Gehraiyaan Review

Infidelity and extramarital affairs have always been a running theme of Bollywood's stories. Most of the times, it has been either comedies like Sajan Chale Sasural or Gharwali Baharwali, where extramarital affairs are shown as something funny. This is the same treatment bollywood has been giving to serious matters like homosexuality. While hollywood makes a Philadelphia we are happy dancing on the tunes of 'Maa ka ladla bigad gaya' in Dostana. It is may be due to commercial obligations or simply the lack of depth in our writers. Though we have some serious attempts in handling such taboo topics in movies like Aligarh and Masoom. 

Coming to topic of infidelity, whether bollywood's take is comical like in Sajan chale sasural or Serious like in Masoom, extramarital affairs have always been accompanied by guilt. They are shown like an accident while protagonists happen to fall into the uninteded relationship. Our movies never justified those. But recent release of Gehraiyaan, shows that bollywood has decided to replace the feeling of guilt with the oft-abused word Choice. 

Not even a single time, any protagonist feel any guilt towards his/her partner for cheating. And that's the scary part. All those high class lifestyles, luxurious yatch, and expensive wines may give you an Indication that 'choice' is cool. It's nothing more than an evil advertisement of a cola drink by a sportsperson. The way cola is bad for your health, no matter how big sportsperson endorses it, the so called choice is destined for doom no matter how much you try to glamorize it.

Gehraiyaan fails on many fronts.. we have already discussed about the missing guilt part. It was only the financial trouble that rocked the boat. If there was no financial trouble, the total amount of guilt all protagonists would have felt is zilch. And thats not correct, it's wrong messaging. There is a comic quote about junk food. That it stays for One second on lips and for a lifetime on hips. Same is with extramarital affairs. Only difference is that it stays for more than a lifetime and the burden is carried not only by the guilty but the coming generations too.

Second part where Gehraiyaan fails is casting. Ananya Pandey is doing the same thing in the film for which she is famous.. struggle. She has got the part to play the Shabana Azmi of Masoom.. enough said.. Producers should have gone with someone with more depth in acting department for a film which derives its name from depths. 

Third aspect where it fails is it's setting. As Shakespeare's classics has shown that human emotions are same irrespective of economic conditions, geography or time era. Macbeth can become Maqbool and Hamlet can become Haidar and people won't even notice that story writer is from Europe who died 500 years ago. So while trying to make a film on infidelity why do you have to select an ultra rich urbane set up, to which only 0.0001% of India connects to. Narrate the same story with middle class setup and maximum of our audience will relate to. Yeah that will weed out the need to show expensive bikinis and plunging neckline. I am sure that was the touch given by KJo who is hell bent on sending the middle class on a guilt trip.. Tum saala gareeb log kya janoge, yeh dekho Ameer kaise hote hain.. bhai saab, woh hum internet per bhi dekh sakte hain, tum dhang se story sunao.. for bikinis and deep necklines, audience have countless better options. 

To give credit where due, Deepika has hit right chords and she looks like a light house among the sea of mediocrity full of Pandeys and chaturvedis. Rest everything is same gloss and same old wine in a new bottle. Watch it once if you want. If you don't, you aren't missing much.