Shaadi Ke Side Effects

Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Vidya Balan, Ram Kapoor, Vir Das, Gautami Kapoor, Purab Kohli, Ila Arun, Rati Agnihotri, Mia Maelzer

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Direction: Saket Chaudhary

Production: Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor, Pritish Nandy, Rangita Pritish Nandy

Story: Saket Chaudhary

Screenplay : Zeenat Lakhani, Saket Chaudhary

Music: Pritam Chakraborty

Distribution: Pritish Nandy Pictures, Balaji Motion Pictures

Release Date: 28^th February, 2014

Language: Hindi

Duration: 2 hours 25 minutes

Rating: 3/5 (Good)

Shaadi Ke Side Effects starts with the apparent one-night stand between a frustrated husband (due to wife’s  endlessly watching TV serials) and a frustrated wife (due to a workaholic husband). The Director Saket Chaudhary has made this as a sequel to his first movie – Pyar Ke Side Effects (starring Rahul Bose and Mallika Sherawat).

Sid (Siddharth), essayed by Farhan Akhtar and Trisha, played by Vidya Balan try to keep the passion and fire alive in their relationship through quirky games. The director tries to build up the plot slowly but definitely the dialogues have kept a few shots very realistic. Probably it is the story of almost every household (Ekta is trying to narrate घर घर की कहानी) that a couple very much in love with each other takes their relationship to the next level to marriage and later to parenthood. Movie certainly gives an insight into the fact that the initial love, care, concern, passion vanishes, rather the very intention of enjoying the togetherness through marital bliss fails.

वो दिन कहाँ गए, जब हम वक्त चुराकर मिला करते थे

अब वो दिन हैं, जब हम  वक्त निकालते ही नहीं मिलने के लिए ।

Why so ??? Sid is in constant fight with the self and wants to enjoy his singleton days and enjoy parties, friends, watching sports etc. and on the other hand Trisha is in constant nagging mode due to complexities of post-delivery anxiety syndromes (weight gain, leaving career for motherhood). All Trisha can think off is in regard to the baby and all Sid can think off how “it used to be earlier”. The communication between them hits a low pitch and frequency. Ranvir (Ram Kapoor), brother-in-law of Sid advises him to spice up his marital life with occasional white lies, and having some “Me-Time” and re-living the joys of a carefree single life. The movie depicts that one is not able to appreciate what is in the hands and looks out to escape from daily mundane and monotonous life.

Crucial piece of advice by Sid : if the male partner commits mistake, please apologize, and in case the female partner commits mistake, still the male partner has to apologize and life would go on…

Mothers feel that they are instinctively the best mothers in the world whereas the fathers have to take special efforts to be the ‘best dad in the world’.

I kept wondering, aren’t certain trivial reasons cause marital drudgery, relationship failures, infidelity issues and extramarital affairs ??? I felt that every couple must watch the movie not because the movie is great but because it would definitely give insight into how we perceive our marital relationship, how we look at our partner, how we treat our partner, how we handle the commitment of togetherness, how we cope up with the transition from being a single to a couple, to being parents, how we handle our love, how we take the relationship / situations / partners for granted, how one tries to generate a feeling of jealousy / insecurity in the other, how we point our fingers at our partners but ultimately end up doing the same ‘mistake’ … Some shots take a dig at all these things in a humoursitic manner.

Farhan is natural, spontaneous with his straight faced wits. Vidya is believable. This movie is being told from the perspective of Sid, though Vidya’s perception is also shown in certain shots.

Of course the movie has its own flaws. The plot could have been handled far more brilliantly. It is bizarre to see a struggling musician being able to manage a pretty decent lifestyle in spite of the transition of status from double-income to single-income. A few characters are introduced just to stretch the story. Other cast viz. Vir Das (room partner to Sid), Gautami Kapoor (Trisha’s sister-in-law), Rati Agnihotri (Trisha’s widowed mother), Purab Kohli (Shekhar – a neighbor), Ila Arun (Maid) are completely wasted in the movie. One good aspect of the movie is that it is without any melodrama.

Music (Music Direction – Pritam Chakraborty; Lyrics – Amitabh Bhattacharya, Guest Lyricist – Mikey Mclleary) is not very promising.

Cinematography is ok, nothing special to point out.

Costumes of Farhan suits to the tone of the movie but Vidya should have been given a few good costumes.

Shaadi ke Side Effects has virtually no side effects, it is all about how one perceives.