A half-baked film that fails to land on its feet

Nonika Singh

Coming from the production house of a heroine who gave us two delightful films with similar names, one would expect a lot from ‘Tiku Weds Sheru’. Of course, Kangana Ranaut-starrer ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ and its sequel were not produced by her. However, now as she turns a producer, her maiden film lacks both fizz and substance.

Perhaps, the intentions were not bad. The basic premise of how dreams are born and dashed in dream city Bombay isn’t either. But this isn’t a new thesis. We have seen dreams of those with stars in their eyes crumble in film after film. In ‘Tiku Weds Sheru’, we meet Nawazuddin Siddiqui working as an extra (call him junior artist, if you wish) who does not get to utter a single line on screen. He makes up by being bombastic in real life and spewing poetry. For a while, we play along as Nawazuddin Siddiqui, as the quirky Sheru Khan Afghani, plays to his strengths and delivers a few one-liners with aplomb. His burning desire to make his own film lands him in debt till a ray of sunshine, a match from Bhopal, beckons.

Before you wonder about the ifs and buts as to why a girl (Avneet Kaur as Tasleem ‘Tiku’ Khan), much younger than him, and beautiful at that, is ready to marry him, well, clearly she has her own motives. The film is regressive and progressive in equal measure. In the same breath, it talks of dowry, shows a brother bashing up his sister, and then depicts an incredibly supportive husband, ready to look past his wife’s pre-marital transgression. Of course, the heroine Tiku, like Tanu, is a spitfire and a runaway bride of sorts. But can Avneet Kaur better Kangana’s Tanu act, or even come close to her? Clearly not, though she, with an array of roles behind her, is fairly at ease in her debut as lead actor.

As for the gifted actor Nawazuddin, who keeps telling us, ‘Whatever I do, I do with shiddat,’ he can be expected to pull off any part, only if the role would measure up to his talent. Who would have thought that the ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ star, who has impressed us time and again with his searing intensity as well as comic timing, would one day be singing and dancing in a film? But here he is, shaking a leg without missing a beat, even though his is not a conventional lover-boy part. Playing a husband to a wife who clearly doesn’t want him, he is not exactly a romantic hero. Rather, he is the quintessential good guy who accepts all her flaws, including an ex-boyfriend. He is ready to go to any extent to please her. Why when she tells him how she hates poverty, he even crosses the line of law to appease her. The seamier side of the glamour world has been depicted in films earlier too and director writer Sai Kabir once again shows it through the eyes of two aspirants who want to make a mark in filmdom. But as we move past their romance into the sordid lanes of glamour and glitz, it doesn’t add up, nor do Nawaz and Avneet as a couple, despite doing well in individual roles. Not only is the age difference jarring, but a lot else in the script too.

A mismatched couple could be sure-fire ground for comedy, but here it comes rather sporadically and does nothing to up your engagement quotient. Kabir, who is also the co-writer, tries to add some gravitas with lines like ‘Mera dil hai kaanch ka tukda, tu chalna na nange paaon’, but ends up creating a half-baked film that fails to land on its feet. After laying the cards on the table, Kabir clearly doesn’t know where he or the film should be headed. A bizarre climax where Nawaz appears as a cross-dresser only adds to the confusion. Mercifully, the anti-climax is not as clichéd but by then, one’s interest in the film has waned.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, you can easily skip it. Sad, for that’s a very rare summation of a Nawazuddin film. Sorry Nawaz, but ‘it’s a fact’, this one doesn’t pass muster. Make a better choice next time, you and we deserve it.