With a star cast like Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan, what would you expect a movie to be? Awesome, right? Well, let’s see.
Sid Roy (Farhan Akhtar) and Trisha Mallick Roy (Vidya Balan) are the quintessential modern day couple who have promising careers. In order to spice up their marriage, they play fun charades like meeting in a bar as strangers, making out in a hotel lift and sharing a hotel room. But a passionate night of unprotected sex renders them pregnant. And that’s where the actual side effects of the ‘shaadi’ come into the picture.
A new mother, Trisha is so engrossed with her baby that she’s hardly the time and the energy left to work on her marriage. Sid on the other hand wants her pre-motherhood wife backs and tries everything in the book to salvage their relationship. But the circumstances don’t favour him and he finds himself swamped by the new responsibilities dumped on him. That’s when he gets some age-old advice from his ‘been there, done that’ brother-in-law, Ram Kapoor, to take a couple of days’ break every month from the mish-mash of the daily life to connect with his old carefree life. Soon it becomes a way of life for Sid. Then there are more confusions and fights before the pretences are up and the couple decides to work on their differences.
What could have been a hilarious movie is reduced to a dud bomb. The film starts on a fine note but in just half an hour into the film, all seems to be lost. The title of the film doesn’t do justice to the film. This is supposed to be the sequel to 2009 Pyar Ke Side/Effects, but instead of talking about shaadi it directly jumps to ‘Bachche Ke Side/Effects’. The dialogues meant to be funny fail to invoke much laughter; apart from a few jokes you hardly get any reason to laugh. The music is non-descript. There are a few disconnects like Sid talks about the financial woes after having a child, but is hardly shown working towards it. Many characters are introduced like the next door neighbour, Shekhar and the nanny, Aunty which don’t fit well and seem like a last-minute introduction.
Vidya Balan looks natural as an obsessed new mother. Though after the child she puts her marriage on the back burner, she realizes it later and tries to work towards her marriage. But as the story is told from Sid’s point of view, she comes out mostly as an irritating nagging wife and you fail to feel for her character. Farhan Akhtar on the other hand single-handedly shoulders the burden of the film. You sympathize with his confusion and frustration as his orderly life goes out of control. Ram Kapoor does justice to his role and you await his turn as he provides the much needed relief. Vir Das provides some comic relief too.
My verdict: If you go through a montage of your own married life, I am sure you would enjoy it more. But still, if you have nothing on your hands this weekend, it might not be such a bad idea to watch Shaadi Ke Side/Effects. Just go with enough popcorn to make it seem worthwhile.
