Veere di Wedding trailers (updated)
thanks to Sanjana…
This garbage is what qualifies as edgy in mainstream Bollywood: use MC and BC but it of course ends with the happy wedding – and along the way celebrates the worst of contemporary crassness — Qalandar
SATYAMSHOT 
April 25, 2018 at 11:43 AM
yes made a very similar point earlier in the box office thread.
[this passes off as ‘edgy’ for Bollywood. Girls using four letter words in every other sentence. First they had movies with boys doing the same. Now Bollywood has become even more progressive.]
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April 25, 2018 at 11:50 AM
Ha ha we had an almost identical first line: I am either telepathic or a plagiarist. Or, more prosaically (and more depressingly): so much of contemporary Hindi cinema is so predictable, and never more so than when it is “different”.
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April 25, 2018 at 11:56 AM
In keeping with the spirit of the thread I had some words in mind but I just modified my comment a bit..
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April 25, 2018 at 11:51 AM
The actor opposite Kareena is, if I am not mistaken, the one from a Yashraj YouTube serial, I saw a few episodes and he had god comic timing.
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April 25, 2018 at 7:41 PM
The former you mention has been done in Lipstick under my Burkha. This one’s only gaali galoch
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April 25, 2018 at 7:43 PM
He is Sumeet Vyas from TVFs web series Permanent Roommates
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April 25, 2018 at 7:59 PM
Yup, thanks Jeeves!
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April 25, 2018 at 11:54 AM
I’d say here additionally that Bollywood in general has this typical bourgeois fascination with ‘bad words’. When you belong to such a mindset using these words is the height of rebellion because of course your parents frown upon these things. Within this context I frown upon (!) certain smaller films set in small towns if not the North Indian heartland where characters keep using these words all the time. Even Kashyap falls prey to this (GoW for example). The point isn’t whether this language is used or not but that it is always introduced superficially either as multiplex ‘edge’ (‘see we’re not like our stuffy dads and moms’!) or as heartland authenticity (‘those real, vital people also swear at every turn’!). Both ends of this equation are symptomatic of how in contemporary Hindi cinema authentic rebellion or subversion is rarely represented. Everyone’s happy with this stuff instead. This is why Johar too celebrates it (he’s tweeted about this film today)!
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April 25, 2018 at 11:58 AM
I would add to this fine comment by adding “female sexuality” to “bad words”: meaning, frank representations of female sexuality, far from serving as any kind of liberation, in fact only underscore how benighted we are. i.e. the excited air with which women are shown talking about sex or orgasms or desire is depressing — why is this news, especially in the sort of milieu represented here?! Not to mention that even this is fake, in that it seeks to track Hollywood/American TV-models, i.e. these characters themselves seem to be performing the Sex & the City templates from two decades ago, rather than authentically representing themselves…
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April 25, 2018 at 12:16 PM
Absolutely. One could add the whole ‘gay’ angle to all of this. Now of course it’s good that this issue is getting attention or some of these films are being made. But again far more important and disturbing realities are ignored because everyone is satisfied with this kind of progress.
But your point is an important one. Because it’s probably the case that female sexuality (and all the ways in which we police it) is at the core of this entire discussion.
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April 26, 2018 at 8:34 AM
Expletives are part & parcel of Indian conversations across the length & breath irrespective of economic status & class/gender divide. Using them in mainstream cinema is neither blasphemous & nor out of context. For example, films like omkara, Delhi Belly & gow looked perfectly natural & authentic with all the cussing around. Get out of your Hollywood/America zindabad obsession & accept the ground reality.
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April 26, 2018 at 8:48 AM
Lol the irony is the trailer is doing Hollywood/American obsession thing and you’re blind to it
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April 26, 2018 at 9:59 AM
And it’s American TV (sex and the city-ish) from twenty years ago! LOL!
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April 26, 2018 at 10:06 AM
I also suspect that as a representation this is a bit off: in my experience women from this social class who curse a lot tend to do so using English curse words; never really seen a posh-sort use MC BC with gay abandon.
