Veere Di Wedding


Veere Di Wedding is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language buddy comedy film, directed by Shashanka Ghosh and co-produced by Rhea Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor and Nikhil Dwivedi. It stars Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania in lead roles, as four friends attending a wedding with Neena Gupta in a supporting role.
Veere Di Wedding released theatrically on 1 June 2018 and received mixed reviews, but with praise for the chemistry and performances of the cast. Made on a budget of, the film earned over worldwide to emerge as a hotly debated Hindi film featuring female leads. It received three Nominations at 64th Filmfare Awards including Best Supporting Actress for Talsania and Bhaskar.
A Prequel, Veere Di Wedding 2, is currently on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plot

The story revolves around four best friends, Kalindi, Avni, Sakshi, and Meera, who stay friends from high school through adulthood. The friends are living their own lives in different places when they reunite for Kalindi's wedding.
Kalindi has been living with her boyfriend, Rishabh for two years in Australia. When he proposes to her, she is shocked. Coming from a broken home, Kalindi is averse to the idea of marriage. Her parents used to fight a lot and her father Kishan remarried soon after her mother Ritu died. Nevertheless, Kalindi agrees for Rishabh's happiness. Avni is a blossoming divorce lawyer in Delhi and her mother is on ever lookout for suitable groom for her. Sakshi is living with her parents after moving out of her NRI husband's London home due to frequent fights. She is taunted by upscale aunties for overstaying at her parents' place. She gets upset at the taunts she has to hear from neighbours for going to clubs. Meera lives in America, having married an American, John, with whom she has a son named Kabir after her father. She is estranged from her father, fondly called 'bade papa' because of her marriage to John, and though she misses him, she refuses to get in touch until he accepts John.
When Kalindi travels to Delhi to get married, she is overwhelmed by Rishabh's over affectionate family and their customary involvement in the wedding. They were making it a huge event to "maintain face" in the society. While in Delhi, Kalindi lives with her gay Kuki uncle and his partner rather than Kishan, and reunites with her friends. Avni, on the insistence of her mother, meets a few prospective grooms. Kishan and his current wife Paromita offer to help Kalindi in her wedding but she is reluctant. She is disturbed by the ceremonial demands of Rishabh's family and her own aversion to marriage, resulting in anxiety. During her engagement, Rishabh comments about her not having a proper family, which infuriates her and she leaves the gathering. Avni gets drunk to forget the fact that her prospective groom rejected her and ends up sleeping with Rishabh's cousin Bhandari. Meera gets drunk and Sakshi leaves the party midway because of the taunts of 'aunties'.
The next morning, Avni, Sakshi and Meera find Kalindi in her old home, which is a bone of contention between Kishan and Kuki. Rishabh apologizes to Kalindi and they patch up. However, she explains that she cannot fulfill his family's expectations of her and they mutually break up the engagement. Her friends, however, are not supportive of this decision, and try to reason with her, explaining that Rishabh is a good man and she shouldn't run away from marriage due to issues over his family. Kalindi stubbornly points out each of her friend's flaws instead, resulting in everyone getting into an argument and leaving.
Sometime later, Sakshi, believing they have become too overwhelmed with life's troubles, buys her friends a vacation to Thailand. They reconnect and come clean about their respective issues: Kalindi about her commitment issues stemming from her dysfunctional family, Avni about wanting to marry the right guy and sleeping with Bhandari, and Sakshi about why her husband wants to divorce her. Sakshi and her husband were always fighting after marriage. One day, he walked on her masturbating; appalled, he decided to divorce her. Sakshi is embarrassed to tell her parents the truth about the divorce. Meera explains that she and John haven't had sex in a year after the birth of her son. Everyone decides to go back and face their problems. Sakshi tells her parents the truth and to her surprise, they are very supportive. John comes to India. He and Meera get intimate. Avni tells her mother about her reluctance to settle for an arranged marriage. Kalindi finds that Rishabh's father has been arrested for bank fraud as he failed to pay back the loan he took for Rishabh's marriage. Avni arranges for his bail.
Kalindi's friends pressurize Kuki uncle to resolve his four-year feud with Kishan for Kalindi's happiness; they talk and resolve, this improves the relations between Kishan and Kalindi. The brothers transfer the family house to Kalindi as their gift. She proposes to Rishabh and they decide to marry but in a simple and stylish way.
On wedding day held in her renovated home, Kalindi wears her mother's old wedding gown and the ceremony is a small intimate affair with fewer guests. John calls Meera's father Kabir Singh and tells them about his grandson. He comes to the wedding and plays with his grandson Kabir. Sakshi breaks the news of her divorce settlement to 'aunties'. Avni decides to give Bhandari a chance, as he is smitten with her.
The film ends with everyone dancing at Kalindi and Rishabh's wedding reception.

Cast

Development

In December 2015, Sonam Kapoor indicated that she would be working on a project with her sister Rhea Kapoor. The project was officially announced in June 2016.
The project was delayed due to Kareena Kapoor's pregnancy. Principal photography began in September 2017. The movie was shot in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangkok.
Swara Bhaskar, Kareena Kapoor and Shikha Talsania agreed to act in the film. Pakistani actor Danish Taimoor was initially cast as Rishabh opposite Kareena Kapoor with dates finalised for filming; however delays due to Kapoor's pregnancy and rising tensions between India and Pakistan caused him to pull out of the film. Sumeet Vyas replaced him.
The project underwent three major schedules in Delhi, Mumbai and Phuket.
The trailer was released on April 25. The first song from the movie, Tareefan, was released on May 2.

