, telling him all about herself, opening up, trying to get him to open up too. He finally responds in turn, telling her more about himself. She says good-bye, but she keeps calling after him, not able to let him leave. Until he finally turns around and says that they still have some free meals pending in Kashmir, might as well go back, and she runs into his arms. The screen goes black just as they go in for (possibly) their first kiss.
I gave all those details partly so I could remember it all and try to sort the wheat from the chaff. But the thing is, it’s all chaff. Or else it’s all wheat. The basic plot is kind of nothing, Vicky and Taapsee are in love, she marries in a fit of anger at him, and then she gets over Vicky and learns to love her husband. It’s the same thing we’ve seen over and over again. But in the middle of it is so much drama, so much back and forth, so much emotional turmoil. None of which ends up mattering, because Taapsee stays with Abhishek after all.
What’s radical about this movie isn’t in the plot itself but in how it is presented, the way the film sees what is happening. That this film doesn’t shy away from all the messiness of the Taapsee-Vicky break up, and still treats it as a break up. They sobbed and hurt and fought and made love, yes, all of that is true. But that doesn’t mean forever. Sometimes love just runs its course.
By an hour into this movie, I was already having a mental mantra of “please don’t redeem this character, please don’t please don’t” because Vicky was just so horrible. And yet I could see that he made Taapsee happy. She laughed with him, she was free with him, she was herself with him. But he didn’t show up to propose, over and over again he just didn’t come. And there was a comment about how he didn’t go with her when she had to have an abortion because he was “busy”. He’s not evil, he’s not abusive, but he is also not a great boyfriend. Or a great human being, spoiled and immature and incapable of thinking of others. And I was terrified that the movie would say “well, tough luck Taapsee, he is your first love and first love is forever so you are stuck with this worthless guy”.
And then she married Abhishek and my mantra switched to “please don’t make it bittersweet, please don’t make it a sacrifice, please don’t make it a compromise”. Because that’s the other story we are used to, that first love is wonderful and perfect but somehow doesn’t work out and instead the woman sadly marries someone else and spends her life just a little bit broken inside. Blech!!!!
But what I realized as I was watching the movie is that in the other films, we the audience assume the woman is a little bit broken inside because we never get to see her journey. We cut straight from the happy first love, to the happy days of marriage with no transition in between. This movie shows us that. The entire film takes place during what in Jeet or Kabhi Kabhi or Sangam was handled in the course of one song. Those tricky first few honeymoon weeks of marriage while she is still in love with someone else.
Other movies just accept it as a given “and then after marriage she learned to adjust”. This movie digs in and asks “what does that mean? What does that feel like? How does it happen?” And it’s messy, is the answer. Messy, but far better this way than if Abhishek had pressured her or hurried her. Taapsee had to work through her emotions about Vicky before she could be fully open to Abhishek. And if she hadn’t had the time to work them through, she never would have been fully open to Abhishek.
The sex scenes are the most disturbing. Taapsee is initiating them, Abhishek is giving no pressure to her. But he is also obviously giving her no pleasure. Or receiving much himself, he seems no more relaxed and happy post-coitus than he was before. Yes he asks over and over if this is what she wants, but no matter what she says, her body language so clearly states that it isn’t what she wants that it feels wrong for him to do it. It feels like he should have said no, should have waited until she truly wanted him. Even if that was taking away her choice in the moment. He had the right to make that choice for himself.
But then, the sex scenes are important if this is going to be a different kind of a story. In the traditional version, sex fixes everything. The husband is happy, the wife is happy, everything is good. But this movie wanted to take that and show how wrong it was. Sex is nothing, sex is meaningless. Abhishek isn’t satisfied with that, he wants a real relationship. And Taapsee isn’t magically changed by it, it’s everything besides sex that can change her.
What makes this even more meaningful is the contrast with the relationship with Vicky. Usually in Indian society/films that human instinct to conflate sexual satisfaction with love is used to keep the arranged marriage system churning along. If the couple are sexually compatible (a big “if” obviously) than the first few years of marriage, heck just the first few weeks of marriage, became much more manageable. They are bonded together immediately, and by the time the glow has worn off, they have learned to live with each other outside of the bedroom as well.
