Veere Di Wedding Movie Review: A film that rolls its eyes at 'happily ever after'

Veere Di Wedding,a female driven film, directed by Shashanka Ghosh and written by Nidhi Mehra and Mehul Suri, dives into the shallow end of the deep pool of female friendship. It starts out as a buddy film, set in the familiar world of an elite Delhi wedding, but there is more to this film than initially meets the eye, and certainly more to these ladies than meets the guys. The bristle and bustle of Delhi comes alive through the slender intellectual faculties of the protagonists.

The movie never abandons its pre-adult views of marriage (a folly), friendship (a life saviour), alcohol (second only to water), sex (good for health), cigarettes (a stress-buster), profanity (an essential language enhancer) and fashion (to be followed at all times). 

The four leading ladies break the proverbial glass ceiling with their sexy stilettos. We’ve rarely seen women on screen who are so uninhibited about their life, sexuality and desires.

It knows weddings are hard, marriages take work, and that, occasionally, pampered princes need to be knocked off the moon-shaped thrones picked out by their mothers.The cross between Sex and the City and Bridesmaids works hard to raise eyebrows.The women swear freely, imbibe furiously and rail frequently against convention and hypocrisy. 

When we first meet the four heroines, they're in school uniform. All four characters are dysfunctional and broken in their own way, but they are honest and unmerciful, committed to each other. They derive their fierceness from being a unit. We can sit near them, but - to borrow from Tina Fey's Mean Girls - we can't sit with them.

Sakshi is a flamboyantly wealthy brat struggling with a divorce who likes her drinks straight-up, Meera is an exasperated mother who is only too glad to leave her child in more grown-up hands; Avni is a divorce lawyer who really (really) wants to get married; and Kalindi, on the other hand, is the child of an oddly broken home, preparing to tie the knot while not believing in it. 

Swara Bhasker and Kareena Kapoor perform impressively and casually , enough to cut through this cheesy treatment , even though all four characters play off each other very well. Veere Di Wedding lands several blows to the patriarchy while never giving up its masala entertainer roots. It is the kind of film that needs to work because of what it says. 

Also Read: Swara Bhasker Proves To Be An Absolute Kock Out in The Masturbation Scene In VDW

It is a film that features a nonchalantly, openly gay couple, but not an eyebrow is ever raised and there isn't a whiff of homophobia. Also, Sometimes we need a movie to tell us what an orgasm means.

The casting is clever and spot-on. Kareena Kapoor is terrific as Kalindi, waking up and forgetting which hand the ring finger is on. She, the most mainstream of heroines - in this irreverent, family-hating part - gives this foulmouthed film new subversive meaning, while giving audiences something surprising. Shikha Talsania's disgruntled Meera ,brings warmth and believability to the film, and the immensely likeable actress never hits a false note. I really look forward to seeing her in more films.

Swara Bhasker plays against type as the party girl, Sakshi, in too-short dresses and too few inhibitors, chided for her language even by her friends. Sonam Kapoor admirably plays the most messed-up girl, Avni, one who likes saying things like "no sex before the ring ceremony" but likes also to be goaded into 'climbing aboard' new young men by her friends. Kapoor is at her most natural, and many will take this candid performance as proof that this is what the actress must really be like.  

Bolstered by lavish wardrobes, unlimited expense accounts and acres of make-up, the four findouters set out to test the limits of friendship. No costume makes the mistake of being repeated (though we did spot a t-shirt twice on Shikha); no symbol of luxury is left alone; no cliche in the female empowerment drama (including group hugs) is excluded.

Veere Di Wedding gets this fantastic bond right, and gives us four dramatically different kinds of women with agency and spirit. Nobody stands in the way of their decisions. Some girls will always choose to argue, just as some mothers will always choose to harangue.