LOOKING INTO A MARRIAGE, WITI-I A SMILE

Shaadi Ke Side Effects

STARRING: Vidya Balan, Farhan Akhtar, Vir Das and Purab Kohli

DIRECTOR: Saket Chaudhary

When I do something wrong, I say sorry to my wife. When my wife does something wrong I say sorry to my wife''. One of the gems that flows out of Farhan Akhtar's mouth while addressing the oldest question on the gender equation, what does a woman really want in a marriage? Could it be the same things as a man? Maybe the route taken by the two individuals i s different?

Director Saket Chaudhary raises some pertinent questions on the fake roadsigns that could lead to an aborted marriage. Not all of the winking homil i es work.

But the film holds together primarily because of the intelligent writing and the sharp and crisp way the two main actors interpret the parts of the two individuals in a marriage that has a lot going for it. That includes a baby girl who arrives just in time to get this seven-year del ayed sequel trotting on the right road.

Farhan Akhtar and Vidya Balan look compatible together and give delectably nuanced performances without looking over-rehearsed, and looking so 'married' on screen. They come together as a couple that desperately wishes to make the marriage work.

The script i s written entirely from the male point of view, and Farhan's voiceover is a reminder of which side of marriage the scri pt is on.

The film opens with a sequence where the pair plays a tantalising game in a crowded pub to kindle some additional romance into their togetherness. There is a freshness in the way Farhan and Vidya approach this sequence and their roles. There's a kind of lived-in familiar ity with the world of the marri ed couple, and yet played at a detached dispassionate pitch.

The second-half deliberately forfeits the blithe spirit in pursuit of a more penetrating perspective on marital