2 States - The Art of Arranging a Love Marriage. Review on 2 States

I know there is a big class of Junta in my friends who will give me a verbal hiding if I say Chetan Bhagat writing’s are quite mediocre. But you cannot deny that his books go on to make interesting scripts and well-crafted movies. In case of the autobiographical 2 states it may be a case of a not less meaty storyline nestling in the hallowed shelves of Dharma productions. So production values elevate and provide visual pleasure of rich colors in art and costumes.

Decades back EK Duje Ke Liye tackled the tryst of cross-over matrimony between a South Indian boy and a North Indian girl. This time around the plot is flipped as the hero is a full blooded Punjabi in love with a Tamilian(Mind you not Madrasan as the script aggressively implores time and again and rightfully so). All is well between the modern couple who meet up like any other ordinary youngsters, get attracted, cohabit without the least bit of shocked drama about it. But unusually they do find the fizzle missing without getting their parents blessings and decide to unite the families instead of eloping, giving the script a long rope to create comical and serious situations around the North Indian mother in an unhappy marriage struggling to harmoniously adjust with the stiff about their culture and pedigree Tamilian family of the girl.

While it looks to be moving forward as hoped by the modern yet obedient children, their happiness derails and there is the struggle to convince both sides of the fact that there can be happiness in diversity. The film begins quite lazily and for the first twenty minutes the characters seem to be struggling to get set into the plot. The direction is also lack luster in places with shocking editing. In one scene the characters start talking on cue as the film rolls. This seemed distracting. But then Arjun Kapoor as the good natured sweet and coy Punjabi boy and Alia Bhatt as the South Indian girl studying at IIM-A get into the groove and grip the movie and their characters tightly. Their efforts at staying at each other’s homes to win over the family members is nice and real. But do they eventually succeed?

The music is intrusive to the plot in places. There are some memorable scenes between the father, mother and son and they will get those tear glands working. The script is weak at places but never leads to any overacting from the main protagonists. Amrita Singh as the boy’s Punjabi mother who is leading a battered life and lives only for her son but just cannot seem to escape the  bias that exists naturally but you willingly forgive her as her love is unbounded for her son. Amrita Singh is superbly natural in this role and elevates the role beyond the expectations of the character written. Ronit Roy as her sulking depressed husband makes a menacing quiet presence and shows why he is so famous on the small screen. Revathi and Shiv Kumar Subramanian play their roles with comical maturity.

It is however Arjun Kapoor with his extremely well characterized and low key Krish Malhotra and Alia Bhatt who you cannot take your eyes off and who raise the movie leagues above the strength of its script. Alia was outstanding in Highway and completely deglamorized. In this you cannot but help admire her twinkling smile, mischievous eyes and a bold act. She is etching her name fast on the landscape of great actresses of the future. The rest of the plots are forced including the setting of IIM, a single shot of the class, a few walks in the corridor and people in the movie are underused like the faceless classmates and many small characters who are not fleshed out fully.

Yet the movie does leave you satisfied and raises a few chuckles at the North/ South - Non veg / veg divide that still exists today. The director does not shirk from casually walking the path of the sexual liberation era today and does not make a song and dance about it. There was great scope to induce more comedy into the situations and make it more light and fluffy than morose but it is nice to see producers promoting scripted movies than unbridled tomfoolery which release these days. Are love marriages between North and South still as tough as depicted? I think it will remain as long as regional and caste value system remains guarded as a means of preserving cultural identity and children seek to respect and get an approval of that system despite an open approach to marriages. It is the era of arranged love marriages.