Who would have thought that a film based on a Chetan Bhagat book could be likeable? Especially when one enters the cinema hall having already read the snarky reviews? But the truth is that not only is 2 States surprisingly honest to the original book, it is also a heart-warmingly good movie.
The general perception about Mr Bhagat is that he is not a writer who should be indulged by "people like us". After all, the argument goes, the man, who went to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, is good with numbers and stuff like that. What does he know about literature? Why can he not stick to the possibilities - immense and available to very few, certainly not to anyone among "us" - that come with an IIT-IIM combo? Why hunker down on "our" domain?
The criticism runs something like this: a crucial quality of good writing - its "literary" nature - is studiously missing from Mr Bhagat's books. Sure, there is readability, and a fair bit of plotting, but where is the nuance? Whether it is Five Point Someone (about his IIT days) or The 3 Mistakes of My Life, Mr Bhagat has, perhaps not wrongly, been charged with oversimplification and a predilection for the didactic.
The 2009 movie 3 Idiots was supposedly "inspired" by Five Point Someone, which means nothing since it ended up being so far from the original that there was little to compare. 2 States, on the other hand, is indeed a Chetan Bhagat "movie", ramming home this point in a meta sort of way, so that the protagonist, Krish Malhotra, who harbours writerly ambitions, finishes an eponymous novel by the movie's end. And none of the movie is genre, or entertainment, or crassly commercial, or any other pejorative term that is reserved for works of a certain type.
There is nothing syrupy about the film, despite the fact that it is a Dharma production. A man slaps his father to avenge his long years of suffering. A woman emotionally blackmails her son out of a perfectly reasonable alliance. Battles of the heart end in tragedy, almost, before things return to normal. At several points during the screening, I had to rub my eyes to confirm this was not an Imtiaz Ali film I was watching.
In their denunciation of the movie, critics have mostly drawn attention to the stereotyping of the Punjabi-Tamil communities. Yes, there is a fair bit of that, such as the north Indian tendency (I find this an anachronism) of addressing all south Indians as Madrasis. There are some avoidable jokes like that, yes. But the crux of the story, which might seem like stereotyping the Punjabis, is not half out of place. As someone members of whose close family have married into that boisterous community, I can vouch for the dark underbelly of dowries and ostentation that the film painstakingly portrays.
After their recent successes, both Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt continue to show that they are actors to watch out for. Alia Bhatt, in particular, has grown with each of her three films. Highway was deep and difficult, and here she is gutsy and confident. Arjun Kapoor brings an honesty to his role - especially when things are not going according to plan - that is a first for him. Their characters share an easy chemistry that flows smoothly from their meeting on the IIM, Ahmedabad, campus (perhaps the weakest link in the film, what with Bollywood unable to make sense of anything as serious as that) to their courtship, which is followed by the pain of their brief separation.
Much has been written about Revathi and Amrita Singh, consummate actors who hold their own in a film that directly pits them against one another. But the real surprise of the movie is Ronit Roy in a brief appearance as Krish's father. Reprising his role as the tough-as-nails father from Udaan, Mr Roy brings a welcome gravitas to his drinking wastrel character.
Besides, the movie is also another feather in Karan Johar's cap. Long derided for championing the mushy brand of cinema popularised by the Suraj Barjatya and Yashraj schools of film-making, the director has shown admirable courage in picking offbeat themes of late. His segment in last year's Bombay Talkies dealt with a closeted homosexual. Hasee Toh Phasee, which came out this year from his production house, focused attention on a pill-popping (female) materials engineer. Mr Johar himself is playing the villain in Anurag Kashyap's upcoming Bombay Velvet.
Who would have thought that a Chetan Bhagat book could augur a move away from candyfloss?
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