Originally posted by: Amor.Luved the movie sply raghu
wat a confused character he's just like me 😆
interesting movie, awesome performances although i dnt believe in the theme but still i njoyed it bcoz of SSR
After collecting 6.45 crores on Day 1, Shuddh Desi Romance showed an escalation signs on Day 2 i.e. 1st Saturday at the Domestic Box Office. Though the screen count for this YRF venture was just 1050, the number of footfalls went up to a good extent, especially in Mumbai, Delhi-Up and East Punjab circuits.
Shuddh Desi Romance saw around 80-85% occupancy in the evening and night shows yesterday and as per early estimates, the movie made an approximate business of about 8 crores at the Box Office. The movie now stands at a domestic total of about 14.45 crores at the Box Office.
Sushant Singh Rajput And Parineeti Chopra in Shuddh Desi Romance Movie Stills
The movie performed excellently in Mumbai, what with collecting around 2.25 crores on day 1, followed by Delhi-UP circuit raking in approx 1.25 crores!
If the film maintains its current pace, it will surely end up its opening weekend collections at 20 croresat the Domestic Box Office
We live in troubled times. Where relationships are messy, marriages fall apart, people fall in and out of love and arranged marriages are almost a joke. Only that not many Hindi films would dare to say it out aloud. Because it does not make good business sense to make fun of what's at the core of the great Indian family " the arranged marriage. Nor does it make commercial sense to show the youth the mirror " of how messed up and fickle they have become... who wants to be shown like a confused dolt on the big screen, right?
But this is modern India in all its hypocritical glory and full points to writer Jaideep Sahni, director Manish Sharma and producer Aditya Chopra for not holding back the punches and going all out to show us how the young are more confused than ever when it comes to relationships they forge and the arranged marriages they are forced with. Jaideep wrote about doing the right thing in Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, straight from the heart, Maneesh Sharma explored the behind-the-scenes of wedding planning in Band Baaja Baaraat and Aditya Chopra had explored this arranged marriage dynamic in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Between the three of them, they have all the understanding of how business and marriages work in India.
Significantly, Sahni's story is not set in cosmopolitan Mumbai or Delhi. It's set in Jaipur, which is a fair city that represents tradition, modernity and business that drives India. Marriage Contractor Goyal (Rishi Kapoor) is the personification of the well-wishing sentiment and the good old-fashioned pressure of "When are you getting married?" The hypocritical, confused hero Raghuram Sitaram (Sushant Singh Rajput) represents the Indian groom filled with doubt and terrified of regret, Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra) is the modern independent impulsive Indian girl and Tara (Vaani Kapoor) plays the family-centric girl with aspirations of being truly independent.
So if you find the proceedings funny and farcical, it is only because that's the idea behind the cheekily titled Shuddh Desi Romance that packs in enough kisses, premarital sex and meaningless wedding rituals to show us the latent hypocrisy of the gossip-mongering society.
Yet, it is not completely cynical either. It has a solid heart, powered by a terrific Parineeti Chopra as the girl showing considerable spirit and spunk despite having her heart broken "three or four" times. Sushant plays a rather unlikeable protagonist a little too convincingly that you wonder why would an independent girl like Gayatri fall for a guy like him. Debutante Vaani underplays the role devoid of dramatics that she almost sounds flat. And Rishi Kapoor once again makes the most of the limited role.
If this film makes you uncomfortable or uneasy, it is because this is not the escapist feel good cinema Yash Raj Films is associated with. This is a reality check on the state of affairs, narrated crisply (Editing: Namrata Rao) like a joke, tongue firmly in cheek.
One of the bravest, boldest films Yash Raj Films has ever made.
Genre: Romance
Director: Maneesh Sharma
Cast: Parineeti Chopra, Sushant Singh Rajput, Vaani Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor
Storyline: A boy, on his way to his wedding, falls in love with his co-passenger.
Bottomline: A farcical romantic comedy about modern romance and the growing irrelevance of arranged marriages
Shuddh Desi Romance: The filmCast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Parineeti Chopra, Vaani Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor
Direction: Maneesh Sharma
Rating: ***
Big fat Indian weddings make for a colourful backdrop and Bollywood loves using it to render its many love stories. Maneesh Sharma uses the same flashy canvas to mock the vibrant faade it manages to create.
