Review of Shuddh Desi Romance (2013) by Priti P — 17 Sep 2013

First things first. You will be disappointed if you expect SDR to be just like its name. SDR is excellent because it doesn't concentrate on rich urban kids of any metropolitan/Tier I cities instead entire setting is between confused middle class youths of Tier II cities, here Jaipur.

After above average Band Baaja Baraat(2010) & pathetic Ladies V/s Ricky Bahl(2011), Maneesh Sharma redeems himself with SDR. Apart from his directorial tricks, there are many redeeming factors in this movie but the prime factor is Jaideep Sahni's story, screenplay & dialogues.

Jaideep Sahni has juggled in many genres with his writing for films like Company(Mafia/Crime saga), Khosla Ka Ghosla(Revenge Comedy), Chak De India!(Patriotic/Sports) & extremely underrated Rocket Singh(Drama) but this is his first full blown rom-com. Screenplay gives us a feeling that Sahni & Sharma actually researched a lot before writing their screenplay. Script works even better when certain typical bollywood cliches are ignored by Sahni. For example, institution of Marriage is thrown out. Any middle class youth just crossing 25 must know how it feels when parents start nagging him/her with marriage proposals. Here smartly parents are avoided as 2 of the 3 leads are orphans while other has a dad who we never see on screen. Sahni delivers a cracker with modern middle class youth's take on fake institution of marriage & Live-in-relationship with wonderful use of thanda, Bathrooms & kiss. His dialogues are an absolute fun.

On the performance front, Sushant Singh Rajput as thodasa-buddhu-thodasa-chaalu Raghu is adorable & convincing while Parineeti Chopra's act is nothing short of award winning. She is the kind of girl, every guy would like to date. Vaani Kapoor even in her debut gives a wonderful performance. Her screen presence is terrific. And then there is Rishi Kapoor as wedding planner Goyal in one of the most charming performances in his entire career. He gets the accent & mannerisms right for a marvadi person who fears that the modern outlook of youths may stop his wedding business.

On technical front, Manu Anand captures Jaipur superbly in his camera while Sachin Jigar's music is their best attempt till date while their background score is perfect considering the hilarious situations. Namrata Rao's editing is crisp & never ever we feel bore while production designs are authentic. Shanoo Sharma's casting is brilliant specially the side actors who play Raghu's friends.