But in this film, it is Vicky and Taapsee who have the great sex while that is not a part of her relationship with Abhishek. That is why they are “in love”, Vicky even challenges her at one point that she can’t do without him because she will go crazy without “fyaar” (their word for sex) twice a day. And his description of the greatest love, is to hop terraces to her when she is horny.
But they don’t talk. Abhishek talks to her, jokes with her, wants to get to know her. They have everything but sex. And, eventually, Taapsee discovers she misses that “everything but” much more than the sex. Discovers that sex can improve, but conversation can’t. Her first time with Abhishek is bad and just in revenge against Vicky. They next time is better, she still makes him turn out the lights but she initiates it because he touched her and she felt something. And the third time, she turns into him and lets her hold her while she cries.
That’s why the film ends with their kiss. A kiss is that special thing that brings together sex and everything else. We never saw her kiss Vicky. They had desperate quick encounters in hidden rooms, but they didn’t kiss.
And it’s why, right before the kiss, they finally talk. The structure of this story is so interesting, because we learn a lot of the most important things in the last 5 minutes. But we saw the result of those things in the rest of the film. Taapsee’s only question for Abhishek at their first meeting is if he is on Tinder, why is that? Abhishek is so patient and saintlike in how he forgives Taapsee, and so sure that her relationship will end, why is this? Taapsee’s family is ridiculously indulgent of her, why is that?
And it finally comes out at the very end. We, the audience, finally get to fully understand these two characters at the same time they are fully understanding each other. Just like them, we were fighting our way through the haze of Taapsee’s love for Vicky, the stress of early marriage, everything else that hid the real people, and only know that they have annulled the marriage, come out clean and clear on the other side, can they face each other honestly.
And the backstory is good too! Logical and makes sense with what we have seen of these characters. Taapsee’s parents died when she was young and she moved into her aunt and uncle’s household. They let her run wild because they feel sorry for her, and she knows that and takes advantage of it and then feels bad later. She clings to her grandfather because she feels he really loves her, is really hers as much as anyone else’s. She played hockey because it reminded her of her father. She met Vicky on Tinder because he was next door. And everything falls into place once she explains it, her whole character in the rest of the film. Someone who doesn’t feel like she belongs, like she fits in, looking for sex because sex is good and then building it up to be a grand passion and love story because she wanted someone and some thing that was just her own. And now finally coming out of that haze and returning to herself and discovering what she wants for herself, not in reaction to what she doesn’t have.
Abhishek’s is the far more important story because we got so little of him in the rest of the film. Abhishek does a great job with his performance, all three leads do. Vicky doesn’t hold back on disappearing into the character of this immature impulsive worthless type. Taapsee handles with grace the need to let us see what she is thinking through her face because she will never talk to anyone directly. But Abhishek has to let us see and understand and trust him, without fully knowing him. And he does it, we believe he is a nice solid guy who is struck by Taapsee, intrigued by her for reasons we don’t fully know but can still accept. And forgiving enough and wise enough to let most things go. But the movie would be far inferior if it was left at that, if we never got any explanation for why he is this way.
But, at the very very end, we finally do. Without them bothering to underline it and say “and this is why I love you and forgive you”. Abhishek had his own wild past. He kissed a girl on her wedding day after jumping terraces to get there and away again. He did the wild in love thing just like Taapsee. And then when he was 24 he got in a driving accident and his friend lost a leg, and ever since then he hasn’t done anything wild. So, there it is. He didn’t want to marry a “good girl”, he wanted to marry someone with a similar past to himself, a similar personality. And he could forgive almost anything she did, because he knew he was no better, he had permanently hurt a friend through his own carelessness.
