Hum ‘Manmarziyaan’ Ko Dil De Chuke Sanam

So what’s the Manmarziyaan - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam connect?

With the trailer of Manmarziyaan giving us mild Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam feels, we decided to watch this Anurag Kashyap film and do a tongue-in-cheek comparison with the 1999 hit directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. There might be SPOILERS ahead. So if you haven’t watched the film, watch it and come back, maybe. And for those who have watched Manmarziyaan, here we go.

In Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, we’re shown how Nandini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) and Sameer (Salman Khan) meet and how their secret love blossoms despite the constant presence of her annoying family members. But in Manmarziyaan, we find ourselves directly in the middle of Rumi (Tapsee Pannu) and Vicky’s (Vicky Kaushal) throbbing love story in Amritsar. He’s a blue-haired DJ, she’s a red-haired hockey seller, and their love is no secret.

Rumi and Vicky’s relationship is sexual, intense and full of passion. Compare this to the fact that in HDDCS, Nandini asks Sameer if a kiss will make her pregnant. Okay then. Both these films are clearly at the opposite ends of the ‘sex education’ spectrum. Manmarziyaan has lots of sex (or fyaar, as they call it), while in HDDCS even a potential love-making scene ends in a c**kblock.

Sameer is sent packing by Nandini’s family as they’re against their relationship and she’s married off to Vanraj. No such thing in Manmarziyaan. All Rumi’s parivaar wants is for DJ wale babu to come home with his fam asking for her rishta. But DJ wale babu be like: No famjam, thank you ma’am. He has commitment issues and he don’t need no zimmedaari.

Rumi is obviously annoyed, but she moves on from #MenAreTrash to #NotAllMen and gets married to Robbie (Abhishek Bachchan) because usne ek baar jo commitment kardi toh woh apne aap ki bhi nahin sunti. And then she immediately dons the most important item of the ‘newly married Indian ladki’ starter pack – red-coloured bangles on both hands.

In HDDCS, Vanraj is neither able to make out with his patni nor is he able to make out what’s wrong with her. It’s only later that he learns of her relationship. Robbie’s case is different. He already knows of Rumi-Vicky’s relationship and there’s a certain degree of comfort between Rumi and him.

Robbie is a nice man. How do we know? Because he adds Rumi on Facebook and yet doesn’t flood her profile with ‘Hi deer, luking gud’ comments. Along the way, they even establish pati-patni ka rishta something that Vanraj is deprived of.

We’ll stop here and won’t go beyond this, because that would mean giving away the climax of Manmarziyaan, which we certainly don’t want to. In fact, we want you to go watch the film that boasts of wonderful performances by the leads and has some great music too.

There’s just one more thing you might want to know: While HDDCS ends with a long run, Manmarziyaan ends with a long walk. That’s it. Now go watch the film.