Mere Husband Ki Biwi movie review: Mere dimaag ki dahi!

This is what you’d call the typical, mid-budget, Delhi-Punjabi, Bollywood picture, including its soundtrack, for the most part. As against a ‘Punjabi’ Punjabi regional, as it were

Mere Husband Ki Biwi
U/A: Romance, comedy
Dir: Mudassar Aziz
Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Rakul Preet Singh, Bhumi Pednekar
Rating: 1/5

Some films simply fail at the level of casting itself, perhaps. Mere Husband Ki Biwi, causing mere dimaag ki dahi (severe headache, eventually) is one of them. 
Which, as usual, has nothing to do with the performers, per se. Just the minor matter of convincingly matching actors with characters, from a certain milieu, probably. 

This is what you’d call the typical, mid-budget, Delhi-Punjabi, Bollywood picture, including its soundtrack, for the most part. As against a ‘Punjabi’ Punjabi regional, as it were. 

That’s to suggest it’s set among the well-to-do Khanna, Chadha, Dhillon, Dewans of the world who, in another generation, would’ve possibly been residents of West Delhi, if you may.

It’s a vibe I often enjoy. Consider pix like Pyaar Ka Punchnama, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, etc. You feel none of that real vibe, even on occasion; let alone the local twang that’s usually much fun, if done right. And that’s the first thing you notice about Mere Husband… 

The second thing you notice is that you’ve stopped noticing everything altogether, after a point. Nothing matters, once the story itself doesn’t. 

That script is fully focused on a Delhi real-estate big-bloke (Arjun Kapoor). On a work trip, he bumps into a woman (Rakul Preet Singh), who used to be the heart-stopper, when they were in high-school together. 

Only, that she doesn’t remember him from Adam, or whatever his namestarting with A, that she gets right on the third try. 

This gives you the impression the protagonist was an average chump in school. Not too much appears to have changed in his later life too; besides the size/shape of his beard. 

The hot woman’s a part-time sky-jumping instructor. She takes him along, up in the air. He’s shit-scared, palpitating, and pukes at the end of the flight. She falls for him, that very moment, letting out a charming laugh. 

That’s how these two fall in love; again, so to say. In the sense the guy’s already divorced. And his ex-wife (Bhumi Pednekar) is still omnipresent in his life. If this set-up thrills you to no end—you’ll go with the ride, all the way, until the end. 

If not, as the case with me—your brain will switch off, and you’ll start to observe the peripherals as with most such pictures, going slowly, steadily downhill, after all. 

For instance, that Shakti Kapoor, who shows up on screen with his catchword “Aaoo” in the background, has graduated to rich-daddy roles. 

But more significantly, did I just spot the yesteryear/’80s lead actor, Anita Raj (Prem Geet, Naukar Biwi Ka) as the mom here? Oh, man, that’s a serious, sweet flashback, alright. Although a quick search tells me she’s been around doing television all along. 

In the natural descent, you can also tell the filmmakers trying to somehow save the day, inserting songs, lame one-liners, emotional scenes, just so you feel suitably occupied. Call it movie-laundering, if you may.

But these are really the usual tropes that have everything to do with what you’ve watched in typical Bollywood movies than life itself.

To begin with, that hero ka dost (Harsh Gujral), you know? He has a long enough role to deserve second billing—with probably more lines than the lead, to a point that you may like him more.

As is customary, his entire existence is centred on the star. In old-world Hindi pictures, hero ka dost has no life of his own. 

And then, of course, the scene must shift to the United Kingdom, where more Hindi movie characters have lived than Indians ever will! This is the land of castles and catchy songs. 

I intend to give the latter a shot. Never know; there’s always a fine number or two, tucked away in such soundtracks, with the potential to grow on you, after a couple of listen-ins.

Also, keep an eye on amnesia or memory-loss from an accident that, touchwood—I’ve never known anybody to have, outside of so many movies! That’s the ex-wife. She’s forgotten all about her divorce, and probably wants her husband back. 

Which brings me to how I may have gone through a short-term memory loss myself, while the movie’s on. Well, it’s wrapping up. And I can’t recall how this had all begun. Okay, I do now. 

It’s to do with the ex-wife, with supposedly psychotic tendencies, who visually haunts her husband in his sleep, or wherever he is. 

That is, including a Delhi strip-club, as it were, where the guy gets visions of his ex-wife, out to screw him over, like an actual ghost, even as he’s with a stripper! In terms of the typical slotting, this picture is supposed to be a ‘love triangle’. 

Yet, such was the level of mental trauma the hero had been going through. That was when the movie started. Whatever happened to that—and where is there even the question of a love-triangle, then? 

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