It’s through the two of them that the film also explores what is its strongest theme: that of unrequited love.

The years of companionship are visible in their frequent arguments, as is how she is his rock. The film ends up stretching this theme of nature-vs-science a bit too far, but Gupta and Rao who gelled so well in Badhai Ho remain a hoot. Neena Gupta has another winner as Aman’s mother, while Gajaraj Rao plays his father who, in what could have been a nice touch, is a small-time scientist behind a black, “germ-free” cauliflower variety. Kewalya’s excellent cast though makes it all go down easily. For one, they are very contrasting personalities (Kartik a bundle of extra energy, Aman slight and subdued), and it would have been nice to see them away from Aman’s overbearing family, which fits the same small-UP town template that is lately a Bollywood favourite. It all gets a bit much at times, with Aman and Kartik’s own story that required more fleshing out lost in the process.

What Kewalya is trying at all times though is to keep it light and frothy, with the usual bickerings, disagreements, discontents that brew in a large family, spilling out at regular intervals. The Tripathis use science, blackmail, suicide, shame, even rituals where Aman is “killed off” and “reborn” and, some violence, to separate the two. How do the Tripathis, one of the highlights of whose life is boarding the Vivah Special Express train en famille to a wedding, cope with this discovery?ĭirector Kewalya, who wrote Shubh Mangal Saavdhan featuring Khurrana memorably in the role of a groom battling erectile dysfunction, throws a lot at Kartik and Aman.

Shubh mangal savdhan imdb