Shiddat

Sometimes, in the pursuit of true love, a life time can be too little. We spend almost two-and-a-half hours with Jaggi (Sunny Kaushal), Kartika (Radhika Madan) Gautam (Mohit Raina) and Ira (Diana Penty), and it seems endless, simply because after a nice start, the film goes downhill shockingly rapidly. And it decides to stay there.

Young IFS officer Gautam (Mohit Raina) makes an impassioned speech at his wedding reception about how he met his wife Ira (Diana Penty). "If I hadn't met you in London, it'd have been in Paris or Amsterdam," he says, "Kyunki tum meri kismat ho." It's cheesy as hell and he knows it. But it's the sort of speech a groom is supposed to give.

Justifying a guy's wayward actions under the pretext of romance, whether the girl permits it or not, only to walk away with all the sympathy in the end is the ultimate warped male fantasy that finds wholehearted fulfilment in Kunal Deshmukh's Shiddat. Left to Bollywood, the Big Bad Wolf would sure-fire find his way to Red Riding Hood's heart.

It's love at first sight for Jaggi (Sunny Kaushal) when he sees Kartika (Radhika Madan) coming out of the swimming pool. But sparks don't fly instantly, as an elaborate 'nafrat pyaar ki pehli seedi hai' kinda process follows, with Jaggi trying every trick in the book to woo the girl.

A happy go lucky guy Jaggi (Sunny) inspired by the love story of a man whose wedding he gatecrashes, falls in love with a girl Kartika (Radhika). He meets her at a sports camp. Soon after they fall for each other and take things ahead, he gets to know Kartika is about to get married. Major 'agar woh meri hai to laut aaegi' throwback, he let's her go and puts a weird bet.

You know how a good romantic film, love story or song makes us fall in love with the idea of love itself? Well, that doesn't happen in Shiddat (released on Disney+Hotstar), because the film has the exact opposite effect. It will make us baulk at the very idea, given the sheer silliness with which this pristine emotion is ridiculed.

Most writers are fond of their own words. When we're young, our words arrange themselves on the page in a style that feels attention-seeking years afterwards. As we grow older, we nevertheless refer to these past words through allusions, callbacks, hyperlinks. It's self-congratulatory, whichever way you slice it. I know this, as I suspect most writers do.

Ever wondered what a film would have been like if it went on the way it began? Shiddat opens on a romantic note, with a madly-in-love couple exchanging undying vows at their marriage ceremony. And proceeds to move, tonally, from sentimentality to comedy to drama, and physically, from Punjab to Calais to London, with a three-year jump in time.

Sweeping analogies about life and love flow free in Shiddat, in which a young man moves heaven and earth for a girl who has left him heart-broken and clueless. That is not to say that the Kunal Deshmukh-directed film is a love story of elemental power.

Love ke liye kuch bhi karega... fits perfectly on Jaggi Sehgal (Sunny Kaushal - charming and wonderful). Gautam Kapoor (Mohit Raina - fantastic) - an Indian Foreign Service officer and Ira (quite impressive) - a social worker, meet during their French tutorials and love blossoms. Jaggi ji gatecrashes the wedding of Gautam and Ira. Jaggi is a hockey player and plays for Punjab. The speech by Gautam at the wedding makes a place in Jaggi's heart.