As I said at the beginning, read the spoilers if you just can’t stand the tension. But don’t, if you want the tension as you watch it for the first time. The filmmakers want you to have that tension, they set up Vicky and Taapsee as “True Love” in the first half and make us wait to see if it will work or not. Then in the second half they set up Abhishek and Taapsee’s marriage as totally over and make us wait to see if it will be saved. And most of all they make us wait until the last few minutes of the film to fully understand what is happening in these characters’ heads. It’s a very different structure, keeping us guessing all along as though it was some kind of spy thriller instead of a relationship drama.
What I am curious about is if the film will hold up on a second viewing, without that tension to keep it going. I think it will. The dialogue is so fun, and performances so entertaining, and the songs so great that it will keep you going, even knowing how it turns out.
Oh, one final thing. The subtitles on this film are, once again, frustratingly terrible. In particular there is a scene where Abhishek and Taapsee are both drunk and Taapsee challenges him to shout from the rooftops. Naturally he falls into the “soo-i-cide!!!!” speech from Sholay. And then they switch to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai quotes. Which the subtitles, naturally, change to be at first just almost literal translations (not exact, they try to make the drunken mumbling of the speech into something logical, making it no longer a quote) and then into Titanic quotes. WHY?????? Why not just leave it as the words they say and let the audience either appreciate them as nonsense from drunk people, or recognize them as quotes from movies they know. Why this whitewashing of Indian references? This assumption that everything can be translated to western culture because nothing is truly unique?
Oh, and the far far far FAAAAR more important translation problem, the use of “husband material” for the title “Manmarziyaan”. I barely speak Hindi, and even I knew that was ridiculous. Ridiculous to the point of changing the meaning of the film. “Mann” is heart-soul-inner being. “Marzi” is wish. “Yaan”, I’m not sure about, it might just be a word ending. The point is, the title means “heart’s wish”, or “heart’s desire”. The movie is not about Taapsee finding a man who is “husband material”. It is about Taapsee coming to understand her own heart and what it wants. In the first half, she wanted Vicky. But in the second, Abhishek. Her heart changed and she follows it, not anything else. That’s what this movie is about, finding and understanding your hearts’ desire.
(That’s why the recurring fantasy element is the twin female dancers, Taapsee’s spirit animals showing her emotions. It’s about Taapsee’s heart, not anything else)
dontcallitbollywood 
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In these kind of movies, rather than be sympathetic with the lovers, I always think of all the pain, confusion, expense, and heartache they cause to everyone around them. I just want to say to them, “GROW UP AND TAKE SOME RESPONSIBILITY!”
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This movie somewhat agrees with you, it’s certainly not very sympathetic.
On Sat, Sep 15, 2018 at 8:42 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Twice in this review you make a reference to Kangana. Guest appearance?
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gosh darn it. tanu weds manu hangover and only 5 hours of sleep. ill fix it.
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“Yaan” is just a plural form of the word “Marzi”.
Marzi = Desire/Wish.
Marziyaan = Desires/Wishes.
There were a couple of references to Kangana in the post. Is that a typo?
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yeah, it should be fixed now
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wow…never seen the movie but you broke it down so good that I felt like I was watching it with you….glad the ending turn out she grew up and actually understand real love …like they actually talked honestly …before a real kiss of love….did good narrating http://www.rethinkautismmom.blog
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im glad you liked it! have you seen many indian movies?
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no…my cable service does not offer…but I like your breaking the movies down so I can picture it in my head!
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p.s if you know someone with a love one with autism you can share our autism journey at http://www.rethinkautismmom.blog …i will keep cking your movie highlights!
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So is this the Tapsee movie that we have been waiting for?
Also love your take on sex not being the determinant in the relationship. Usually the saintly husband doesn’t touch the wife until her heart is conquered & married heroine going back & having sex with ex is definitely a first in Hindi films-unless she’s the evil seductress type. Here I assume the heart & hormones are not necessarily in sync & thats treated as okay?
