Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan

The most enlightening moment appears towards the end of the movie when the mother (Neena Gupta) says something like this, ‘Our [gay] son expects us to understand these complexities, and thereby accept him [his sexuality] overnight'. 

The movie Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (hereafter SMZS) cleverly plays with the theme in the title itself, merging both religiosity and warning within the same phrase. The first two words are clearly religious in nature; reminiscence of the adage that marriage might certainly be an archaic stupidity, but then gays too have the right to commit that. The last two are dark, not dark humor, just dark: beware, do not get killed!

And here something interesting happens, not only nobody gets killed, but also, everybody is laughing, at least the Hindi speaking/understanding audience in a remote city called Montpellier where India is mainly seen through the prism of Yoga and spirituality, and Indian movies as pure fiction, the spicier the better, the last success was a vagary called Padmaavat, not to be confused with Padmaavati. 

While discussing with a friend of mine, who was of the opinion that humour dilutes the complexity, and thereby seriousness of the theme, I thought of Life is beautiful by Benigni, and Train de vie by Mihaileanu. Those who find these analogies unpalatable should try to understand homosexuality in the context of India and other third world countries (Russia included); it kills you like a slow poison. In Made in Heaven (Netflix series), Vinay Pathak tells Arjun Mathur (who play a gay character trapped in the proverbial closet, and finally gets caught one day, which leads to his struggle against the draconian section 377 of the Indian Penal code.) that not everyone is courageous like him to live the life s/he wants. The former being in a heterosexual relationship, married with a child, and living in the same proverbial closet.

This is a story of a gay couple whose utmost desire is to be together and live like ordinary couples, which entails being accepted by ones near and dear ones. It appears to be a regular Bollywood romcom with parents opposing the relation on the basis of class or caste except for the fact that here the couple is homosexual; a subversion of another level.

There are some powerful moments: the father vomits at the scene of his son being kissed by his gay partner. Overreaction?! An Indian male born in 40’s, 50’s and even in 60’s might even find a heterosexual kiss repulsive, so the movie definitely went overboard! I seriously wonder if the censor passed this kiss scene for the Indian audiences. 

Another powerful statement is made through the fact that the father in question also happens to be a ‘scientist’ whose experiments usually fail to deliver, which brings us to question the premises of the science that he has learnt. Perhaps the bigger problem with the movie lies over here: in an attempt to create a discourse that lower versions of scientists fail to understand homosexuality, the movie seems to miss the point that in the Indian context some real scientists might also come up with arguments like ‘homosexuality is a disease’. Same goes for the choice of the city where the action mostly takes place, Allahabad-Varanasi. 

In an early movie titled Article 15, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, in which caste is the premises, the implicit discourse goes that the issue of caste is restricted to small cities/towns; in other words, bigger metros might have put this issue on the backburner. SMZS falters on the same grounds: homophobia, just like caste, is not a geographical issue, it is national or even universal. Dealing with homophobia will take years; it will not be resolved overnight as Neena Gupta aptly puts it. A first step would be to bring it to the fore and then accept its omnipresence. The movie is a success on the first aspect; it certainly brings homophobia to the fore and thereby makes a political statement. 

Another scene that blurs the lines between naivety and ignorance is when the Chacha Ji (Uncle) asks Ayushmann when he decided to be homosexual, to which the latter reverts with a question, ‘when did you decide to be heterosexual?’ And the epiphany happens. 

The comedy, gags (my favorite one is ‘when I saw him the first time ‘it’ got enlarged’), and the presence of an Indian family à la Suraj Barjatya makes it a complete family entertainer. And that is the strongest point; the movie must be watched with the whole family, with kids too, so that they understand that homosexuality is natural, and the expression of love that comes with it is natural too.

The actors, Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, and Gajraj Rao are outstanding in their roles. Ayushmann plays to perfection the role of the crowd puller, nothing more, and nothing less.