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April 26, 2018 at 10:08 AM
Not defending the trailer. It’s bogus imo. Just specifying the irrelevance of the comments & this thread in general. This film’s a washout in all likelihood.
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April 26, 2018 at 8:53 PM
Qalander, what did you think of Kangana Ranaut’s character in TWM. She is similarly independant woman, smoking, cussing but appeared authentic. On mc/bc and post girls, I think it was bad acting for sonum to pull this one off.
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April 26, 2018 at 9:45 PM
That’s an interesting comparison Swati (are you referring to Tanu weds Manu 1 or 2?). One way I would characterize the distinction is that Kangana’s characters in these films are meant to be idiosyncratic; ie she doesn’t seem to “represent” a group so much as try to incarnate an odd / idiosyncratic character. (Her persona aids her in this respect: she can’t help but seem like a bit odd, a bit of a misfit — witness Queen, where she seems unlike anyone else even as she is depicted as hailing from a “typical middle-class” Delhi Punjabi family.) In films like Aisha, or (from what I can tell) Veere di Wedding, even with much better films like Dil Dhadakne Do, you have both, an attempt to represent typicality and a strong aspirational ethos that presents a particular sort of consumer culture as the matter-of-fact aim of not just the characters, but also of the audience. That is not the primary mode of the female leads in Tanu Weds Manu: here the attempt is to show a woman who is both culturally authentic (admittedly this in itself can be problematic) but so odd as to be atypical. Thus Kangana cannot raise questions in our mind about whether a woman would or would not do these things — her characters are weird enough that the question does not arise, and for purposes of this discussion, they are not the objects of our class/consumerist aspirations. (Aside: I would note that even this is problematic because this combination of cultural rootedness and oddness enables the imagined urban cinema-going audience to distance itself from what’s happening on screen: this is how things might be “out there somewhere” in a milieu far removed from ours; it’s better than the likes of VdW because the film isn’t just showcasing a lifestyle, BUT the price to be paid is that it renders the heartland a bit of an anthropological zoo (in Tanu Weds Manu 1 this is most clearly shown in the character of Jimmy Shergill as other to Maddy’s stand-in for the audience; Shergill does a fine job as he always does, but the character is styled in such ludicrously incongruous terms — a Pathan suit?! Really?! — that it’s obvious one could only accept him as a Lucknow bhai if one is watching the film “from” Delhi or Bombay in a sense)…
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April 27, 2018 at 10:23 AM
this is a fantastic comment..
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April 27, 2018 at 4:57 PM
Qalandar, I’d like to hear your opinion of the characters portrayed by the female leads in Luv Ranjan films like PKP and SKTKS. I’m sure you’d have an interesting opinion on that too!
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April 25, 2018 at 2:47 PM
Meh. Was expecting light and funny but this gives me Aisha vibes
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April 25, 2018 at 8:45 PM
chic flick and all this is fine…..but where is the sex ma’am. look see look see only – no can do…
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April 25, 2018 at 10:36 PM
This is regressive…..what on earth this film is trying to say????
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April 25, 2018 at 11:24 PM
The film is trying to say that goodlooking girls can have bad tongues and foul language emanating from their mouths. That makes them on par with the uncouth and the ugly. Dont go by looks. Looks are deceptive. Beware of girls who have a group consisting of girls only. Pyjama parties are training sessions for them to go from well mannered to ill mannered and be proud of it. They shock their mothers. They are unhappy when they get married and they are unhappy when they dont get married. They are surprised when their men have mothers and family.
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April 25, 2018 at 11:09 PM
Chill.
Censors will clean up and you will hear only beeps instead of gaalis.
They just want to create sensation.
Kareena looks gorgeous. And there are 6 Kapoors including the makers.