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This may be the Taapsee movie we are waiting for! For one thing, she has a really distinctive look in it, they aren’t trying to tone down her hair or her smile or anything. And she also does a really good job with the role, feels lived in not showy.
heart and hormones is a good way to put it. The film treats that as okay, but the characters (except for Abhishek) seem not necessarily aware of the difference between the two. Vicky and Taapsee are deep in the throws of “love” until suddenly it blows over and she doesn’t feel it any more. But Abhishek was wise enough to know it wasn’t necessarily “love” in the first place, and a little healthy distance might have been all that was required to make it fade away. And that if he can win over Taapsee’s heart, her hormones will follow along eventually.
On Sat, Sep 15, 2018 at 2:07 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I don’t think I’ve ever read any of your reviews so closely:)…I am so intrigued by this film and anxious to see it. (That’s not a reflection on your reviews at all, I’m just a skimmer!).
I debated whether or not to spoil myself since I didn’t go this weekend (other social plans interceded), but I still might go next weekend if it’s still playing. I suspected, but needed the confirmation that Rumi ends up with Robbie. How you describe how they get there is not surprising really based on what I’ve seen in the trailer. I didn’t see the annulment coming but I could tell that she “cheats” on Robbie at some point.
But I think the way you describe how sex and passion are treated in the script is really the most interesting part of the film and what Kashyup is trying to do. It’s a bit regressive in some ways maybe? Yes, the basis of a strong marriage is friendship, trust, companionship, but sex is such a big part of intimacy and passion can turn to long lasting love. It’s Rumi’s journey to figuring out how she wants to get there (and ultimately with who) that makes the story go (it sounds like).
Since I like a little spice (or at least good sexual tension) in my romances I hope there is still a clear chemistry with Rumi and Robbie (or at least physical chemistry that we can imagine by the end). So the kiss is not actually shown??? I’m thinking back…does Abhishek not kiss on screen? I can’t think of one and I’ve seen tons of his films…weird. I’m probably missing a really obvious one. I might like the choice of not showing it but still!
Perfect Taapsee movie, for sure! Abhishek doing the Darcy thing (as Kalki said!) will suit me just fine…I love Vicky and Taapsee, but I’m really here for a slim-downed, simmering, and intense Abhishek in that turban if I’m being honest.
OK, Netflix…you love Kashyup so get this film streaming asap!
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It’s interesting how the film treats the sexual tension between Abhi and Taapsee. She isn’t turning her back on sex in order to be with him, more turning her back on the easy fast familiar sex that she knows. And while with Vicky it is all panting and throwing each other around, with Abhishek it is a soft touch on the shoulder or glances exchanged cautiously. Taapsee’s choice isn’t so much between “just sex” and “everything but sex” but between “guaranteed good sex forever and terrible everything else” and “there is chemistry there if we work at it and make it grow, and everything else is wonderful”. It works nicely with Karan’s Lust Stories section, showing that good sex doesn’t necessarily happen right away, perhaps especially not between two strangers who were just married, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen eventually.
I kept thinking about what this would look like if the genders were flipped, and it’s what we have seen in a lot of movies with the hero. There is the naughty romance with the white girl, or the sexy girl, or whoever that barely gets a line. And then the “real” love story that has a whole different kind of chemistry. But this movie is struggling with the difficulty of a woman saying “that early relationship was just sex, it’s not like what I have with you”, because women aren’t supposed to have “just great sex” kinds of relationships.
On Sat, Sep 15, 2018 at 7:00 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Without a moment to ponder, I join in to the praise you received for your analysis…such a mature way to look at the relationships displayed. I bet, Kanika (the film-writer) has done a really good job.
Something in the way to juxtapose a relationship based on physical love for each other and a relationship where the physical love is a part of much more reminds me of what JabHarryMetSejal also deals with…only that there here the femal character seems to be the only one that undertakes this journey.
