‘Shuddh Desi Romance’ is ‘random romance’ for many

The scene had all the makings of a cliché. When Raghu flees from the shaadi ka mandap and leaves Tara at the altar,all eyes are on the bride,there’s pindrop silence. A chintu-looking random guy even does the filmi gesture of raising his hand that he’s ready to marry “Taraji.” What does Tara do? She takes a step,sits down on the chair,takes a tiny deep breath and asks,“Ek thanda milega.”

This un-filminess of the Maneesh Sharma directed Shuddh Desi Romance — where thanda really means cool—made me love this delightful romcom. Writer Jaideep Sahni had warned us about his characters and their world much before we made the trip into cinema halls. The signs were in the song lyrics (also written by Sahni): Bada hai besaram,chanchal mann,ati random,de gayo dhoka machal gayo re,phisal gayo re… Raghu and Gayatri are hardly star-crossed lovers — definitely not the “ek ladka tha deewana sa.. ek ladki pe woh marta tha..” variety. They are not Raj and Simran. They are not even Aditya and Geet. I don’t think they are even soulmates — they meet,connect and they decide to see where it goes. It just happens because it happens. Like they sing,“Khili khili hai literally silly hai meri love life.” They are characters who go around in circles. They can’t make up their mind because well,they still have to know their mind. That’s why I loved the cyclical scenes — the repetitions that Sahni employed. By pitching his rom-com in the little space between discovery and realisation,Sahni has written a desi zeitgeist on modern love,of today’s commitment phobic generation. We are like this only.

Sahni is such a feminist writer. He gets his women so well,better than his men. In Gayatri and Tara,he gives us two strong,decisive women who literally make the man-boy grow up. In a wonderful scene in a bus,Tara and Gayatri armed with their respective crutches—thanda and cigarette—have a conversation about a boy that actually goes somewhere. They don’t sulk,they don’t do the Dola Re Dola dance step; they really talk. It’s refreshing.

The randomness,the desi-ness,the (un) shuddh-ness of this film really got to me. A relationship is really about the little space between a man and a woman. It’s like the main door of Gayatri and Raghu’s flat which is left slightly ajar in the last scene. Khalil Gibran said it,didn’t he? “Let there be spaces in your togetherness.” It’s in the poster pasted on their front door—‘Gayatri sangh Raghu.’ Why does it always need to be ‘Gayatri weds Raghu’ for it to mean something? Finally a film addresses this question.

harneet.singh@expressindia.com