Tanu weds Manu Returns | Reviews and Boxoffice - Page 32

Somewhere in the middle of Tanu Weds Manu Returns sits a brilliant scene. Manu (R. Madhavan), who is thinking of divorcing his wife Tanu (Kangana Ranaut) after four years of not-so-blissful life, is drinking and talking, post dinner, with his father (played by K.K. Raina) and his friend Pappi (Deepak Dobriyal) in the verandah of their house. Manu's father is expounding on the reality of marriage, with Pappi adding his collectible two-bits. Inside the house, Manu's mother is tinkering, shutting down the household en route to her bedroom.
We sit facing the men in the veranda, and can only hear her babbling inside the house.
She is griping " to herself, to god almighty, to her husband, her son and all the men in the universe " about everything that men do and don't do.
In the veranda the men are trying to have a conversation, while she, irritated, is going on and on while putting off the lights, locking the doors and windows.
Father is talking about the futility of the search for the perfect one. All marriages, all husbands and wives are eventually the same, he is saying. No matter what you feel before marriage, after a few years you have to learn to tolerate each other. The only other option is living alone.
And then, while talking, watching her pestering landing straight in his drink, the father gets up and...
It's an inspired scene that catches the reality and temper of our homes after each one is done trying to change the other.
Tanu Weds Manu Returns has many brilliant things, including dazzling performances by Kangana Ranaut and Deepak Dobriyal. But the one thing it has down pat and what makes it sparkle throughout is how brilliantly it catches and uses that one Indian trait we all share:
We talk a lot. Often needlessly. We are all bonkers.

Tanu Weds Manu Returns opens with a fun wedding scene in India " Tanu Weds Manu (2011) " complete with cheepad dancing, talli baratis, and soon after recaps what went on during the four years after that wedding.
Tanu and Manu are in England and are having the sort of fight where each one is eager to bitch to strangers about their most intimate moments. They not only tell us what happened four years ago, but also what happened in these four years, while taking the story forward with lots of marital mirch-masala.
We watch with the delight of local mohalla gossips as Raja Awasthi (Jimmy Sheirgill) is dragged in and the husband and wife start addressing each other with their full, formal names. Oh! The stains of dirty bedroom linen. Delicious!
In Twickenham he stays while she leaves for Kanpur, en route dialling the services of Pappi to take care of Manu.
It's a gift to us and the film. Pappi is the film's wagging tongue.
Manu too returns to India and the story begins to twist with the help of some old and new characters.
There's Chintu (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), a lawyer and squatter in Tanu's house in Kanpur. His entry is deliberately grand and in a tone that's more Lucknow than Kanpur.
But before he can dazzle Tanu, Raja Awasthi rides in. And before he can really take off, Manu meets Datto, Kusum, and all attention is on this girl from Haryana. A state-level athlete studying in Ramjas College on sports quota, Kusum is the film's throbbing heart.
As Tanu and Manu go about living their new lives, a pattern begins to emerge: Manu has a thing for young girls who are not into him and are slightly cuckoo; Tanu is always riding pillion with one to make-out with another.
The story, headed in the expected direction, takes a slight diversion to meet Tanu's friend Payal (Swara Bhaskar), her husband Jassi, and his Sardar family in Gujarati Jhablos that would make the national champions of Tippi-Tippi Tap dizzy.
Here the film dips a bit, loses track of a character it has abducted, goes maudlin, but, thankfully, recovers, gathers its ghaghra and puts its chin back up at the world.

Tanu Weds Manu Returns' story is fairly straightforward, but is served both shaken and stirred. The film is not just aware of its rather commonplace plot, but acknowledges it with a good amount laugh-out-loud cynicism.
What makes the film special is the way it has been directed by Aanand L. Rai with sharp intelligence based on a screenplay by Himanshu Sharma that is both sparkling and incredibly smart.
In the episodic telling of the story, it's the film's dialogue " also by Sharma " that are fast and fabulous and loaded with crisp colloquiums in true takiya-kalaam style that makes it so hysterical and a joy to watch.
In India, we live our lives in a cacophony of voices, opinions, advice, judgment and commentary. There is no pause in our banter.
The film doesn't just catch the ambient chatter of Indian families and people. It focuses on them, because that's where the fun is. It's like watching a predictable cricket match with the camera trained on the commentary box that has David Lloyd, Shane Warne and Shoaib Akhtar engaged in a match of wits.
Though the film fumbles a bit towards the end " not knowing how to deal with Raja Awasthi, he's left to hang around like excess baggage, and it forgets that it has an abducted, reluctant bride to take care of " it's easy to gloss over these because we are still rocking with laughter over that previous joke, and the one before that...
The film passes breezily, rather quickly, making you wish there was some more.

Tanu Weds Manu Returns is a sort of actors' championship: Kangana Ranaut, Jimmy Sheirgill, R. Madhavan, Deepak Dobriyal, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Swara Bhaskar, K.K. Raina, Rajesh Sharma. It's crazy how good all of them are. But some stand taller than the others.
Sheirgill, all starched and easy to crease, is good, if a bit stale. As is Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, and Madhavan.
But this film belongs to Deepak Dobriyal and Kangana Ranaut. They both have the film's best speaking parts and make them sparkle.
Dobriyal's character has been given that very north Indian trait where no taunt can go unanswered. And he has the sort of scenes and dialogue for which even the most seasoned and talented actors would resort to slapstick. Imagine having to say this line while the camera is on the hero and heroine: "Tharki logon ki sabse pasand-deeda kitab hai Lolita."
Dobriyal has the gift of perfect comic timing. He is also compact and precise. There's no flab in his acting. He is the sort of actor who can make a film breathe.
All actresses in the top echelons of box office " Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif... " and the ones who call themselves actresses, like Vidya Balan, should just accept and acknowledge that Kangana Ranaut is by far the best actress today in Bollywood.
She plays a double role here that few would have dared to.
Her Tanu is rather irritating, her cool now not just stale but also mean and selfish, and Kusum has teeth so buck. Most A-grade actresses would balk at that. No character they play, even if mildly grey, can even skirt around the kaminiterritory. They won't ever play a b***h. If they do, it must be neutered with some desperation, some secret. And a physical unsightliness, on top of that! Impossible.

Kangana is brave and free of the goody-two-shoes shackles. She claims both the characters she plays here with so much love and feeling, but her Kusum is truly worthy of a happy ovation. Outstanding!

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