Review: Even if You’ve Never Watched ‘Wild Wild Punjab’, You Already Have

Even as I watched Wild Wild Punjab for the first time, I couldn’t help but think, “I’ve already watched this,” and not because it’s not a novel concept. Every scene (barring maybe a handful) feels like something you’ve actually already watched before. Wild Wild Punjab is directed by Simarpreet Singh with a story by Luv Ranjan and a screenplay by Harman Wadala and Sandeep Jain.

A heartbroken Rajesh Khanna (Varun Sharma) is on his way to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding to tell her, “I’m over you!” Since this is a ‘buddy comedy’, he is naturally not on a solo journey – Rajesh is joined by Maan Arora (Sunny Singh), Gaurav Jain (Jassie Gill), and Honey (Manjot Singh).

The film’s setting is obvious from its title and the character introductions give you some hope – perhaps the film is taking a look at issues that might plague these men and giving it a light-hearted twist.

Maybe this is Udta Punjab meets Fukrey. But hope is perhaps the critic’s biggest enemy. Satire is a far stretch from what the film turns these themes into. There’s misogyny, gun violence, and drug peddlers on a rampage and none of it gets the smart writing it deserves – for instance, conversations about dowry end with an accidental marriage and that’s about it.

The film isn’t bothered about real world consequences of anything. But even that isn’t a huge problem in the right film – look at films Go Goa Gone or Madgaon Express. A movie, especially a buddy comedy, doesn’t necessarily have to rely on any logic; gimmicks work but they must be well-crafted.

There’s an example in this very film – a sequence where an illegal arms dealer, unbeknownst to him, teaches his opponents how to fire a gun at him is downright hilarious. There are a few more set pieces here and there that still justify the film labeling itself a comedy but when we still end up at a veterinary hospital to treat a human being, the glaring faults become obvious again.

Even as the gang continues to take unplanned detours and meet new characters – primarily Radha (Patralekhaa) and Meera (Ishita Raj). Radha is the quintessential ‘good girl’ whose ‘true colours’ emerge when she’s inebriated and Meera is the ‘cool, brash, biker girl’ who beats men up because they owe her money and vapes because…well what else is her archetype supposed to do?

But hey! You have to give them credit - she could've been smoking! Necessity is truly the mother of invention and the necessity here is to change one tiny detail in the stereotype so that all the other 'cool girl' characters from cinema don't sue Meera for identity theft.

It also becomes pretty obvious early on that a female character is named Vaishali purely so everyone can keep “accidentally” calling her a ‘veshya’. Did I mention the story is by Luv Ranjan?

And naturally, who is enamored by Meera’s personality? The ‘playboy’ Arora who calls women ‘stretchable’ and has only been waiting for the right girl to mend his ways. Arora’s only saving grace is that he’s played by Sunny Singh with just the right mix of exaggeration and comic timing. The other performers worth watching are Patralekhaa and Sunny Singh (who finally gets a well-deserved lead spot in the wrong film).

While Raj has barely any character depth to explore, Gill is underutilised. The latter two just sort of loiter around the film mindlessly as I imagine I would’ve if I’d watched this film in a theatre.

Varun Sharma plays an extension of himself and somehow an extension of most of his other characters – I’d rather just watch Fukrey again. The actor clearly has comedic timing but even the best comic can’t make the same joke work with the same audience multiple times. When you know the punch line and the set-up, the joke isn’t a ‘joke’ anymore.

A buddy comedy is refreshing in today’s cinema landscape – we need to sometimes just sit back and laugh but the laughs are too few and far between to make enough of an impact. Maybe we need to look these kinds of buddy comedies in the eye and say, “I’m over you.”

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