'Manmarziyaan' movie review: 50 shades of grey

Film: Manmarziyaan

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Rating: 3 and a half stars (out of 5)

Cast: Tapsee Pannu, Abhishek Bachchan, Vicky Kaushal

Anurag Kashyap tells you: “Imagine falling in love.” You: “Yes”. Anurag: “Is it fun?” You: “Yes!” Anurag: “Imagine falling in love twice. Doubly fun?” You: “Grr. Yes.” Anurag: “Well, screw you, it's not!” That, in a paragraph, is what Manmarziyaan is.

The first half is your regular Devdas story, with ample comedy and other lighter tools. Girl leaves good-for-nothing for decent dude.

Our Devdas (Vicky Kaushal), a local Yo Yo Honey Singh, is not particularly acceptable to her (Tapsee’s) family and you can see why. Jobless, irresponsible and horny, he is the sort of person whose chair you’d want to pull away just as he is about to sit.

Tapsee’s Rumi is in love with this creature, and wants him to come ask for her hand in marriage. The family is not pleased with him. Given that he jumps from roof to roof of an Amritsar neighbourhood and jumps in through her bedroom window for some sweet, early-morning sex, it’s not hard to understand why.

However, they are ready to accept him with a modest job and a decent haircut, if only he were responsible enough to come talk about the marriage. Having had enough, she agrees to a proposal with Abhishek’s Robbie, the only easy-to-like person in the film.

The meat of the film lies in the frequent relapses that Rumi suffers even after she realises that her ex is an absolute good-for-nothing and her husband is the sweetheart. Unfortunately, she shuttles between “I will marry the nice dude” to “sex with good-for-nothing” faster than you can say ‘Tapsee Pannu’.

But take note: this is not the kind of film that makes audiences gasp and groan and say “what has society come to?” The ‘grey walaa shade’ song that begins the film sets the tone for the film.

The film is very mature when it comes to sketching emotions. The three characters in the triangle have far too many grey areas, so much so that even in moments of brashness or cruelty, there’s something pitiable about them.

Kashyap uses Kaushal, Tapsee and Abhishek to tell a story where certain sorts of love, even when questionable, are all too human.