Dichotomy of Irony: Shubh Mangal Saavdhan

R.S. Prasanna's Shubh Mangal Saavdhan is one of the finest and one of the funniest films of 2017. It is the story of Mudit (Ayushmann Khurrana) who wants to do a love-cum-arranged-cum-love marriage with Sugandha (Bhumi Pednekar). During their courtship, Mudit and Sugandha try to have sex, but it turns out Mudit has a gents' problem. The film portrays how the two of them and their families deal with such a situation. Shubh Mangal Saavdhan is the remake of R.S. Prasanna's own Tamil film Kalyana Samayal Saadham but adapted to the world of Anand L. Rai.

Shubh Mangal Saavdhan is ostensibly about Mudit's erectile dysfunction, but I felt the film is using this to also make a point on the notion of masculinity in society. It is about a man who can't get it up. Mudit is trying to not just increase his libido but also learning to stand up to be a man. It is about him trying to rise up to this challenge, and Sugandha helps him change from being a phattu to being a man. We see this rising up play out at different points and in varied forms throughout the film. At one point, Mudit and Sugandha meet in a café, where he tells her that they should cancel their wedding. Sugandha tells him that if there was a problem with her after their wedding, would he have left her? He is not trying to understand her viewpoint. After this scene, Mudit joins his family members who are traveling in a bus to Haridwar, and he and his friends sit on the top of the bus. Bas ki chhath par baith kar aya hun. At a later stage, an angry Sugandha goes and sits in an Udan Khatola (a flying trolley) on the day of their wedding. Mudit follows her and jumps from his trolley to Sugandha's, but does not make it fully inside. He is left hanging (again) and holds on to her trolley. The commentary by the reporter and Mudit's own words in the scene again point to him trying to rise up. At that stage, Mudit repeatedly tells Sugandha, "Mujhe upar uthaao." He wants her to lift him up. She has helped him become a man in the real sense of the world. In earlier scenes, he calls out his family members for their patriarchal views on mardaangi (masculinity). He fights with them saying that it is Sugandha who is trying to make him a man. "Inki beti ki vajah se na mard ban raha hun. Woh koshish kar rahi hai. Jitna bacha kucha confidence hai na, inki beti ki vajah se hai." Much to the consternation of his family members, he also has no hesitation in becoming a cook at his own wedding. He tells Sugandha that he would learn to cook after their wedding because he loves her. The film's title Shubh Mangal Saavdhan has the word saavdhan, a word also commonly used in military parlance to refer to standing in attention.

In addition, the film never really delves deeper into the causes and solutions for Mudit's gents' problem. The veterinarian simply dismissed Mudit's problem as a case of performance anxiety, which, in reality, is a serious issue affecting millions of men worldwide. There is anxiety in Mudit but of a different kind. Mudit tells Sugandha there is a lot of pressure on him. His relatives are constantly asking him about Sugandha's income and whether she earns more than him. He has doubts if he could be a good husband to her. The news reporter also comments that Mudit is burdened by the weight of masculinity, perhaps, that is why he cannot get it up. His sexual problem (as depicted) is symptomatic of this burden. The film underscores the notion of rising up again by comparing Mudit with a rocket. Rocket humare saiyyan. In the climax (pun intended), a rocket ascending into the sky plays out on the television screen, again, a symbolic representation of Mudit rising up to become a man.

At the same time, Sugandha is no Manic Pixie Dream Girl for Mudit. Mudit is the first man who has liked her, otherwise, all the men prefer girls from M-Block over Sugandha (Greater Kailash M-Block market is one of the trendiest spots in Delhi). She waited all her life for a hero, who never came, but it was Mudit who came to her, who even fought a bear to talk to her. When Mudit hears this, he thanks her, but she says that she is not giving a compliment to him. Later, she tells him that he is the compliment which life gave her. Although the subtitles write it as compliment (with an 'i'), I think it could also mean complement (with an 'e'), which fits more. Mudit and Sugandha complete each other in different ways. The reporter's comment, in the end, reiterates that in this war of better halves, the two halves have to join to become one complete union, which perfectly describes the meaning of marriage, too.

