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Rating: 3.5/5
Stars: Farhan Akthar, Vidya Balan, Ram Kapoor, Gautami Kapoor, Vir Das, Ila Arun, Rati Agnihotri and Purab Kohli
Director: Saket Chaudhary
The sequel to the much loved Pyaar Ke Side Effects, didn’t live up to the originality as the Malika Sherawat and Rahul Bose hit, but Shaadi Ke Side Effects was still a fun movie to watch! Starring Bollywood’s most talented actors, Vidya Balan and Farhan Akthar, Shaadi Ke Side Effects takes a look at what happens after happily ever after.
The movie follows a newly wed couple Sidharth and Trisha Mallik Roy, played by Farhan and Vidya respectively. They are a young, fun, career-oriented modern couple focused on their love and careers, that is until Trisha finds out she’s pregnant. They decide to have an abortion because they just aren’t prepared. Although Sid is more doubtful about being a father than Trisha is about being a mother, in a panic he stops Trisha’s abortion at the last minute. Sid’s friends convince him to read up on pregnancy in order to get rid of his fears. Once their daughter, Mini, is born Sid feels very inadequate as a father and Trisha becomes obsessed with her child. The couple lose their individuality and drift away from each other.
In an effort to save his sanity, Sid approaches Trisha’s annoyingly “perfect” Jiju, played by Ram Kapoor, for help. A perfect family man, Kapoor teaches Sid his secret to a successful marriage and family. Using these techniques, Sid takes literally creates a secret double life in order to save his marriage. When Trisha learns of Sid’s lies things come crashing down.What happens after the crash and the end is for you to find out! In this journey of life Sid loses himself to find himself and learns that there is no strategy or secret to a happy marriage. All you have is honesty, trust and clear communication to make a marriage work.
Farhan Akthar and Vidya Balan are amazing in their respective roles, their comic timing and chemistry are flawless. Both actors are fun to watch and truly look like a real married couple. Ram Kapoor and Gautami Kapoor bring their real life marriage to the screen and they’ve justice to their supportive roles. Ila Arun joins the movie in the second half as the nanny, Ila too provides some support to Vidya Balan and their natural chemistry has the audience at ease. Vir Das is hilarious as the care free hot mess who befriends Farhan Akthar in the second half of the flick.
Overall the cast did a wonderful job in their roles and everyone was believable, but what about the movie? The movie can actually be broken into three parts. The first third of the movie was laugh-out-loud funny at points with some over used cliche’s as well as original cracks. Farhan’s fears of being a father and Vidya’s over-possessiveness with her child were all believable scenarios that any parent will relate to. The first part will boost up your expectations about the film because it starts off so well!
The second third of the movie was not quite boring, but it was aimless. Audiences will get lost waiting to see what it is that Sid wants and if he’ll get caught in his lies. The comedy starts to fade, the movie gets serious and you lose interest in the storyline. The story becomes less about Shaadi and more about being a father. Surprisingly there aren’t as many scenes with Farhan and his daughter as we would have liked. It isn’t until the end where sudden twists literally will have you going “HOLY COW! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?” Sadly these dramatic twists have a predictable ending.
A plus point of the flick was the music, it was few and far between allowing more focus to be placed on the movie itself. Some songs were placed in the background and it worked well for the movie. The tracks were fun, original and never over-powered the film.
The story and comedy could have been much better throughout the movie, especially with that hilarious start to the film. Even though the movie starts to sink in the second half, overall, it’s still a fun movie to watch especially because of all the talent involved. Don’t forget to let us know what you thought of the film!
