Hyderabad Blues 2: Rearranged Marriage

Marriages are made in heaven, so proclaimed Hyderabad Blues. Six years later it's not really happily ever after. In Hyderabad Blues 2, marriages are presented in such a banal and claustrophobic light that any self-respecting single would be put off from even remotely considering tying the knot. Surely matrimony can't be so insipid, or is it?

So we meet Varun and Ashwini (Nagesh and Jyoti) again, this time at that sensitive moment of their conjugal life when Ashwini wants to hasten the process of procreation, what with her biological clock ticking away. But Varun insists that the two are good together, no more, no less. Wonder if it wouldn't have made for a more interesting film if the woman had put her foot down against having a child, something a lot of career-conscious women are doing these days? But such unsolicited suggestions apart, the film doesn't work because it's way too facile. Why and how the marriage fails never seems to develop naturally within the narrative, the events seem too pat, the motivations are never well established and no effort is made to dwell on the dilemmas and turmoil. Ashwini divorces Varun hastily and then decides to remarry in as much hurry. Not only is she fickle but a crashing bore in her self-righteousness. Is it okay to divorce your husband because he "thought" of an extra-marital affair with his office manager, Menaka (Tisca), that too, for a nanosecond? Despite all those feminist bones you end up sympathising with Varun—poor chap, after all he didn't do it!

The film starts off with a few corny lines. Like the motto of the IMF (Instant Marriage Fixation) bureau: "We don't get paid unless you get laid." The Viagra-championing grandmom is a nice touch. But somewhere along the way, the film becomes a joke. It's also a film in search of characters, all it has are caricatures, save Varun's friend Sanjeev and wife Seema (a likeable Vikram Inamdar and Elahe Hiptoola). It only helps then that the various parts are played by some wonderfully expressionless faces, including the histrionically challanged director.

Other quibbles: The scene between Ashwini and the gay Dr Nath. So sloppy that you don't know whether to laugh or cry! Why have it considering it does nothing to the story? And a thirtysomething hero who wears T-shirts splashed with silly jokes and forced humour. Very uncool!

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Courtesy: Film Information