A movie with four female protagonists seems very feminist on the offset, but this isn’t the case with “Veere Di Wedding”, starting Swara Bhasker, Shikha Talsania, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, and Kareena Kapoor Khan in title roles. The movie intended to be a commercial success eventually embraced the only thing that could salvage it despite having an all-female cast – making it all about men. The movie isn’t about these four characters and their lives; it’s about the men in their lives and only about that. Every conversation, every plot-point, every backstory, is associated with men these women either date, marry or have sex with. They do not own the movie, these men do. A movie about four women, women said to be independent, empowered, and strong, yet their lives revolve around men. Sonam Kapoor, a passionate lawyer who seems rather good at her job only aspires to be someone’s wife and mother, her career is pushed to the background, and her storyline revolves exclusively around her attempt to find a groom. What Kareena Kapoor does for a living isn’t even mentioned, she lives in Australia, and that’s all we know about her. Shikha Talsania is probably a housewife living with her American husband and the child she had with him; her family has disowned her for the wedding. Swara Bhasker is a woman with wealthy parents, who is going through a divorce. Surprisingly – or maybe, rather unsurprisingly for Bollywood – the movie does not feature one conversation between the women that isn’t about men or marriage. This isn’t a tale of friendship or life, this is a tale about four women and their men and only their men, as though, that’s all there is to their lives. The movie, also, like most Bollywood movies, resorts to tired stereotypes, especially about gay men. The usual gay stereotypes that Bollywood promotes were present throughout the film, a gay man who uses excessive hand gestures, nods a little too much, is passionate about female fashion, and has a ridiculously exaggerated accent. With every movie, we constantly push the idea of men who identify as gay ‘behaving gay’ or ‘looking gay’ or having ‘gay personalities’. Gay men in Hindi movies are loud, feminine, detached from reality, a stereotype we blatantly and carelessly promote, without once considering its implications on the lives of real gay men. It isn’t just gay men who are wronged in this movie, though. The movie takes a very toxic attitude towards men in general. In a scene where Sonam Kapoor’s character attempts to kiss a man, and he declines and leaves, Swara Bhasker’s character says he must be gay if he passed on a kiss from a woman. Men as horny people who will never pass on sex, whether consensual or not is a widely accepted notion. Men are ridiculed on screen and in life for passing on sex or anything sexual and even for not taking pleasure in sexual abuse or coerced sexual activity. Although, the film does have some refreshing moments between its carefully constructed plot, built this way to guarantee a commercial success. The women openly discuss sex, they swear like most of us do, and drink when surrounded by people, as well, and wear whatever they desire. This has received severe criticism, with people saying women don’t have to speak about sex, swear, smoke or drink to be empowered, but what they fail to see is, this isn’t about empowerment, this is about reality. These women don’t drink or swear to seem empowered; they do it because that’s what real women like us do. We discuss sex, swear, and some of us drink or smoke, and it was pleasant to see female characters in a film doing this instead of subscribing to the idea of what a good woman should do according to patriarchal standards. Another revolutionary aspect of this film is Swara Bhasker’s character. She is seen masturbating in a scene, a scene that is very vivid, prolonged, and not subtle in the least. It wasn’t a passing mention or a fleeting moment. Although, in spite of the progressive nature of the scene, its portrayed as something she does out of utter desperation and in the prolonged absence of a sex life, this justification for a woman embracing the fact that she is a sexual being and sexually pleasing herself, kills the momentum of the scene and completely takes away from it. An unprecedented and even empowering scene seen in a film for the first time, sending out a message of owning and controlling our bodies and our sexuality, is completely ruined by this unnecessary justification. In spite of this, it is Swara Bhasker’s character who single-handedly salvages the movie, that is, if it has been salvaged at all. Usually, a character like that of Bhasker’s will be the bad woman in a Bollywood movie. She will be the antagonist; she will be the woman that will ask us to root for the protagonist just because she is the polar opposite of her. But, not in “Veere Di Wedding”. We root for Swara Bhasker’s character as much as we root for the other three leads. Her character is an alcoholic, who dresses as she pleases, talks sex, swears, and has complete control over her life and never once attempts to be the women she isn’t, only to be the poster-child of the good woman patriarchy demands. Though it’s a shame, that even today, we can’t expect a story about women to be a commercial success and have to ultimately make it about men. This movie could have been what it claimed to be if it really would be about these four women if it really would be their story if it really would be about their life and being. A movie with an all-female cast fails the Bechdel Test, which isn’t too shocking for a Bollywood movie. Although by allowing these women to speak of sex, swear, and dress, as they please and considering what they did with Swara Bhasker’s character, is revolutionary and unprecedented, between all the rightful criticism, we need to remember that this is to be celebrated and still is a rather small, but significant victory.