Raja Sen in Mumbai
Bollywood can't get enough of brides. And grooms. And in-laws. And sangeet-worthy item songs. And moments of tradition. And pet dogs saving the day.
It's always wedding season in our movies, and with Mere Brother Ki Dulhan coming up this week, we present to you 10 very, very different films about shaadis -- so you, dear reader, can choose your favourite kind and vote at the end of this slide show.
Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge
Sure, the first half of Aditya Chopra's nineties-defining romance shows us Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol gallivanting across Europe, but post-Interval the film is grounded in shaadi territory, with wedding preparations as the backdrop to a man defiantly wanting to win his potential in-laws over instead of bolting with the bride.
Hum Aapke Hain...Koun!
Just before DDLJ came this Sooraj Barjatya film that, during and after its epic theatrical run, forever changed the way weddings took place in North India.
The film looked at two families in extreme close up and showed us their entire wedding process, like a ghee-soaked but great documentary. And shaadis were never the same again.
The film looked at two families in extreme close up and showed us their entire wedding process, like a ghee-soaked but great documentary. And shaadis were never the same again.
Band Baaja Baaraat
Thinking of movies about shaadis brings us automatically to mind of last year's Maneesh Sharma hit. This very well-written romantic comedy featuring an unlikely but very compatible pair -- Anushka Sharma and Ranveer Singh -- made forays into the increasingly lucrative wedding planning market.
Top performances and lots of weddings make this a shaadi film to love.
Top performances and lots of weddings make this a shaadi film to love.
Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin
Mahesh Bhatt's affectionate ripoff of Frank Capra's It Happened One Night makes it to this list because it's a highly enjoyable film about a girl (Pooja Bhatt) running away to marry the filmstar of her dreams, and ends memorably with that girl fleeing said wedding as her father (Anupam Kher) gleefully cheers her escape on.
Saathiya
In Shaad Ali's warm debut feature, Vivek Oberoi and Rani Mukerji play young Mumbai lovers who, when assured of their love, get married on the sly, keep things a secret and then defy their objecting families to get married and live together.
Which is where most such films end, but this one just starts getting into its stride.
Which is where most such films end, but this one just starts getting into its stride.
Woh Saat Din
The film opens with a wedding, minutes before the bride, played by Padmini Kolhapuri, tries to kill herself the very same night.
The husband, Naseeruddin Shah, discovers that the wife was forced into marrying him, and that she used to love Prem, played by Anil Kapoor.
Shah hunts for Kapoor to reunite his wife with her love, but eventually -- in a template echoed faithfully in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam years later -- she stays by her husband's side.
The husband, Naseeruddin Shah, discovers that the wife was forced into marrying him, and that she used to love Prem, played by Anil Kapoor.
Shah hunts for Kapoor to reunite his wife with her love, but eventually -- in a template echoed faithfully in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam years later -- she stays by her husband's side.
Khubsoorat
Boasting of Rekha's most spirited performance, Hrishikesh Mukherjee's comic drama features a dictatorial woman presiding over a family, with one of her sons marrying a girl named Anju while her family and all of us in the audience fall for the character of her younger sister, Manju, played by Rekha.
A fun romp about shaadis and saalis.
A fun romp about shaadis and saalis.
Silsila
Yash Chopra's classic film about marriage and infidelity might be known for its casting coup, getting Amitabh Bachchan, wife Jaya and rumoured girlfriend Rekha in the same film, but Silsila is also a very well-crafted and mature story about relationships and compulsions, before that abrupt ending where everyone conveniently goes back to their married lives.
Monsoon Wedding
Mira Nair's film was a close-up of a Delhi wedding as well, but in a way that would scare the Barjatyas silly.
There was much incest, behind-the-scenes familial politicking, random sexual trysts and a whole lotta things going on, but the spotlight was on the wedding planner, Dubey (a brilliant Vijay Raaz) and his predilection for both maids and marigolds.
There was much incest, behind-the-scenes familial politicking, random sexual trysts and a whole lotta things going on, but the spotlight was on the wedding planner, Dubey (a brilliant Vijay Raaz) and his predilection for both maids and marigolds.
Hyderabad Blues
Ah. Now this was arranged marriage, as seen through the eyes of the hapless men and women finding themselves as mere pawns in a great big familial roleplay scenario.
Nagesh Kukunoor's sparklingly honest debut gave us the director himself as a protagonist an entire generation could completely relate to.
Nagesh Kukunoor's sparklingly honest debut gave us the director himself as a protagonist an entire generation could completely relate to.
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