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Yes, I was thinking about JHMS a little bit as well. Because it’s kind of the flip of this film. This film is saying our heroine has a relationship that is all physical and thinks she is satisfied because she hasn’t experienced anything else. But then when she finds true mutual respect and trust and liking, she has to go through a massive internal journey to come to terms with he fact that what she thought was all she could expect/need/want actually wasn’t, and she has to be willing to risk it all and try for more. JHMS went the other way, sort of. She had a relationship that she thought was satisfying even though it was entirely non-physical because she didn’t think there could be any more. And then she found a relationship that was physical and dangerous and exciting, but also involved mutual respect and trust and liking, and had to go through an internal journey to come to terms with that. That’s the biggest similarity, both films are internal journeys, and on the surface look silly and unrealistic and sentimental, but if you follow what is really happening inside the characters, they make sense.
On Sun, Sep 16, 2018 at 10:54 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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It was one of the most awaited movies for me, and finally I watched it.
I absolutely loved it till the last 30 minutes – the last time she went to see Vicky, because at that point it was too much and I said: oh just made up your mind woman! I lost count how many times Tapsee planned to elope. I still loved it, but I wish it was shorter.
Abhishek was a pleasure to watch, it was ages that I enjoyed him on screen last time.
And it was my 9th Colour Yellow’s movie. I have to see only Meri Nimmo,Tumbbad and Zero now.
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So glad you liked it! And agree, that last visit to Vicky was so frustrating. Especially because it made her relationship with Abhishek feel so unbalanced, she is still growing up and making mistakes and he is perfect. But I liked that it lead to that final Abhishek confrontation, because it showed he wasn’t so perfect after all either. And Abhishek was so good in the role, at least for me he worked at showing us someone who had sort of grown past doubts and uncertainties and into knowing who he is and what he wanted.
On Tue, Dec 18, 2018 at 10:55 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m still thinking about the things I liked, and there were so many.
I loved Tapsee’s family – how normal people they seem, especially after seeing Aakash Vani recently which has almost the same plot: young girl in love , married to a stranger. But here they don’t use emotional blackmail, they just say: hey, what you’re doing is not good, your cousin can have problems because of your bad reputation. But most important, they don’t cut all ties with her after marriage. I loved this little scene the day after wedding when grandpa looks at Tapsee to know if everything is ok.
And then there was a place for her at home after divorce. She is family, and family is more important than what people say.
I knew Tapsee in the end won’t be with Vicky after the scene when they were talking about eloping, and their only desire was to have sex for hours. Like really? This is your plan?
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Yes! And they weren’t a perfect family still, they didn’t say “sure, have a boyfriend and have sex, we don’t care”. They cared and they wanted her to be married and respectable. But they cared about her happiness a little more. I also loved that Taapsee brought up a few times how she was an orphan and felt out of place in the family, and the film just showed us without telling that her family really did love and want her. I love that little moment when her older cousin-brother complains about going to school for an MBA just so he can be the bodyguard for his cousin-sister. He’s the boy, he’s the biological child of her aunt and uncle, he should be the one everyone cares about the most. But they are just using him to help out their adopted difficult female child.
Plus, for once, it wasn’t that they were complaining about and trying to marry her away from a “perfect” relationship. They had legitimate concerns about Vicky (because Vicky is THE WORST) and just needed a little evidence that he would step up and grow up at some point. Her relationship with Vicky was doomed as soon as her aunt caught them just because it could never stand up to reality, even the very gentle nudging of her family.
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OK, I had some major issues with this movie. Mostly because the first half just takes you in completely. Rumi has always been unsure about Vicky imo. The first time they elope, she makes tells him that he isn’t ready for marriage and goes back home. Now she’s right – he really has no clue but how could not she not know that before? Also, Robbie’s reasons for marrying her even after realizing the extent of the mess doesn’t add up. For the kind of person he is – logical, rational; why would he want to sign up for this craziness knowingly, just because she’s ‘hot’? Maybe he was looking for spark that he lost after the accident? Dunno…
Oh and lastly, I didn’t like Abhishek very much. He was too mature, too slow. I may have the fwd button a few times in the second half. Taapsee and Vicky were fabulous!