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April 26, 2018 at 7:07 AM
This film needs to be funny without the trash talk. So many chick flicks and novels in the west have managed this graceful combination. And for that you need intelligent writing. I do wish an Indian writer could write something divinely funny, sweeet and sexy like Helen Fielding and her Bridget Jones diaries. Is my expectation unreasonable?
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April 26, 2018 at 7:25 AM
Veere Di Wedding: If You Were Counting The Gaalis In The Trailer, You Aren’t Alone
The 4 protagonists use several cuss words in their conversations
Kareena’s expletive-spliced lines do seem to fit naturally
But some lines seem a bit random and excessive
If you have watched the trailer of Veere Di Wedding, you might have been struck – as we were – by the sheer number of cuss words mouthed by the actresses who play the four central characters in the film: Sonam Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Swara Bhasker and Shikha Talsania. They play four friends, each navigating a personal crisis of her own. Swara is considering divorce; Shikha, a new mother, hasn’t had sex in a year; Kareena, whose wedding it is, crumbles in spectacular bridezilla fashion and ends up calling the shaadi off. And Sonam? Sonam is footloose and fancy-free but plainly a little over-exacting in her standards for potential sexual partners.
If these near-total eclipses of the heart seem familiar, perhaps the veeres’ manner of coping might too. Or, they might not. Veere really means brothers and the gender-bending title of the film extends to the dialogues – the four women speak in the film in the way they imagine men would, or perhaps they imagine this is how women talk when stressed or even just making daily conversation. And while women, or many of them, probably do pepper their conversation with a certain amount of swearing, we personally don’t have any female friends as foul-mouthed as these veeres, not even close. Anyhow, the trailer is packed with frequent and industrial strength gaalis, possibly because it seemed unlikely to the writer that discussing sex and marriage trouble is impossible without using strong language.
In defence of the Veere Di Wedding cursing, Kareena’s expletive-spliced lines do seem to fit naturally in to first her absolute consternation when her boyfriend unexpectedly proposes, and then her frustration as the wedding plans balloon alarmingly out of control into a public spectacle, as Indian weddings do. But Sonam’s use of a particularly unsavoury cuss word while venting about being judged for her unmarried status, for instance, seems a bit random and excessive.
At least one tweet we found was unimpressed by the loaded dialogues.
But will the infamously strait-laced Central Board of Film Certification pass Veere Di Wedding intact? At the launch of the trailer, Sonam Kapoor said, “We hope the Censor Board doesn’t cut anything because there’s nothing objectionable in the film.” Which is true – we aren’t passing moral judgment on the cuss words, just questioning if women actually speak this way for real.”
https://www.ndtv.com/entertainment/veere-di-wedding-if-you-were-counting-the-gaalis-in-the-trailer-you-arent-alone-1843250
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April 25, 2018 at 11:34 PM
Yawn. Wont mind rewatching Sanju teaser having surviving this.
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April 26, 2018 at 1:46 AM
Shikha Talsania is daughter of Tiku Talsania.
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April 26, 2018 at 4:13 AM
Agreed 100%. The most amazing thing for me is that every girl is looking irritating.
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April 26, 2018 at 4:15 AM
There is something wrong with KAPooR sisters. They take fashionista tag a too seriously and make snobbish movie.
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April 26, 2018 at 6:14 AM
DENe do gaali inhe bhi yaar
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April 26, 2018 at 10:34 AM
Fair enough with all the cuss-words, none of this is new anymore. The F-words have inhabited girlie lingo for decades, and now it has become chic to even utter BC/MC. One of the recent viral whatsapp messages was of this pretty female saying BC to express joy, sorrow, anger, surprise etc.
However, the larger issue is that this is an image of India (and desi girls) that perhaps corresponds to a tiny 1-2% of the population. The girls who inhabit that tiny slice of the populace, and who date and have sex in healthy relationships, are hardly a representative for the rest of India and its great unwashed masses. Its because girls in other social strata simply do not have the financial wherewithal or the independence to engage in the same activities as these Veere de wedding girls.
