Movie Review: 'Shaadi ke side effects'

Sid (Farhan Akhtar) and Trisha (Vidya Balan) try to cover almost all the possible angles of disputes, bargains, expectations, finesse, and romance a couple goes through mainly in the initial few years of marriage. They apply various formulas to cope with changes and continue a happily married life but everything bombs out. Even though the side effects of marriage strike both the partners, the story is shown particularly from Sid’s view.

Farhan and Vidya stick to their acting abilities and fit the bill conveniently. Ram Kapoor is fun to watch as Trisha’s brother-in-law. Ila Arun does well in her role of a bumptious caretaker but frankly her role is one of the avoidable or editable pieces of the second half. Vir Das as Farhan’s cool bro grabs attention with his firm grip on comedy. Oh yes, there is also Purab Kohli in the movie who seems to have come straight after the shooting of Nescafe’s new ad and hasn’t forgotten his character of a dying-to-meet neighbour eyeing up the girl next door. He has been given the same role with the same duration.

Couple of instances really snatch the laughs out of you, like the one in which after confirming her pregnancy when Trisha asks Sid of his opinion whether to keep the baby or not, Sid answers, “Tumhari body hai, tum decide karo”. The other ones include - Sid’s cutting the Donald Duck cake on his birthday by slicing the Duck’s neck; the desperate attempts made by Sid to understand whether his daughter feels cold, hot, or hungry. There is a hilarious scene wherein Sid’s friends come over to his place to watch a football match together but they have to keep calm, can’t cheer, and mute the volume because it’s Trisha’s order to Sid to follow instructions for keeping their baby asleep! Ram Kapoor bags some of the really side-splitting moments specially while ordering his son in various foreign languages.

Overall, the movie is a visual and musical Wedlock Manual showing dos and don’ts for keeping the married life alive and kicking. The best part of the movie is its first half, filled with contextual one liners and a hotfooting script. After the interval, side effects of marriage and the movie kick in beyond a limit so much that they not only fracture the pace of the movie but also put the patience to test. The topping of emotions simply doesn’t go very well with the fine base of comedy when Sid suffers, understands, becomes wise, and preaches that there are no formulas for a happy marriage; only staying truthful works. I give three stars to the movie - two and a half for the pre-interval fun, and the rest half for the dedicated acting.