Movie in 2 mins: “Mere brother ki Dulhan” (My brother’s fiance)

I am not a big fan of romantic comedies/musicals and I try my best to avoid one, especially the Bollywood ones. Within the first few minutes, any sane person can guess the whole story, down to the very fine details - predictability. At times, I make exceptions and watch them, usually when I am with my friends.

Last Sunday was one such occasion. I was visiting some friends and they suddenly planned for this movie - Mere brother ki Dulhan (My brother’s fiance). The moment I heard the name of the movie, I guessed the storyline. But when I found that the protagonist is played by Imran Khan, I was a bit hopeful. After all, his movies made me laugh (most of the times).

As expected, the story line was very clear within the first 10 minutes. Like the name ‘suggests’, the hero will fall in love with his brother’s fiancé. Since it’s a romantic Hindi movie, there MUST (keyword here is MUST) be a happy ending. There I was, watching a movie which I always try to avoid, because it’s just a waste of time. Even then I thought there will be something different, something which is not so obvious about the movie.

What I didn’t realize was the movie was so full of clichés and songs, even beyond my ‘wildest imaginations’. Read the following ‘quick replay’ in a ‘problem-solution’ format and decide for yourself whether any of these events sounds familiar.

Starting problem: Hero’s brother wants hero’s help to get married and settle down.

Solution: Hero goes on ‘bride-hunting’ for his brother, ends up at his old acquaintance (heroine – who rocks in looks and character). Their families also agree on the alliance.

New problem: Heroine wants to enjoy the last few hours, how can she?

Solution: Hero saves the hour and they have a great time together.

New problem: They fall in love (Aha!). Now, how will they make hero’s brother call off the wedding without embarrassing themselves?

Solution: Get hero’s brother’s old girl friend to flirt with hero. Seeing this, hero’s brother gets jealous and decides to run away with his old girl friend.

New problem: How will the family avoid the embarrassment?

Solution: Family asks our hero to marry the heroine.

And this whole thing goes with a north Indian wedding setting in its backdrop, with a song every 5 minutes (literally).

And so the Bollywood proved me wrong, again. I thought no one will watch the same old ‘winning Indian romantic movie formula’ after some time. After this movie I said to myself, that time has yet to come.

p.s. I didn’t give a spoiler warning as there is nothing ‘unpredictable’ to spoil.