Bollywood is akin to a chimera, Either they load up their films with sleazy item numbers that cater to the masses, or they show them this unattainable high society world.
Guys in those lower strata are not willing to and dont have the patience to simply be bystanders anymore, peeking at this world from the outside. Unable to attain the same sort of healthy sexual relationships, the boys in those social stratas eventually vent out their frustrations via rape. And then Bwood says “Dont blame us for the Rape epidemic”.
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April 26, 2018 at 10:46 AM
“Frustrations” are not an excuse for rape, let alone the most brutal and sick kinds we hear about in the news. Nor do I believe that cinema, even the most titillating kind, makes rapists out of people.
I actually don’t believe this ‘rape epidemic’ is new. It’s getting more attention now and there have obviously been some incredibly revolting cases that have become highly publicized (justifiably) which in turn feeds this impression. But this is going on all the time anyway in just about every stratum of Indian society. If you dig deep in the news you hear something atrocious just about every week. And one has to assume the vast majority of cases are not even reported.
Now it’s also true, and there has been much commentary on this even in the West, that our age of consumption globalization has also led paradoxically to an uptick in violence against women in various parts of the world (including the West). There are a few important reasons for this but that’s a separate discussion. In any case I’m not saying that these factors are not present in India as well. Just that there has been a culture of all kinds of sexual violence against women (often ‘sanctioned’ in one form or another) for very long.
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April 26, 2018 at 10:52 AM
True, but bollywood does more than a bit with its sick attitude as NyKavi said.
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April 26, 2018 at 11:35 AM
Not trying to club all types of rapes into one category. The brutal sick rapes of minors indeed are products of some psychotic minds. Then there are the rapes done for display of power, eg of lower caste women in rural areas.
But, absent healthy dating which is now very common among the well-off sections of India, there is definitely this unfulfilled frustration lingering in the lower strata boys. The Nirbhaya rape was a classic example: All 7 were poor helpers/drivers with fixed mindsets about chastity and women behavior. In their post arrest interviews, they basically alluded to the fact that she was ‘dating’ a guy, was wearing tight jeans, out after 7pm at night; so ergo she was ‘Available’! This mentality does not just develop out of thin air.
Perhaps, blaming bwood in entirety is wrong. Their representation of high society free thinking girls is alright. However, they should also shed light on what those high society guys think of their girlfriends. Are they hypocrites like most desi men, who want to spend every moment from teenage years, thinking of getting laid; but who want a Virgin waiting on the bed on the First Wedding Night!? Do those high society guys think of their girlfriends as scores/objects, or as committed companions?
It seems as if all that bwood can show is Sallu trying to pull skirts away like the pic above, or of guys basically stalking girls until they acquiesce in every run-of-the-mill romance. If ever sex is displayed, it is sleazy and pornographic. Which is why bwood DOES contribute to rape.
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April 26, 2018 at 11:47 AM
They need to make movies with ‘real’ messages on healthy pre-marital sex and relationships. Off course, those movies will not Sell, but at least they should try NOT to make saleable movies that only keep re-inforcing the twisted mindset of ppl like the Nirbhaya rapists through their item songs, stalking heroes; or cuss-word spouting high society girls discussing sex.
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April 26, 2018 at 12:51 PM
Many of your points are fair ones. I’m obviously not agreeing with Bollywood representations but I also think that those very representations are often symptomatic of the culture. In other words people already have those attitudes which is why women can then be represented in certain ways. But it is certainly true that women in the name of emancipation are often present in even more ‘commodified’ fashion in Bollywood. This move parallels similar ones around the world including in Hollywood.
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April 26, 2018 at 12:16 PM
How about the real one below by constipated queen bee Ekta…she has taken to digital platform with a vengeance giving us 24/7 saas bahu version of a sex starved nation. High five to Jeetendra for giving bollywood sex engines in Ekta and Tushaar….Ekta akin to kjo’s tele version with rumors swirling around her lesbo sexuality & nailing TV starlets…..
