Monday, April 28, 2014

2 States: Predictable and Frustrating

Bombay Cinema has to a certain extent come out of its formulaic romances and extolling of heterosexual coupledom and family in recent times, examples being Queen and Dedh Ishqiya! Or we thought so! 2 States backpedalled the way forward the two above-mentioned films had shown. Reiterating stereotypes almost shamelessly, 2 States turns the romance between a Punjabi boy and a Tamil girl into a sentimental drama of a cultural tug of war between two families. While attempting to satirise the melodramatic paraphernalia that surrounds Indian marriages, the film fails to sustain its self-distancing mockery and subscribes to the very thing it had went out to ridicule. The Herculean task of convincing parents into accepting a spouse not belonging to the same class, caste, region or race would appeal to the masses certainly; but, the whole thing is so overstretched that it becomes difficult to sit through the mushiness of it all. It’s understandable that how very frustrating and immensely taxing it is to go through and finally surmount obdurate family resistance to personal choices in marriage; but, the problem is the film overdoes it to an irksome extent.

Having said that, I should also concede 2 States is very real! But the problem lies in the title itself. How can you stereotype and homogenize people of two different states, here Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Are all Punjabi mothers so uncouth and unrefined? Are all Tamils so restrained and solemn? This is the story of two families, not of two states! One loud, garish, aggressive, over-the-top, revelling in excesses; the other, subtle, profound, quiet and minimalist.

2 States set in Delhi, Ahmedabad and Chennai cuts across the Indian nation-state, at least metonymically, playing up the hassles of being in a relationship, faced by post-liberal, urban, heteronormative couples. It uncannily reminds of Hum Apke Hain Kaun and such family dramas that dominated the Bombay film factory in the 1990s, with Hindutva fundamentalism spreading its tentacles in an alarming way. Nothing has really changed in these twenty years. Only that young boys and girls no longer moralise about pre-marital smooches. Or that’s what the film unwittingly projects!

All of this can be seen from a very positive perspective too. One can infinitely sentimentalise about how this film based on the Chetan Bhagat novel of the same title makes an attempt to bridge the differences among several Indias that is geographically contained between Kashmir and Kanyakumari, through love. How realistically it portrays the problems of the modern urban youth, bent on starting a family! How marriages are not so romantic as they seem! But, what needs to be noted is the film’s much too willing subscription to the status quo; it eliminates rebellion against hierarchy as not an option at all, and extols conformity to rules and customs. That way, it takes Bombay Cinema back by a few miles.


The only saving grace in the film is Alia Bhatt. Her effortless performance, her innate vivacity, and her grace keep the film going. Arjun Kapoor is easy on the eye, but needs to undergo speech therapy, it seems. His heavy tongue eats up half the dialogue he delivers with effort! Revathy has been completely wasted. Ronit Roy is re-cast as the tyrannical dad aka his role in Udaan; another typecast! Amrita Singh tries hard to be funny and aggressive at the same time, but does not succeed much. She draws a few laughs from the audience, but such Punjabi mom act has by now become an annoying stereotype in Bombay Cinema.