Legal issues

Another Hindi film with a similar title Veerey Ki Wedding, starring Pulkit Samrat, Kriti Kharbanda and Jimmy Shergill appeared while the movie was in production. Legal action brought by father-daughter duo Anil Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor to challenge the use of such a similar name was unsuccessful.
The film was banned in Pakistan and Kuwait for its explicit language and sexuality. When asked about the ban in Pakistan, Swara Bhaskar responded that it's evident that it would be banned in a non-secular nation states run by Sharia Law, like Pakistan and further elaborated that the people of Pakistan would in fact watch the movie citing tweets from them.

2019 India General Election and Swara Bhasker's masturbation scene

lashed out at trolls who brought up her masturbation scene from Veere Di Wedding, as part of election placards during the fourth phase of 2019 Indian general election.

Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by Shashwat Sachdev, Vishal Mishra and White Noise while the lyrics are penned by Anvita Dutt Guptan, Raj Shekhar, Qaran, Rupin Pahwa, White Noise, Shashwat Sachdev, Badshah, Shellee and Gaurav Solanki. The first song of the film, Tareefan which is sung by Badshah was released on 2 May 2018. The soundtrack was released by Zee Music Company on 8 May 2018.

Reception

Box office

Veere Di Wedding had net earnings of 10.70 crore on its first day in India, setting the record for the highest opening day collection for a Hindi film with female protagonist.

Critical response

Several critics noted the film's similarities to the television series Sex and the City.
Comparisons were also drawn with the comedy Bridesmaids, Bachelorette and the Indian television miniseries The Trip. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Veere Di Wedding has an approval score of 55% on the basis of 11 reviews.

India

Rachit Gupta of The Times of India gave the film a 1.5 rating, calling it a “weak effort.” He criticized the concept of the film, the performances and the chemistry between the leads, and the pace and felt that the story lacked depth. A reviewer for Bollywood Hungama giving a similar rating and review to the film commented that “Veere Di Wedding rests on a great idea and interesting characters. But it doesn’t translate into a fully entertaining fare. It’s the direction that plays spoilsport.” Sweta Kaushal of Hindustan Times gave the film 2/5 stars and said it “tries to subvert the male dominant stereotype but these moments are so few and far between that you almost miss the point.”
Devesh Sharma of Filmfare rated it 1.5 and opined that the film's greatest drawback was the weak chemistry between the leads and the poor acting: “that beneath all the cuss words and the sex jokes you get a whiff of laziness.” Alludingly, Chaya Unnakrishnan felt that the chemistry between the leads seemed forced at times. She rated the film 1 stars and insisted that it should not be watched as one that dealt with women empowerment. Raja Sen, in a 3.5/5 rating, noted that the film “lands several blows to the patriarchy while never giving up its masala entertainer roots.”
Saibal Chatterjee, also from NDTV, however, was critical of the screenplay and the predictability of the plot, and wrote that it was watchable “because of the lively performances from the four actresses.” He gave the film 1 stars. Rajeev Masand, writing for CNN-News18, criticized the film along the same lines, and added that it was “largely contrived and forgettable." On the other hand, Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express rated the film 3 and in a positive review, remarked that it “squeezes past its creaky tropes and partial squelchiness by some smart casting choices, and perky performances.”
Rohit Bhatnagar of Deccan Chronicle rated the film 1.5 stars and thought that it was “an boring, annoying, can be skipped watch.” Meanwhile, Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror concluded that “while this one works as a breezy film on girl bonding, it gets a bit tedious while taking a stab at patriarchy” and stated “it almost seems like old wine in a new bottle.” He gave the film 3 stars. Writing for Firstpost, Anna M.M. Vetticad described Veere Di Wedding as “an unapologetic commentary on the lives of women”; Pradeep Menon in a less favorable review largely credited Kapoor Khan for “effortlessly anchor this flawed but fun film.” Baradwaj Rangan, in a mixed review, called Veere Di Wedding “a plasticky but passable entertainer whose existence may not be the worst thing in the world.”

Overseas

Saeed Saeed of The National awarded the film 1 stars out of 5 and described it as “a boring, feisty and slightly ribald comedy but with a weak heart lurking not far beneath.” Manjusha Radhakrishnan of Gulf News rated the film 1 stars. She was appreciative of Swara Bhaskar's performance and remarked that “Veere Di Wedding will go down as a toxic film that hurts the eye.” Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Reuters negatively stated “In terms of humor, “Veere Di Wedding” works well, but it stutters when it comes to the emotional conflicts, which feel unreal, boring and contrived.”
A particular scene in which Bhasker's character masturbates using a sex toy received a polarized response on social media. However, it was critically praised for its realistic portrayal of female sexuality.
Overseas, audiences found the film lacking content and particularly commented on Sonam Kapoor's poor acting and non committed screen presence as the reason for dislike. It felt like a banter of women who took the film like a vacation and gave the audiences a weak display of Indian cinema. Multiple people commented mentioning that the box offices numbers were inaccurate and the real reception was far worse than projected.

Awards and nominations