“Every woman’s body is like a treasure locked up in a cave…”
“Yeah, and it only opens when somebody says ‘khulja sim sim’… I know the story.”
“No no, beta. It should only open on the wedding night. And it’s for Ali Baba alone, not the 40 thieves.”
“What’s the point when Ali Baba himself isn’t able to open the cave?”
RS Prasanna’s Shubh Mangal Saavdhan is the latest Hindi film to touch upon the topic-that-must-not-be-named… sex. The trailer gives viewers a glimpse of a soon-to-be married couple’s lives and erectile dysfunction that plays havoc with their pre- and post-nuptial plans.
Their story — Mudit Sharma (Ayushmann Khurrana) and Sugandha (Bhumi Pednekar) — begins like any other Hindi film: Harmless stalking and then the girl falls for the man. Except here, she doesn’t give in to his charms that easily. “It’s neither a yes. Nor a no,” she says, revealing that Sugandha is no ordinary subservient girl falling for the man so soon.
Mudit, who works in sales, isn’t your everyday stalker-boy either. “Sharma hoon main. Gurgaon se (I am Sharma from Gurgaon),” he says, timidly. The trailer starts with Mudit talking about how he couldn’t “get it up” while indulging in some pre-marital activities before the actual consummation. Popular face from AIB — Gopal Datt — plays the sex therapist intently listening to Mudit’s woes. If you are familiar with Datt’s acting, it’s perfectly alright to assume he’s playing a funny character what with his wry sense of dialogue delivery and humour.
Making excuses to avoid sex to realising that he might have a serious problem, Mudit and Sugandha decide to storm it through. Their families, however, aren’t too thrilled about this.
“Listen, if you don’t bloody fix your ‘little’ problem, then you can forget this marriage,” taunts the girl’s father, adding to Mudit’s woes. There’s drama and tears, but also some laughs. Prasanna’s Hindi remake of his 2013 film — Kalyana Samayal Saadham (starring Lekha Washington and Prasanna) — appears to be a slice-of-life comedy drama that focuses on the oft hush-hush subject of pre-marital sex, a woman actually craving sex, and erectile dysfunction.
Much like the theme of his film, the in an interview with The Indian Express highlighted that India should be talking more about sex but chooses not to. Because… sex.
“The germ of this concept came when I got married. I was about to get married to my girlfriend of four years. Just a day before our wedding, suddenly my uncles, aunts and everybody who I respected and hid adult stuff from, they all started coming to me and starting talking about adult stuff. I remember my uncles, aunties saying that now you will have a lot of scented candles. So, that was the germ of the idea that in India, we do talk about sex and we have lot of sex. We just don’t talk about it, that’s all,” he said.
And like one of the character says, it happens to every man and is nothing to be ashamed of.
Actors: Ayushmann Khurrana & Bhumi Pednekar
Director: R.S. Prasanna
Producers: Krishika Lulla & Aanand L Rai
Music & Lyrics: Tanishk-Vayu