Modern relationships are caught in transition - some are being redefined, traditional mindsets are being challenged, the man-woman equation has many new aspects to it. Societal pressure sometimes try to thwart this change, the expectation that everyone has to be happily married by a certain age puts immense pressure on individuals and their families and Indian weddings are sometimes used to veil the changing dynamics of relationships.
Maneesh Sharma tries to address the various nuances of love and commitment. He does raise some valid points but his treatment remains superfluous at best. It's as if the filmmakers were scared to take a strong stand, afraid that it will ruffle the feathers of the gatekeepers of our conscientious Indian society and they would bar their young children from watching this movie. A section of the society is bound to feel that a film that makes no bones about pre-marital sex and live-in relationship is bound to have an adverse effect on the impressionable youth of this country. We did much rather live in denial than accept the very apparent changes.
Shuddh Desi Romance' gives us some memorable characters and they remain with us long after we have walked out of the theatre.
Raghu
(Sushant Singh Rajput) is quick to run away from his wedding, quick to
fall in love soon after and quick to even recover from a heartbreak. We
know so many men like that - confused, impulsive and irresponsible. Is
his character flawed? Not really, merely unsure of what he really wants
from life.
Raghu Ram follows his heart but when he realizes that it has misled
him, he is ready to listen to his head instead and set right the mistake
he made before. If the heart was wrong then the head has got to be
right. A lot of modern marriages thus, end up being a decision of mind
over heart.
Sushant's character is the anti-thesis of the one he
played in Kai Po Che'. Raghu (Sushant) has no focus, he is charming and
yet, annoying because he has no real personality.
Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra) is the cool babe; she smokes, is unabashed about her previous boyfriends and makes no big deal about her live-in partner. And yet, that's only a front; she is as insecure in her relationship, as any other person. She is scared that the person she loves will judge her by her past. And she did rather run away from impending heartbreak than appear vulnerable.
Tara (Vaani Kapoor) is immensely likeable and creates quite an impression in her debut film. There is no high drama/melodrama accompanying her emotional trajectory. I especially love the look of pure pleasure on her face when she explains how revenge is immensely gratifying for the ego. She also makes a valid point - when you are flirting with someone who had previously dumped you, you are never sure whether you are enjoying the revenge more or whether you are actually slipping away again.
The thing is, the film forays into an unexplored grey area in most romantic relationships but it doesn't really delve deeper. The protagonists never seem completely convinced about their feelings and may be that was intentional. How sure are we really of our emotions in a relationship? They tend to change over time. But then are modern relationships bereft of any kind of responsibility? Surely there has to be some accountability somewhere.
Also, there was much talk about the 27 kisses in the film but honestly, there wasn't the chemical spark that you would expect from such a bold, young love story.
Sushant Singh Rajput is a promising newcomer in bollywood
The word "earnest" often comes up in conversations about Sushant Singh Rajput; it is used to describe his on-screen performances or to explain his strengths. Perhaps, it's the actor's earnestness that has landed him roles in coveted movies such as Rajkumar Hirani's Peekay and Dibakar Banerjee's Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, in which he plays the titular role.
That earnestness comes through when we meet him at the YRF office. In a display of courtesy that is rare in the industry, Rajput refuses a snack offered to him, as the guest seated across the table has declined one. "I am, anyway, supposed to lose weight for my next film. You're helping me in that," says the soft-spoken actor.
The other opinion, says a prominent industry member, is that the 27-year-old is "too young to be interesting". The actor, in fact, admits to being "boring" and "predictable". But his journey from Delhi College of Engineering to Bollywood is nevertheless intriguing.
Born into a middle-class household in Delhi, Rajput was fascinated by Bollywood, but never aspired to be a part of it. With four elder sisters, he was over-protected and grew up to be a shy and introvert boy, with very few friends. Influenced by his academically-inclined siblings, he chose to study engineering. "But there are so few girls in engineering colleges that I thought Shiamak Davar's dance classes would give me an opportunity to interact with some," says Rajput in jest, only to add on a serious (or earnest) note, "Dancing made me realise that I need not speak to express myself."
