‘Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari’ Review : Diljit’s Sunny Side Wasn’t Enough!
I really admire Diljit Dosanjh and his organic acting style. I am also fond of movies set in old times, such as the 90s. I am a fan of strong actors like Annu Kapoor, Vijay Raaz, Supriya Pilgaonkar and Manoj Bajpayee.
There are all these elements in Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari and yet, it is a disappointing movie.
Here is a spoiler-free review of Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari, starring Diljit Dosanjh, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Manoj Bajpayee. You can watch it on ZEE5.
Overview :
Suraj Singh Dhillon (Diljit Dosanjh) is a cheerful, simple Mumbai boy who operates his family dairy business. He wants to get married, because why not?!
Elsewhere, detective cum professional match-breaker Madhu Mangal Rane (Manoj Bajpayee) roams around the city, spying over prospective grooms. He snitches about bad boys (you know, the leather jackets and beer bottles) to the girls’ families. He gets their rishtas broken, much like his namesake, the planet mars in the horoscope.
This is a profitable business because its the 90s, you guys! According to the director Abhishek Sharma :
“The film is set in the 90s. We have Manoj sir playing a wedding detective, who does a background check of grooms, which was a norm during those times. There was a time when there was no mobile phone or social media and people had to deal with everything physically” (Source)
Abhishek has given us some really entertaining movies, but he is wrong here. Nobody in the 90s hired a detective who would go snooping around dressed in drag, with oranges in his blouse. But it is a great idea for the sake of comedy.
The Plot :
As the title suggests, Mangal breaks Suraj’s match. Suraj decides to take revenge.
While executing his plan, Suraj discovers that Mangal has a lovely sister called Tulsi (Fatima Sana Shaikh) and he falls for her. She puts her trust in him and reveals her true profession- she is a late-night DJ. How on earth is she DJ-ing at a nightclub under the pretense of being a tuition teacher? In 1995? We don’t know, maybe she teaches night school? But anyway, she really aspires to be a full-time DJ. Leather jackets and beer bottles! Oh, such a modern rebel against her traditional brother. Suraj decides to use this information to get even with detective Rane.
The revenge saga involves heartbreak, misunderstanding, patch-up and a few songs. Clever and cunning Mangal decides to fool Suraj by offering his sister’s hand but plays him instead!
Suraj and his irrelevant sidekick also dig out a secret from Mangal’s single life and attempt to use it to blackmail him. Unfortunately for them, they end up failing upwards.
All these events are played out very, very slowly. The film’s runtime is more than two hours. And even in those two hours, the story doesn’t really feel complete.
Good acting + Bad writing = Disappointment :
Bright-eyed Diljit Dosanjh plays Suraj effortlessly. He is funny, optimistic and talks in dairy metaphors. Manoj Bajpayee does a great job portraying a detective, but I wished the writers gave him more room to perform. Fatima Sana Shaikh was excellent in Ludo, and even here she does every bit of her role with the same sincerity. She nails it, from the simple Marathi girl to the passionate DJ. But by the end, her character still feels reduced to a flowerpot. Why?
The filmmakers have terribly, terribly underused all the great side actors. They do not have any screen-time, situations or dialogs to work with. At all!
Annu Kapoor is a sidekick with ripe sideburns, who is just there in the first half and a wise uncle in the second. Supriya Pilgaonkar is just there as a beauty-parlor aunty. Vijay Raaz plays a comical caricature of an OCD-plagued, poorly-written professor.
Conclusion :
Watch this movie only if you like watching long, boring YouTube skits. Or if you believe watching this would cure your mangal dosha. Come on dude, just watch Jatt and Juliet instead.
Rating :