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April 26, 2018 at 12:52 PM
Your comment is a classic demonstration of the problem!
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April 26, 2018 at 3:01 PM
What the hell is this? Is this meant to be an authetic tale or is glorifying perverted and immoral fantasies
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April 26, 2018 at 9:12 PM
This is exactly what I meant when I posted this new offering from Ekta Kapoor. What she portrays here in Gandibaat is not the norm for her digital audience which is predominantly middle class but just a way to titillate with these ‘ immoral fantasies’. This kind of cross mating what we see in this promo happens either in extreme poverty stricken lower order conditions or there is some evidence of this sort of fornication among the extremely rich & affluent high mile club…..
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April 27, 2018 at 8:48 AM
Purab aur Paschim where they show the heroine Saira banu imbibing the bad habits of the west like smoking and drinking and wearing short dresses.
Even Tanu started smoking and drinking due to western hawa during her stay in London.
And we forget that rapes happened when invaders whether outsiders or insiders went on rampages after victory. Thats why some resorted to jauhars as shown in Padmaavat. Rapes happened during partition. Now internet porn, child porn are some of the culprits for these crimes apart from criminal minded in the family circle, friends circle and strangers. Dating culture will not work in India as of now because of moral police rounding up such couples.
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April 27, 2018 at 9:01 AM
“And we forget that rapes happened when invaders whether outsiders or insiders went on rampages after victory.”
I can assure you rapes weren’t invented with ‘outsiders’ or ‘invaders’. Secondly, and as a simply historical fact, the ultimate ‘insiders’ were ‘outsiders’ once. As humans we are very good at telling ourselves all kinds of stories. Unfortunately they’re just that.
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April 27, 2018 at 9:05 AM
Well, they must have been happening from the beginning of human race. That is why now rapes are reported regularly even when there is no invasion or wars.
Mass rapes are chronicled while regular rapes were happening all the time.
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April 27, 2018 at 10:26 AM
Yes precisely.. which is why the insider/outsider distinction doesn’t really matter.
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April 27, 2018 at 9:42 AM
Even at a day-to-day level, all studies show that the vast majority of rapes are committed by people KNOWN to their victims — i.e. the “stranger in a dark alley” is, statistically speaking, a significant minority of all rapes.
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April 27, 2018 at 9:47 AM
This is an excellent well rounded comment and observation Sanjana.
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April 28, 2018 at 4:31 AM
“.. started smoking and drinking due to western hawa during her stay in London..”
There is absolutely NOTHING WRONG in a woman having the independence to smoke or drink. The issue we have in contemporary India is that smoking/drinking is passe in high society, and does not raise eyebrows or get the woman branded as ‘Available’. Its in the lower strata that women who can even dare to wear jeans and go out on a date get branded as such. And then face sexual harassment of all sorts.
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April 28, 2018 at 4:38 AM
Even if that girl was saree clad and accompanied by her father or brother, she would have been assaulted. The jeans thing is an untenable excuse. If these rapists cant spare even babies, will they spare a woman even if she is fully covered or in burkha? Have we not heard suv’s being waylaid by highway goons who then rape women, rob men and kill them too.
As for smoking and drinking, it is personal choice and gets highlighted in movies either to portray rebellion or to paint women as vamps.
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April 28, 2018 at 4:47 AM
The defence lawyers may have instructed them to give these lame excuses to get them lesser punishment. These kind of statements curtain lower class women from dressing in jeans and travelling with boyfriends and watching late night films. A sort of agenda to oppress the disadvantaged sections like lower class women who cant afford own cars and other perks.
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April 28, 2018 at 4:48 AM
curtail
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April 27, 2018 at 9:30 AM
The institution of marriage must have happened to find a way out from confusion and fights. Marriage made it easy for both the parties. How every culture has this marriage arrangement, astonishes me. Which culture set the precedent? There are so many theories floating around.
