How many Hindi films can you name, where a character turns up at the mandap and bellows: “ye shaadi nahi ho sakti”? This time around, it isn’t a disgruntled character but an actual matrimonial site that has raised an objection to a shaadi.
As a result, ‘Running Shaadi’ was forced to drop the “.com” from its title. So every time one of the characters utter the suffix, it is unceremoniously muted out. This got annoying after a while, but this was the least of our troubles, as we would soon find out.
‘Running Shaadi’ manages to end without ever coming to the point.
Ram Bharose, aka Amit Sadh, develops feelings for his employer’s daughter Nimmi, aka Taapsee Pannu. When misunderstandings creep in, and they grow apart, Ram Bharose quits his naukri and comes up with an idea. Along with his friend Cyber, aka Arsh Bajwa, he decides to set up a website to help couples get married “baag ker”.
When parents refuse to understand and caste and religious differences are not taken kindly by the community, the couples have no choice but to run away and get married on the sly. So we see a whole montage of various couples being joined in holy matrimony with the help of ‘Running Shaadi’.
Debutant director Amit Roy has an interesting premise and the film makes an attempt at a plot but soon we are left to fend for ourselves.
After the interval, what could have been an engaging love story between a Punjabi kudi and a shy Bihari migrant sleepwalks in slow-mo to the finish line in an underwhelming and confused fashion.
Amit Sadh and Taapsee Pannu make for an adorable couple but their characters are so badly etched out that one can’t help but feel blah about the whole deal.
The one character I really enjoyed watching was Ram Bharose’s geeky best friend Cyber, played Arsh Bajwa.
Not only do his ease and subtle humour add to the film but he also utters the most poignant line when he asks in a huff: “Bhai tu ker kya raha hai?” Well, that’s a question this reviewer would like to ask as well.
‘Running Shaadi’ gets nothing more than 2 Quints OUT OF 5.
It is absolutely fine if you give this one a miss.
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