2 states

2 states directed by Abhishek Varman, based on Chetan Bhagat’s best seller book of the same name is a likeable film that stands below the book in terms of presentation. It was certain that some compromises will have to be made in the content, but for me the level of missing was kind of too much.

Well everybody knows the story I guess, if not here is the brief overview. It’s the love story of Ananya and Krish. They fell in love during their IIM days at Ahmedabad. Ananya is a Tamilian and Krish is a Punjabi and they want their marriage to happen after getting proper consent from their parents. The planning and struggle they had to face in convincing these diametrically opposite cultures is what the film talking about.

2 states is a book that when you read it, you will start picturing it as a modern day Bollywood romantic comedy. It has that next level way of interpreting the intensity of relationship which is quite unorthodox in our movies. When it comes to the film, I think almost 3/4^th of the book has been squeezed in to the first half of the movie and the remaining has been elaborated slightly more than what it should have been.

The IIM life, some events after the convocation, Ananya’s brother, Krish’s senior at bank and his job related frustrations during the Chennai life were some key areas in the book which the people who read it would easily remember. But unfortunately, the movie has shut its eyes towards many of these and some are given less emphasis. But still Abhishek Varman has managed to keep the love story sensible and the narration succeeds in giving that underlying humour which was there in the book.

The direction was good from the debutant. He has kept away the possible heavy dosage of melodrama. But my problem was with the spacing in screenplay. The events were happening quite briskly in the first half and thus there isn’t much scope to work on the relationship of these characters. 2 songs comes to you really on a back to back level. Varman has taken the family convincing part as the dividing factor of the script and the second half looked more mature and relaxed. Dialogues were good. Nice cinematography and songs. The art direction wasn’t that great.  Edits were okay.

Arjun Kapoor was good as the innocent and slightly introvert Krish. Alia continues her superb form as she pitched the character perfectly. That bubbliness + boldness which was essential for Ananya was there in her character portrayal. Amrita Singh did well as the Punjabi mother. Shiv Kumar Subramaniam and Revathy were perfect for their characters. Ronit Roy’s special appearance is lengthy and his character did remind me of his performance in Udaan.

So overall 2 States as a movie is a watchable flick that has this lead pair chemistry and fresh story idea to keep you interested. The rating for the movie from my side is 3/5. Many sufferings are missing, but still it’s more than just kissing.