Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety

Whether it is positive or negative, any credible review you read about Luv Ranjan’s new movie Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety would have one word in common; misogyny. Some of the funny lines in the movie and Alok Nath playing a character that have no characteristics of the sort of characters he has played till now will definitely give you some laughable moments for sure. But that isn’t sufficient here to cover the level of female bitching Luv Ranjan does.

Sonu and Titu are best friends from childhood. In fact Sonu stays at Titu’s home. Titu is a very silly guy who doesn’t know when a girl is using him.  Sonu has saved him from all that by being protective. So finally when Titu took the decision to get married to a seemingly perfect girl Sweety, Sonu becomes suspicious about her. And once Sweety tells him her real intention, the war between the best friend and the bride begins. How it ends is what this movie all about.

Pyaar Ka Punchnaama movies also had the female bitching agenda. But there the focus was more on how incapable was the men in handling women. Here it is blatant sexism. Luv Ranjan has to be appreciated for packaging misogyny in the entertaining format. The film has certain dialogues and scenes that will definitely make you laugh even if you can’t agree with the politics of the film. There are actually two girls paired opposite to Titu and Luv Ranjan has written those characters only keeping in mind the fact that they shouldn’t be liked in any way. From the clothes to attitude, the heroines here are opportunists. The Punchnaama formula continues here as well, as we get to see controlling, cunning and manipulative female characters.

When I saw Pyaar Ka Punchnaama, it was difficult for me to say whether Luv Ranjan was trying to be misogynistic or should I consider him using the liberty of being a creator. With Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, it becomes more and more clear what exactly the plan of Luv Ranjan is. In the interval scene of the movie the Sweety tells Sonu that in the fight between friendship and girl, girl always wins. And the following background score has lyrics that have words like gold digger. If you are someone who immediately shared the gold digger prank videos on YouTube without giving it much thought, the chance of you liking a movie like Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety is high. I am not trying hard to be a feminist here. Having villainous female character isn’t a bad thing. But generalizing them as bitches is a really harsh thing and no matter how hard you try to cover it with funny jokes, it will stick out. The songs are like a typical T Series album with wide range of songs making no real impact on the narrative. The frames and sets aren’t really interested in being authentic.

Luv Ranjan’s frequent collaborators are yet again the main stars of this film. Katik Aaryan has tried to make Sonu look real even though his suspicions in the movie are largely logic less.  Nushrat Bharucha also tries to make Sweety less animated. Sunny Singh hardly has anything here to perform. At one point Ishita Raj Sharma’s character says “I am here in a backless dress without any point”, and that is pretty much the description of the character she is playing in the movie. I have to admit that I really liked Alok Nath and Virendra Saxena in this film.

Sexism has always been a humor tool for Bollywood and looking at the way a girl who sat behind me was laughing for some of the jokes, I don’t think the audiences really care about the inherent agenda of stories. I did laugh for certain jokes for sure. But the movie’s desperation for sexist remarks will give you a tough time, if you have any plan to look beyond the surface level jokes.

Rating: 2/5