Hindi cinema cannot do without traditional romantic comedies, but can't we do away with the melodrama and archaic, over-the-top humour that often accompany such tales? Sadly, Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi doesn't give you great hope of being a refreshing rom com. Going by the trailer revealed today, the film is weighed down by archaic drama and humour.
Boy loves girl, but caste and language prove to be barriers. We have the hardly smiling Hashmukh Patel (Paresh Rawal), who is continuously at loggerheads with his loudmouthed Punjabi neighbour Guggi Tandon (Rishi Kapoor).
Trouble escalates when Tandon’s son, played by Vir Das, falls in love with Patel’s daughter, played by Payal Ghosh. The very fact that director Sanjay Chhel hasn’t even given their characters' names in the trailer is enough to suggest that Das and Ghosh play second fiddle to Kapoor and Rawal.
Much of the story plays out loudly and annoyingly in the trailer. Be it Patel or Tandon, Chhel’s characters come across as poor stereotypes of the Gujarati and Punjabi communities.
Some of the dialogues in the trailer will make you cringe. They appear to have been carved out of poor online jokes. For example, Patel tells Mrs Tandon, “Aap aurat hokar gaaliyan deti hain [Being a woman you abuse]?" to which Mrs Tandon retorts, ”Ab itni si gaali ke liye kya sex change karoon [Should I undergo a sex change to use a little profanity]?"
Such poor dialogues may be par for the course, but you will be stunned to hear lyrics like “WhatsApp oh Mata Rani, darshan de o Mata Rani.” The mother goddess herself will shut her ears to such horrid prayers.
Save for the sanity of Rawal, there is nothing in the trailer to impress you about the film. If anything, it suggests that you are likely to be at your wit's end if you decide to watch the film when it is released on 15 September, along with Lucknow Central and Kangana Ranaut’s Simran.
Watch the trailer of Patel Ki Punjabi Shaadi below and predict the film's box-office fate here.