<doc-sep>Even after 9 days of its release, Sonam Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Swara Bhasker and Shikha Talsania film 'Veere Di Wedding' is showing little signs of slowing down. This female buddy film continues to attract cine goers in cinema halls and gathers speed on second Saturday of its release. 'Veere Di Wedding' box office collections now stand tall at Rs 64.84 crore after earning another Rs 4.51 crore on Saturday. Boasting of four talented and stylish leading ladies, 'A' certificate from Censor Board due to cuss words and bold scenes, ' Veere Di Wedding' has been a joy ride for the fans at theatres. The film has already crossed the Rs 100 crore mark at the worldwide box office and by the time Salman Khan's Eid bonanza 'Race 3' releases this Friday, 'Veere Di Wedding' would have raked in moolah to be declared as a superhit. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh shared the box office collection and tweeted, "#VeereDiWedding GATHERS SPEED on second Sat... Biz is expected to escalate further on Sun [today]… Is looking at 75 cr+ *lifetime biz*... [Week 2] Fri 3.37 cr, Sat 4.51 cr. Total: 64.84 cr. India biz." #VeereDiWedding GATHERS SPEED on second Sat... Biz is expected to escalate further on Sun [today]… Is looking at 75 cr+ *lifetime biz*... [Week 2] Fri 3.37 cr, Sat 4.51 cr. Total: 64.84 cr. India biz. — taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) June 10, 2018 From 'Aisha' to 'Veere Di Wedding' producer Rhea Kapoor and sister actor Sonam Kapoor have a come long way. On Sonam Kapoor's 33rd birthday, her little sister not just wished her but also expressed her gratitude. She wrote, "9 years later and still making movies, dressing up for no reason, getting excited about breakfast foods and talking till we all fall asleep. This I think is what real love stories should be made of. People say it’s hard working with family, but we should all be so lucky. Love you @sonamkapoor thanks for helping me fly and happy birthday!" Directed by Shashanka Ghosh, 'Veere Di Wedding' also stars Neena Gupta and Sumeet Vyas and Vishwas Kini in lead roles. Jointly produced by Rhea Kapoor, Nikhil Dwivedi, Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor under their respective banners, 'Veere Di Wedding' is expected to join the 100 crore club just like Alia Bhatt's 'Raazi'<doc-sep>
From playing the heroine’s best friend in Tanu Weds Manu to a middle-aged mother of a 15-year-old in Nil Battey Sannata, a prostitute in Anaarkali of Aarah to one of the leading ladies in a multi-starrer all-women buddy film Veere Di Wedding -- actor Swara Bhaskar has explored characters that an image-conscious budding actress would fear to do. She says breaking stereotypes is the best way to set her own rules for her acting career. “I never feared to take a risk. When I came to the film industry, since I had no idea of how to go about it, people gave me a lot of advice on what not to do... I was told not to play any character of a sister or best friend of the protagonist as then people would only offer me second lead. I was told not to play vamp and mother at a young age... Now you know what are the characters I have played in films. I thought if those are the rules to get the lead role, why not break them? Why not get rid of stereotypes to set my own rules?” said Swara. “I think the best way to deal with stereotypes is by taking a risk, by trying new things without fearing the failure,” added the 30-year-old actor. Watch: Movie reviews of Veere Di Wedding and Bhavesh Joshi Superhero What is her way to identify the potential of a script? Swara credits her collaborators. “I think I am lucky that I worked with some of the great filmmakers. When it comes to Tanu Weds Manu or Raanjhanaa and I would like to give the credit to Himanshu Sharma who wrote the script of the film. He is such a brilliant writer that any competent actor can just perform following the script and they will still look as brilliant as it was. In Nil Battey..., Ashwini Iyer Tiwari had huge faith in the story and I just followed her vision. I think that is how things work most of the time in cinema. If everyone one who has a strong vision and faith in the project, it falls in right place,” she said with a smile. Her latest film Veere Di Wedding is not the first attempt for Bollywood to tell stories of multiple women, as Angry Indian Goddesses also captured the journey of six girls and received critical acclaim, but failed to get as many eyeballs as Veere.... So, does that only happen when a film has a larger budget and is in the mainstream commercial space featuring female superstars of Bollywood? “Bollywood is a star-driven industry. Therefore it is only natural that a Priyanka Chopra telling the story of Mary Kom is reaching out to thousands of people and making Rs 100 crore film. So yes, whenever popular actors and celebrities are narrating a story, it gets a bigger mileage. Having said that, the burden should not be on stars. At the end of the day, an actor is an actor -- star or non-star -- if the role is challenging, if the character is well-written, we all get excited to do it. Therefore, I think that there should be more interesting, unexplored and unheard stories that will bring freshness in storytelling, challenge us to push the envelope to perform and offer a new dose of entertainment to the audience.” As the practice of treating film stars like a ‘demi God’ is going on for the longest time, Swara says it will take time to change. “We are actually in the process to change it now... Because now, like in the earlier days of 1950s, stories of common people are getting celebrated. See, there was a patch where the character of the films was more of youngsters going abroad to become a millionaire and stories on NRIs were the common theme. The idea of entertainment was mainly escapism which is changing to finding inspiration from common people,” said Swara. (This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.) ott:10