Chetan Bhagat couldn’t be prouder, after all yet another book of his is the inspiration behind this incredibly well made ‘bollywood’ flick. Everyone who has seen the movie or will be seeing it is bound to compare it with the book provided s/he has read the book. My suggestion would be don’t do it. Enjoy the movie for what it is.
The movie starts with Krish Malhotra played by Arjun Kapoor sitting in a psychaitrist’s office narrating his journey from falling in love to marriage. Sounds simple right, well it’s clearly not simple. Krish is pursuing one of the most coveted courses at one of the most coveted management schools in the country. He falls in love with Ananya, played by beautiful Alia Bhatt, on first sight. Everything is going good between the awestruck love couple till the time they both realise the problem, rather the only problem that is probably worth a third world war. He is a ‘punjabi’ and she is a ‘tamilian’. The first bomb drops when both their parents meet at the convocation ceremony and the audience is ready with popcorn in their hands to witness the ultimate punjabi-madrasi non-sensical yet believable love story.
The director, Abhishek Varman, has to be given credit for taking such a brilliant star cast on board that also includes Amrita Singh, Revathy, Achint Kaur and Ronit Roy. Every character has done absolute justice to his/her role and the audience believes in their emotions. Amrita Singh has delivered a fine performance by playing the supreme punjabi mother (or rather mother-in-law) for whom Krish is the most perfect, handsome and intelligent guy on the planet. Revathy plays Ananya’s mother and a typical tamilian household lady with panache and sincerity. Achint Kaur and Ronit Roy are brilliant in their roles.
I found Amrita and Revathy to be commendable for displaying the adequate level of emotions in terms of fake sweetness and real frustration to the degree that didn’t look overstated else it would have been an over-kill. Arjun and Alia are simply playing Krish and Ananya as the audience is likely to look at them as their characters and not Arjun-Alia. Alia has displayed each and every emotion considering the stage she is at in her love story and has delivered a brilliant performance that is definitely going to put her up on the performance scale. Arjun is sweet, sincere and genuine in his role and doesn’t go over board at any stage. Dialogues are worth a big applause and so is the delivery of these dialogues.
What I absolutely loved about the movie is innocent and believable expressions along with rightful showcase of the relationship in the punjabi family wherein the tension among the three family members is so sincere that you pity each one of them at different levels. Two of my favourite scenes in the movie are when Ananya is walking towards the ‘mandap’ for the wedding ceremony and she has the perfectly balanced smile on her face which says it all. Another scene that has been xeroxed in my head is between Krish and his dad wherein Krish wants to hug him but doesn’t stating ‘kuch jyada hi ho jaega’.
However, the movie does have a few, though trivial, issues. The music is just above average with songs that are non-sensical and non-catchy barring ‘mast magan’ and ‘offo’. The editing definitely has some scope for improvement as editing plays a crucial role in making the audience believe that the story is for real.
2 States is fun, full of melodrama, emotions, turbulent relationships and much more. I am simply mesmerised with a dialogue by Ananya that says ‘baat communities ki nahin hai, baat hai ki aap kis tarah ke insaan ke saath apni zindagi bitana chahte hai’.
My recommendation – go watch 2 States for its sincerity, brilliant performances and incredible direction. I give 3.5 on 5 teaspoon of masala to this.
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