Shubh Mangal Saavdhan portrays its women characters much better than its men and gives them a voice. The film opens with Sugandha's voiceover. Sugandha tells Mudit that marrying him was the first independent decision that she took in her life. We have often seen in films when the characters are about to have sex, it is the man who waits on the bed, and it is the woman who usually goes out from the scene to get ready. But here, it is Mudit who goes to the bathroom and it is Sugandha who is waiting for him on her bed. Sugandha's mother takes her to a lingerie shop because it is more important than the lehenga. Her mother talks to her about sexual intercourse using the innuendos of Ali Baba and his gufa. On the other hand, Sugandha's father becomes an anonymous caller to give advice to Mudit. Even though Sugandha's father takes Mudit to the veterinarian, his behavior in front of the doctor is too hypocritical giving him fake lessons on 'Sharam aani chahiye'. In the end, Mudit says that the two fathers would have abused and cursed them, but their mothers remained calm and did not go into depression. At some stage, Sugandha's father repeatedly tells her to run away, while it is she who refutes him that she will not because she stands by her choice. She is willing to solve a problem rather than run away from it.

There is a point in the film where Jimmy Shergill is shooting an advertisement for family planning. It is hilarious of the film that it uses someone who is a mascot of KLPD in Hindi cinema to endorse a condom advertisement. Jimmy asks Mudit if his fiancée loves him, and advises him that he should let her go if she does not, and placate her to come back if she does. It is as if he is remembering the events of his story from Tanu Weds Manu. The films of Jimmy Shergill and Ayushmann Khurrana represent the two forms of emasculation and unfulfilled male desire. One is often cheated and left with a standing dick, while the other cannot get his dick to stand. One has the power (for lack of a better word) but no woman, while the other has the woman but no power. But they are respectful of the choices of the women in their respective lives.

I have no hesitation in admitting I enjoyed the many double entendres in the film. In fact, I kept looking for them. I felt the song Kanha is full of double meanings. Jo bhi kare, kare sab, quick, quick quick, quick. When Mudit and Sugandha are trying to have sex, the song Ram Chahe Leela from Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela plays in the background and the words, "Rakh pocket me ghoda, de ghode ko lagaam," can be heard, which is another innuendo. Sugandha tells Mudit that everyone was waiting for the groom the come, and he came but was totally phuss. And, of course, the limp biscuit and the Ali Baba references were outrageously funny.

Comparison with Dum Laga Ke Haisha

There is a looming shadow of Sharat Katariya's Dum Laga Ke Haisha in Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, not only because the lead actors in the two films are played by the same set of actors, but also because of the similarity in the milieu and the situational aspects of the two films. Shubh Mangal Saavdhan is a remake of R.S. Prasanna's own Tamil film Kalyana Samayal Saadham which released in 2013, a couple of years before Dum Laga Ke Haisha. It is not to suggest that the films are the same, but on an academic level, it is always interesting to find connections between films.

Dum Laga Ke Haisha is the story of Prem (Ayushmann Khurrana), who is forced by his family to get married to Sandhya (Bhumi Pednekar). Prem suffers from an inferiority complex where he cannot accept that his wife is more educated than him. He is a school dropout. He is jealous that his friends' wives are prettier than his. He has always been living under the shadow of his authoritarian father who mocks and, often, beats him. Shubh Mangal Saavdhan is about Mudit's anxiety of living up to the standards of being a man. Like Prem, Mudit has a confrontational relationship with his father, where he even tells his father that he never had time for him. His father, at one point in the film, tells his relatives that Mudit is taking revenge for the time when he beat him up.

In both the films, there is the concept of arranged marriage and the parents of the lead characters play an active part in the sexual lives of their children. In Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Prem's father asks one of his relatives to give condoms to Prem to consummate his marriage with Sandhya. After learning that Prem and Sandhya did not have sex on their first night, Sandhya's mother advises her to make Prem watch erotic films so that he can get aroused. In Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Sugandha's parents are concerned about their daughter's sexual fulfillment after her wedding. Her father takes Mudit to a doctor to get his erectile dysfunction treated. Sugandha's mother gives her own version of sex education to her using the innuendo of Ali Baba needing to enter the gufa. Sugandha's mother tells Mudit's mother that she made Sugandha wear a low-cut blouse so that their children can do it. There is also talk of erotic movies in the film where Sugandha's friend Ginny brings a pornographic movie for her.

In Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Sandhya goes to buy lingerie from a shop hoping to entice Prem while wearing it. In Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Sugandha's mother takes her to buy lingerie for her as she says a lehenga is only required for a day, but a lingerie is something she would need more often. The two films also have a scene on eating onions. In Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Sandhya tells Prem that everyone in her family eats onions, and she is surprised to learn that Prem also eats them because his family does not. In Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, the situation is reversed where Sugandha tells Mudit that no one in her family eats onions, while Mudit's does. The two films are set in Haridwar. The minor characters in the two films also share similar characteristics, like the younger brothers of Sandhya and Sugandha. I found Sugandha's brother as one of the coolest characters in the film. Chaalu kids are the best.

