Besides A Stupendous Vidya Balan, There’s So Much More To Love In Do Aur Do Pyaar

besides a stupendous vidya balan, there’s so much more to love in do aur do pyaar

‘Where do I begin?’ – goes the immortal Henry Mancini song. Do Aur Do Pyaar begins with a quote from Groucho Marx: ‘Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?’

Debutant director Shirsha Guha Thakurta’s sparkling rom-com (is this really her first film) seems to scoff at the institution of marriage. But hang on! This is a much cleverer, smarter and, yes, sexier film than we actually think it to be at first.

Its take on that man-woman thing is far from what it seems. We see the film’s core couple Anirudh, a Bengali man and Kavya, a Tamilian woman, in happy relationships outside their marriage. This is not improbable. Such things do happen even while, like Kavya and Anni, couples remain committed to keeping their marriage alive, they also remain in extra-marital relationships to keep their own spirits alive.

Adding a spark to the saucy idea is the lead pair. Both Pratik Gandhi and Vidya Balan are indescribably convincing and engaging. They are furiously funny and heartbreakingly tragic in their determination to stay true to their marital vows while giving their sexual appetites a bit of mischievous leeway.

No, we are not suggesting that Kavya and Anni are in extra-marital relationships only for the sex. The sex between them is just fine. It’s just that they are not having it. And when they do, they begin to feel there is no need to go outside the marriage. Not for sex anyway.

The trouble, and the fun, in the double triangle creeps in at this crucial point. The writing (Suprotim Sengupta, Amrita Bagchi, Eisha Chopra) is largely spot-on. But sometimes the quips flow a bit too fast, just like that tube of toothpaste which Kavya and her NRI lover Vikram (Sendhil Ramamurthy, charming) compare to marriages at the beginning of the film.

At times the humour seems laboured. There is a line about the death of Kavya’s grandfather. When someone asks her his age, she says (quips), “I don’t know. But last year the candles cost more than the cake.”

It is the only line that Vidya Balan delivers without conviction, and for no fault of hers, as it is completely out of place. Otherwise, Balan is a force of Nature. Her performance as a wife who can’t seem to follow her heart is so warm and lived-in, it feels like real life. And yes, Vidya is the only actress I’ve seen since Kate Winslet in Mare Of Easttown who actually EATS the food that she is supposed to instead of pretending to do so.

Food, especially chicken nuggets, is important to the film. At one point, Anirudh wonders if it’s permissible for a vegan to have chicken after sex. Not sure what that means, but the line makes one laugh. Not so the endless sleazy puns that emanate from Anirudh working in a ‘cork’ factory.

Vidya’s chemistry with Pratik Gandhi is bang-on. Their performance to the 1991 song Bin Tere Sanam Mar Mitenge Hum (originally in the film Yaara Dildara) is priceless. For that alone, we declare Vidya-Pratik the couple of the leer.

Do Aur Do Pyaar is the official remake of Azazel Jacobs’ 2017 French rom-com The Lovers. But the remake, if we may call it that, moves far away from its source material. There is a whole chunk of narrative, not in the French film, where Anirudh and Kavya visit her home in Kerala after her grandfather’s death (and end up almost having sex next to the body).

The friction between Kavya and her father (Thalaivasal Vijay) about her being a dentist in a family of doctors (rolling of the eyes), is done with a devilish delight in the way people who love one another grab for one another’s jugular.

There are many unforgettable interludes in this big-hearted nudge at all things adulterous. You won’t forget Pratik’s Anirudh pretending to play football with a Japanese delegation. But our favourite sequence involves Anirudh, his in-laws and a giant piano. We can’t say more as it is indescribable. Like the best things in life, you have to experience it.

Here is a rom-com which is funny and puckish, tender and savage, it also has Sendhil Ramanurthy mouthing to Vidya the most romantic line we’ve heard in a Hindi film: “I feel homesick when I am not with you.”

It also has the funniest reaction of a wife to her husband’s extra-marital affair we’ve ever seen: “Rosy? What kind of a man cheats on his wife for a woman called Rosy?”

Did Waheeda Rehman just raise her hand?