Mere Brother Ki Dulhan

Indian Audiences are probably very easy to please. What else could explain the extremely positive reviews that a way below par movie like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan has received since its release. First of all there is the aspect of a story line. Yawn. Everyone knows what is going to happen at the first look of the trailer itself. Boy (Imran Khan) is entrusted to find an ideal wife for his brother (Ali Zafar) who is based in London and has no idea about the concept of being on a rebound. Boy sincerely but unconvincingly goes about the formalities to complete his duties and is aided by his rhyming bum chums Shobhit (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) and Rohit (cannot remember who plays this). After several unsuccessful attempts he finally receives a call that seems to have truck loads of potential thanks to the prospective bride’s father (Kanwaljit Singh) being employed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Turns out that the bride (Katrina Kaif) is an old rebellious college friend from Lady Sriram College (does this institute pay money for in film placement? That would probably explain the 100% cut off they had for admissions this year). With the aid of technology, the bride to be and the groom to be have a chat and voila we have a “middle class” Indian wedding which is nothing short of a BIG FAT INDIAN one!!! Not to mention the obvious – boy and bride to be fall in love and a comedy of errors ensues.

Why would a debutante director, who has only part of his name different from one of his lead actors, dabble with such a predictable plot is beyond me. It is anyways difficult to direct a movie for the first time – so what if you have the experience of being an assistant director for 7 movies prior to this? But it is simply sacrilegious if the audience knows the entire plot and the ending within a 2 minute trailer. To make matters worse Ali Abbas Zafar is not helped with the quality of the script which can be described as stale at best. And wait a minute. That is just the beginning of his woes. He has as part of his cast the nephew of one of the most successful actors in India whose repertoire of expressions can be summed up with the use of just one finger. And the bride to be manages to hold audiences simply because she is super sizzling hot. The elder brother has done his chances of a career no good at all. Disappointing – considering that his first movie (Tere Bin Laden) was such a well made one and his performance was very good to say the least. The rest of the cast is uninspiring as well.

I would consider MBKD to be yet another movie made with the “chalta hai” (anything goes) attitude that has plagued Bollywood since time immemorial. Barring a few light moments, some decent music and leching at Katrina Kaif, there is nothing that would hold you back. The trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1376033817/ and save time and money. 3 on 10 is my verdict. If you still decide to go ahead – my best wishes are always with you.