Pati, Patni Aur Woh- Trailer Review

Another Bollywood film and another token small town in India and some same old tropes. That is how I felt when the trailer began. But then I also felt slightly nostalgic and somewhat proud since my family to hails from a quaint railway town located in northern Bihar. It actually felt like we have finally arrived. I have spent most of my academic life in a big city but the small towner in me refuses to let go. As a Bengali-Bihari my stubborn idiosyncrasies are still there, no wonder Swara Bhaskar calls us tetthar. Well, coming back to the trailer it has created both buzz and controversy. That as you know is the perfect recipe for success these days.

It is mostly a rehash of old-school Bolly romances, somewhat like a repackaged 90s film(a masala potboiler). The titular characters do sound authentic to the milieu but are also one-note. The trailer as I mentioned earlier is not something mint-fresh, we have been there, seen that not once but multiple times. The scenes and dialogues gravitate towards a tone-deaf treatment and sometimes you might find them offensive. It’s a-typical(pun intended) of a Kartik Aryan film where he persistently rants about trivial woes of being a man.

The small-town setting feels a little forced. I am saying this because the frames look glossy and are conveniently overloaded with bubblegum colours. That actually looks tacky and not trendy as it fails to bring out the rustic texture of a small town. Also, Kartik Aryan as a middle-aged man looks terribly out-of-place and totally unbelievable. By merely putting a moustache on the hero you are doing no justice in portraying his age or habitat. For me, that is the laziest makeup hack and also the laziest trope one could incorporate.

The story has been revisited several times in the past and I really wonder whether it needed a 21st-century spin. The breezy comical tone is fine and is probably the only thing that seems to have hit the right notes. I would have loved to see these characters be a little complex and etched out better. My expectations were crushed a little since I like the director’s previous works. But I haven’t seen the film yet and maybe it will surpass my expectations and it also stars the incredibly talented Bhumi Pednekar who is trying comedy for the first time. All in all, I will drive to the cinema hall even though the trailer doesn’t really drive me.