The Veeres Apart, Sumeet Vyas and Shikha Talsania Have Arrived

You can blink, but not miss these ‘Veere Di Wedding’ actors.

Veere Di Wedding is one of those movies that sits on its haunches, peers into your eyes, and then waves a banner of its top selling points at you.

What are these top selling points?

There are four conventionally good-looking women in the lead, and for the most part, they are up to not-so-conventional things. The kind of things that hold shock value over all else. There is a heady mix of stark quirks that will catch anyone’s attention.

Now, does the ‘bhola-bhala’ boy next door stand a chance, given the ‘show-stealers’ in the movie?

Yes, he does, if it is Sumeet Vyas.

Effortless, honest, and disarming, Vyas manages to keep it as real as possible. He is a breath of fresh air amidst manicured laughter and overtly expensive clothes and gadgets.

I don’t know if it is too soon to ask if all of Vyas’ characters demanded the well-balanced, sensible vibe that he seems to have patented or if it is just him. Either way, I am not complaining.

Vyas plays Kalindi’s (Kareena Kapoor) fiancé in the movie and doesn’t let Queen K steal any of his thunder. You remain hooked, hoping to see more of him, and less of ‘West Delhi-South Delhi’ class wars.

At times, his character, Rishabh, seems too good to be real. Free of humane flaws. He takes his fiancé’s rejection surprisingly well, calmly, and maturely. Without so much as snapping. He empathises with her and welcomes her with open arms when she approaches him at the end, the wedding ring in tow.

Rishabh Malhotra is the warm-hearted, good-natured man you feel happy around and Sumeet Vyas, the actor, manages to mask anything in him that makes him look any less.

Along with Sumeet, there are two other brilliant performances worth remembering.
Shikha Talsania (who plays Meera Sood) and Vivek Mushran (who plays Cookie chacha) share the stage with the bigwigs, but they do not get overshadowed for even a second.

Talsania exudes a calm that catches you off guard. Shikha looks like she’s been at this for years. She is neither in a hurry to prove anything, nor attempts to force-feed audiences with her lines. Her character, Meera, stays away from her family mostly, estranged and resentful. Talsania nurses Meera’s wounds with a tenderness and maturity one rarely sees on screen.

Cookie chacha is a fair mixture of vices and virtues, endearingly brought to life by Mushran. Except perhaps when he’s made to deliver lines like, “CR Park wali sl*t’’. For the most part, however, his presence makes you forget that there isn’t much of him in the movie.

Sumeet Vyas, Shikha Talsania, and Vivek Mushran might not be remembered as Rishabh, Meera and Cookie, but they shall be remembered as the actors who breathed life into them.