Dum Laga Ke Haisha takes its title from a competition in which married couples were put through an obstacle course where the husband has to carry the wife on his back. Prem and Sandhya participate in the competition, which becomes a metaphor for marriage itself. Like the race, marriage is also full of obstacles where the husband and the wife have to support each other to reach the finish line. Shubh Mangal Saavdhan also makes a similar point on marriage being a complementary union of two better halves, wherein the husband and the wife complete each other. They both need each other's support.

In Dum Laga Ke Haisha, at one stage, Prem talks with his shakha teacher, and says, "Kal raat ko apni na sun saka. Yeh grahasth jeevan ka gurutvakarshan daldal me mujhe kheench ke rahega." This is the scene sequence where Prem tells his teacher that was not able to control himself, and he consummated his marriage with Sandhya. Gurutvakarshan is the word that he uses to describe his attraction. Actually, the word is also used to describe gravity in Hindi. Immediately after this discourse, we see Sandhya walking to an empty classroom, and practicing to take a lecture. Interestingly, the topic that she chooses to describe is nothing but again the law of gravity. She says, "Prithvi ki har vastu, har dusri vastu ki aur aakarshit hoti hai. Gurutvakarshan ka pehla niyam, lekin kyun vo ek dusre ki aur aage nahi badte, kyun thame rehte hai apni hi jagah, kyunki dono ek dusre ko apni aur kheenchne ki koshish me vahi ke vahi khade reh jate hai." All objects on earth are attracted to one other due to the law of gravity. But why do objects not move towards each other, and stay at the same place? Because in trying to attract one other, they remain in the same place. There is a possible explanation for gravity in the film, but in short, the gravity reference is about the attraction between Prem and Sandhya. Shubh Mangal Saavdhan also talks about gravity but of a different kind. It refers rockets that have to fight gravity to rise and escape. Mudit of Rocket Hamare Saiyyan has to fight the force of gravity to get it up. In the final scene of the film, there is a television screen in which a rocket is rising up in the sky as if it has escaped the gravitational pull.

I remember reading Sumana Roy's insightful piece on Dum Laga Ke Haisha in Scroll where she elaborated on the leitmotif of the woman on top in the film. She writes that the film repeatedly shows Sandhya on top as compared to Prem. There is only one particular scene in the film where Prem is shown on top in the film. She explains, "There is only one scene where the man is on top, and such is the failure of this position that it leads immediately to the crisis in the marriage. Prem is with his friends on the terrace, his wife is dancing with the womenfolk below. A couple of drinks bring out Prem’s frustration with his wife’s size–imagine sleeping with a woman like that, he tells his friend. The result is a slap from his wife who’s climbed up the stairs and overheard the conversation. A show of equality follows: it is in the ethic of tit-for-tat, a slap for a slap." As mentioned earlier, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan also used some interesting scenarios, such as the Udan Khatola scene in the climax, to depict the state of a man trying to rise up and reach the top. In almost a reversal of the scene in Dum Laga Ke Haisha where Mudit is shown at the top and Sandhya is below, in Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, the entry of Mudit's baaraat depicts Sugandha perched at the top, while Mudit looks at her from below. After their conversation when she calls him a phuss, Mudit renters and brings his baaraat for the second time, and again, we see Sugandha standing all alone at the top, while everyone is below. The conversation with Sugandha prompted him to do something to make her happy.

In the early 2000s, there was a television show called Thodi Si Bewafai that used to come on Sony. The plot revolved around a married couple Neha and Vikram. They were happily living together till they found out that they cannot have a child. The show initially portrayed that Neha was infertile, but it was later found that out that it was her husband who was impotent and he had lied to her. Since the desire for an heir was so strong, the husband would have to make some sacrifice. Somehow, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan brought back the memories of the show. The film's outlook towards female sexual pleasure is noteworthy. It portrays serious issues with humor without giving any vibes of crassness and vulgarity. And, sometimes, innuendos can be a lot of fun. Like Sugandha's friend Ginny says to her that she will never be able to eat a biscuit again, I wouldn't not think of this movie, when I hear about Ali Baba and the treasure gufa.

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