Crazy Stupid Love…De De Pyaar De!

Duniya vale kuch bhi samjhe hum hai prem deewane….

De De Pyaar De!!

When the one line story of a movie can expand into a full feature film in your imagination, the movie has all the potential to be a hit!!

We already saw what a great one line (and an even greater execution) did to Badhaai Ho Badhaai.

And now ever since the trailers of De De Pyaar De surfaced, I could not wait to see the movie and laugh at the predicament of Ajay Devgn as he takes the risk of introducing his half-his-age, nubile love interest to his separated wife and same-age-as-his-lover kids. Bring it on!

Devgn, refreshingly 50… And single… as Ashish, who has snapped off family ties back in India to chase his dreams in London, and Rakul Preet Singh, as Aisha the older-man chasing raw ball of energy set the stage for an age-no-bar love story.

But why would a PYT fall for an oldie? Javed Jaffery’s cameo as Devgn’s psychiatrist friend, fantastically juxtaposed as the old man’s alter ego tries to put things in perspective. Young and chanchal youth needs stability, old and bored maturity needs extension of validity. The young could be a gold digger, the old, maybe a cradle snatcher, and on and on of logical reasoning. But Pyaar as they say needs no logic.

So, a very-much-in-love odd couple start living in and when they were sure the relationship was for keeps, Ashish decides to introduce his young and restless lady love to his lake placid with a million under-currents separated wife, Manju – played by Tabu (sirf naam hi kaafi hai).

You would think this is committing hara-kiri, wouldn’t you, suddenly making an appearance in the lives of an abandoned and forgotten family of ex-wife, maa-babuji, who preferred living with the more responsible daughter-in-law, and grown up kids of the same age as girlfriend! Well, it was!!

Cut to a beautiful home run resort set in the Kullu valley, on the banks of a beautiful river surrounded by Himalayan peaks. Manju, the mother hen has finally got her brood’s life set in order running the resort successfully, complete with loving male attention of a hopeful semi-permanent resort guest (the charming Jimmy Shergil, in a superb cameo). The young daughter’s beau and prospective father-in-law are visiting the family to formalise the new relation. And wham! Here comes the father/husband with his hot ‘secretary’. That’s right, in one go, Ashish managed to upset his past life and future too when stuck between a rock and a hard place, he introduced Aisha as his secretary instead of his love interest!

What follows is a lot of funny drama and verbal duels between the old and young, situational goof ups and guffaws. To add to the drama is the son gets besotted with the father’s girlfriend and engages in pillow talk with his suffering father as he professes his love for Aisha.

Ajay Devgn and his expressions are to die for. You almost feel sorry for the guy in situations where he finds it impossible to balance between his ex and current. Rakul is quite a bomb! That she is an accomplished actress in Telugu films is quite apparent by the ease and confidence with which she plays Aisha. Tabu, glides through her role without so much as lifting her finger. Literally too, ‘because in most scenes all she has to do is lift her eyebrows and shift her gaze to say all that she needs to. She is a class apart.

From the trailers and the basic premise of the film, it seemed like De De Pyaar De would be a brainless sitcom film with a bollywoodian take on new age romance. But, surprisingly the movie sent out some sane messages too.  One of course, that age is just a number and love can happen to anybody in any age. But the more potent message was about divorce and separation. Instead of screaming morality or the lack of it at the husband who sought a life outside India and outside his marriage, the sensible ex in one dramatic outburst silences all the naysayers, including her own daughter, and explains how their separation was the better way out, instead of dragging a dead relationship to its finish.

An even bolder answer was to the society which always flashes the children card as innocent victims of a divorce to the already suffering spouses in a marriage. Very matter of factly, it is put across that quite like how children inherit the wealth, goodwill and prestige of their parents, they stand to inherit the misfortunes of parents too, that’s just how it is. I really loved the way, the dreadful D word was de-demonised. Plus the camaraderie and comfort shared by the exes, though seeming too farfetched was very refreshing. The rising trend of living in before committing to marry also got some credence and justification.

So that’s that, the movie from which I had expected only senseless sitcom laughter delivered some poignant messages too. So it was a paisa vasool evening for us.

Oh, and by the way, because such stories really cannot be all original, I found traces of ‘inspiration’ from Hollywood movies like Crazy Stupid Love and even the Big Wedding (watch it, its a beautiful romcom starring stalwarts Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton and Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams and Katherine Heigl).

On that note, De De Pyaar De gets 3.5 stars from me.