Rajput then began exploring the performing arts. He joined the Barry John Acting Studio, even as he continued to dance as part of Davar's company. But he also skipped most of the lectures, he tells us " choosing instead to devour paranthas at Delhi's famous Moolchand paranthawala or at the dhabhas in Murthal, a small town in Haryana.
The days he spent in college, Rajput says, also inspired his performance in Abhishek Kapoor's Kai Po Che, his debut film. His Ishaan, an amateur cricketer in Ahmedabad, refuses to
follow a calculated path to success and instead chooses to coach a Muslim cricketing prodigy even at the height of communal tension in Gujarat. "The bond Ishaan shares with his friends somewhere drew from my equation with friends. I could connect with the character who is driven by selfless passion for the game and his friends," Rajput says.
In 2005, Rajput dropped out of college and moved to Mumbai, where he joined Nadira Babbar's theatre production company, Ekjute. "I had to start somewhere and theatre felt like a good place to do so," he says.
Television followed theatre soon enough. A Balaji Telefilms employee, impressed by his performance in a play titled Pukar, invited him to audition for the role of Manav, a self-respecting mechanic in Pavitra Rishta on Zee TV.
His stint in television not only trained him to act before the camera, it also whetted his appetite for more. "After four years of playing Manav, I wasn't learning anything new in terms of acting. I quit at a time the show was about to take a leap, and decided to wait till something good came my way," he says.
The opportunity presented itself sooner than he had thought, in the form of an audition for Kai Po Che. "When I had signed on Kai Po Che, I was called to audition for Peekay. It's all fallen into place on its own," he says. Not one to attribute much to luck, Rajput believes hard work always pays off. While thousands of others who are still struggling for a break in Bollywood may disagree, Rajput says he was equally happy and satisfied when he was doing theatre. "Yes, I was travelling in a rickshaw back then and I have a fancy SUV now, which is great, but I get as excited to play an interesting character in a film as I used to when I would prepare for a theatre performance," he says.
The actor credits his stint in theatre for learning the techniques of acting. "One may believe that theatre needs spontaneity but in truth, it demands that an actor perform a scene repeatedly
with the same intensity and freshness each time. As jaded as I may sound, it taught me the importance of researching the character, so that I can look for the stimulus when I need it," he says.
Jaded or not, Rajput is currently being viewed as a rising star in Bollywood. His moving and honest performance in Kai Po Che proved that he can carry a film on his shoulders, becoming Banerjee's choice for playing the iconic character from Bengali literature, detective Byomkesh Bakshi.
"We needed a young star with a growing following, but who is not yet overexposed," says Banerjee, explaining his choice of Rajput for the role. "Sushant has that very exciting mix of vulnerability and intensity which I think will add a lot to my Byomkesh "who is fresh out of college and on his first case " and fighting all the issues that a man of 23 faces when he comes out in the world."
Currently being managed by YRF's talent management arm, Rajput has also been ensured of being "projected right". "Sushant is someone who appeals to a cross-section of people. The youth love him for his dance skills that he displayed on reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, and housewives took to him back in his Pavitra Rishta days," says Ashish Patil, vice president (business & creative), YRF.
Although his dancing skills " which Rajput is confident of " are not being used in any of his current projects, his versatility, Patil believes, is on display in his new release, Maneesh Sharma-directed Shuddh Desi Romance. "I play a confused but earnest Raghu who is trying to differentiate between love and infatuation, the signs of which are often interchangeable," he explains. The film, he says, explores the modern Indian youth's take on relationships and the confusion between attraction and love.
While Rajput knows that it may not strike a chord with his fans from his television stint, who saw him as the aspirational hero, he isn't willing to choose projects based on box-office returns. "I am supposed to lose up to eight kilos for my role as Byomkesh, apart from tryingto understand the character " a thought that has me excited. If I have to lose out on this excitement, there's nothing left to being an actor for me. I could have continued to play Manav and earned good money anyway."
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