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The Vicky-Taapsee romance was so clearly drawn, we could see how they loved each other and were drawn together, and also see how their relationship was never built to last, not unless Vicky grew up a whole bunch. But you are right, the Abhishek-Taapsee relationship wasn’t quite as clear.
On Sat, Jan 5, 2019 at 12:05 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Abhi’s father said his wife was crazy when they met, and I think it explains why Abhishek was searching for crazy girl to marry. I would never marry a person with all this mess but I fully understand why he wanted to do it.
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I was on a plane and so excited to see they had this movie so I could finally watch it. I’m totally with Angie on this one. I liked it a lot and the performances were all great, but there were a couple rounds too many of back and forth, and the ending felt rushed – after all that, one conversation and it’s done!
What I most agree with in your review is that it’s all about Taapsee. When I saw in the credits that the screenwriter was a woman, I had a moment of oh! now it makes sense. The whole film is basically Taapsee’s journey to emotional maturity. (And yes, spot on comment that we see this kind of story with male characters all the time but much less with female characters.) Vicky’s character is fun and colorful and he goes all out, but he has almost no arc. He wants Taapsee but not any grown-up responsibility of figuring out how to work or support a household. By the end he’s decided he’s willing to take the step of moving to Australia to work for his cousin, so kind of mature but also still needing to be handed a job. Abhishek’s character has very slightly more of an arc. He wants Taapsee and thinks he’s up for the roller coaster ride of being married to her, then comes to realize he’s only up for her craziness if she has really chosen to be with him, which she clearly hasn’t, plus he knows he took advantage of her anger to get into the marriage to begin with. He makes the mature choice to set them all free of the marriage entanglement, only for her to choose him after all. Taapsee is the one who goes through all the soul-searching and the biggest internal shift, from naughty child hiding from her family and trying to get away with things, to mature woman taking control of her own fate.
Taapsee is wonderful. Abhishek and Vicky were both great in their very different ways. (This is the first time I got the Abhishek feels, he really deploys those eyes.) And the families were just the best, I loved all of them.
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I loved the families too! That moment when Abhishek’s father explains that it is worth the trouble to marry a difficult woman, he had to warn off all those other suitors, that was great. And the way Kangana’s cousin keeps getting shoved around to be the guard.
I was just thinking about this movie with Kalank, it is a similar love triangle, except it leans more towards “true love is magical sudden once in a life time passion, not the boring nice guy you marry”. I don’t want a movie that says “settle for the boring old guy you don’t like because he is your husband”, but I think calling for exciting passion is a bit immature too. I like the way this movie has it both ways. Abhishek is a far far better guy than Vicky (did you catch the bit where Vicky forgot to go with her to her abortion?), but he isn’t dull and perfect, or old and respectable, he’s just nice.
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Yes, Vicky is the typical sexy but useless musician boyfriend – good for fun but gone when you need him.
There’s still a bit of love at first sight trope with Abhishek towards Taapsee. But then, within this kind of plot structure I’m not sure what the alternative would be. We have to believe his feelings for her are sincere, without them really knowing one another. On Taapsee’s side, agreed, he seems like the boring choice but he’s actually the braver choice for her because choosing him forces her to confront her own failings and scars.
Poor Taapsee. At some point you’ll have to stop calling her Kangana :). I believe she’s really a much better actress, in addition to seeming a nicer person.
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I like that they show him checking her Facebook feeds and other social media. It was a nice twist on the “love at first sight”. He didn’t fall in love with her picture, he was intrigued by her personality as shown in the picture, and then learned more about her, the real her from Facebook not the one she presented in her marriage profile, and liked her more and more.
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Why sign the divorce if her heart belonged to abhishek? Or she realized in that five min talk? I’d have liked to see the family reactions to that ending, and especially vicky’s response. The dude changed his life for her finally.
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I think she signed the divorce because she thought he wanted it, especially when he didn’t react to her in court. But she still tried to talk to him because it was her last chance.
I think Vicky will be fine, he changed his life for himself. His career was never really going to happen, he was just wasting time in India, going to Australia is the best for him whether or not Taapsee marries him.
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