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.
