Movie: Shaadi Ke Side Effects
Director: Saket Chaudhary
Cast: Farhan Akthar, Vidya Balan, Vir Das, Ram Kapoor, Gautham Kapoor and Purab Kohli
Rating: ***1/2
Shaadi Ke Side Effects commences at a phase where most of the romantic comedies safely end, the ever-happy ending and a marriage. In this case, the married couple know their need for companionship better than anyone else around. The problem is their acceptance of the time changing equations with an additional member in their family, a kid. They are worried that the spark in their solid relationship would come to a halt all of a sudden.
No wonder you see a hotel manager warning them to behave when he spots the married Anuj and Trisha making love in a lift and mistakes their electric-chemistry to be an extra-marital affair. They have a madness when it comes to sustaining the love they have for each other until deciding it’s high time to have their first child. While one’s ready to don the responsibilities of a parent, one’s already crumbling under pressure to be the best dad ever. Anuj Roy, a jingle composer,in addition, doesn’t want this to be an excuse to part with his former self and compromise on his dream of making a music album.
Insecurities surface, misunderstandings arise and they sense a possible surrender with regard to their personal priorities to a mundane routine. The kid arrives. Ageing comes with a certain price but doing away with their previous dimensions is the biggest challenge here. The awkwardness of it is what ensures a healthy humor quotient in the first half. Handling the nervousness and anxieties of child-grooming gets the better of them. Both are in an attempt to outdo each other in their parental roles.
Ram Kapoor as the brother-in-law who initially faces all ire from Anuj (Farhan Akhtar) for him being a doting father works out a safe formula to ensure the zing in their journey lasts a longer while. They secretly go overboard in escaping commitments without the knowledge of their better halves. All this you understand lends every reason for an engaging screenplay. But the magic isn’t intact when Vidya Balan’s brilliant screen-presence is lagged by Vir Das’s fake uber-cool room partner act. It’s gettable that the maker Saket Chaudhary wants to distance the two to a maximal extent as a knack to ensure an impacting climax.
As this is about emotional turbulence, the latter half is mostly about the eerie silence or the ego-resultant arguments that makes one feel of missing the exuberant spirit with which it took off. A series of completely unnecessary love-triangle like moments between Purab Kohli, Vidya Balan and Farhan Akhtar add up to the woes and you feel it succumbing to predictable formulaic endings. The control is regained just about the right time with Ila Arun’s nanny episodes which you definitely feel could have been fed more of.
Though Shaadi Ke Side Effects, as its title openly suggests is adult-humour, it never overstretches its gifted liberty, but its nearly 150 minute length deserved trimming. There aren’t any lengthy flashbacks or dialogues in this coming-of-age couple story that teaches its lessons mostly ‘on-your-face’ to its flawed, confused characters. Terrific casting in place means that never do Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan seem out of place as a just-married couple. The Parineeta woman is at her best in comedy and she is never short of the desired energy that her role demands. Farhan Akhtar sparkles no less as their co-ordination in the first half justifies enough of their magnetic celluloid equation, thanks to Pritam’s energetic score that does turn out to be the required toast to the proceedings and so is Ram Kapoor who is turning out to be a great-find as a supporting actor going a scale above his performance in efforts like Student of the Year, Karthik Calling Karthik. A bumpy ride would rather be a harsh tag to brand Shaadi Ke Side Effects into which has its heart at the right place. Give it your time, it has an openhearted male character who comes to terms with his wife’s independence provided the post-interval 20 minutes does not force you to have a quick glance at the exit-door.
Review by Srivathsan N, who had originally written it for Cinegoer.net