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May 16, 2018 at 3:35 PM
This looks like a silly but fun flick! I wouldn’t go to the theatre with high expectations but I’d happily watch this at home with a gal pal and a bottle of wine when we’re in the mood for an evening of disposable entertainment. It’s not trying to be a social message oriented, paradigm refining film. It’s just a crass, crowd pleasing girl-bonding movie in the Bolly world of crass, crowd pleasing boy-bonding movies. The gender of the protagonists makes it a novelty because of the lack of candid female friendship films in Indian cinema but it is not trying to be an subversive, artistic masterpiece. It is geared towards a young, urban, affluent audience who happen to be a rapidly growing segment of the Indian population (with ballooning disposable income to spend on movies) so the lifestyle shown isn’t far-fetched for the intended viewers either.
Sure, it’s inspired by American pop culture: but are you telling me that all the other Bollywood buddy films like ZMMD and Rock On aren’t? Middle class Indian millennials whom this film appeals to grew up watching 90s American show reruns on Indian cable TV. And the escapades and opinions of the SATC ladies would still be considered highly inappropriate for Desi girls by most Indians so although the show might be outdated in the current cultural landscape in the USA it certainly isn’t anachronistic in India. The fact that people are immediately blaming this trailer for rape etc shows that even a a few words of profanity uttered by a woman is still seen as provocative in the Indian context.
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May 18, 2018 at 12:59 PM
Completely agree on ZNMD and Rock On — but then I and others have mercilessly savages those films for years on this blog and elsewhere for similar reasons…
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May 18, 2018 at 4:30 PM
Pardon my curiosity but what do you have against movies that are inspired by American pop culture? Why is it unacceptable if filmmakers like the Kapoor sisters clearly grew up watching American movies/ TV and their work now reflects this?
Why should they be expected to only produce films that represent Indian women with ‘authenticity’ and what would an ‘authentic’ yet ‘edgy’ representation of Indian women even entail anyway?
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May 19, 2018 at 8:12 AM
Actually my issue is not with the films per se — one ought to be free to make what one wants — but with a certain media ecosystem, whereby films that appeal to certain demographics are held up as examples of modern/progressive cinema, and other films are relegated to “lower” categories, even though, when one examines the content of those films, one doesn’t really find these claims to be merited. Thus the sexism and misogyny of a ZNMD goes unremarked and unchallenged, whereas the “Hindi-medium” sexism of (eg) a Salman film often isn’t. So too with this film: nothing wrong with being inspired by H’wood, but I find myself exasperated by the media reception of this kind of thing (that reception all too often simply advertises that the film speaks the same language, in the same idiom, as the critic, rather than say anything about the film’s inherent virtues)… Stated differently, if these films (you brought up Rock On, which is a great example) were anything other than advertisements for certain lifestyles and the aspirations associated with them (this wasn’t always the case — while there has never been any pure golden age, films weren’t always simply vehicles for consumerism), I’d probably be less irritated by the coverage. But a media ecosystem and film watching culture that equates this sort of affirmation of one’s own lifestyle with some notion of “better cinema” (better, that is, than the imagined horrors of the 1970s and 1980s), repels me.
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May 19, 2018 at 8:18 AM
Re: “… what would an ‘authentic’ yet ‘edgy’ representation of Indian women even entail anyway?”
I wouldn’t be presumptuous enough to venture to answer that question — no mansplainer quite like the mansplainer holding forth on what “authentic” representations of women might be like — but I will say that I suspect they (like any other kind of “true” cinema) will need to grapple with questions of social class and engagement (questions that the Star-kid dominated industry, and associated insularity that proceeds from it, is far less able to think through than its predecessors in earlier decades).
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May 25, 2018 at 3:18 AM
I see. I personally don’t have high ideological demands of the Hindi cinema ecosystem so it doesn’t bother me that this is blatantly aspirational cinema that happens to be tone-deaf to the privilege of its protags. To me, if feels like a futile and unreasonable thing to expect more given the state of things today where even serious political media in India is reduced to a crude soap opera.
Most B’wood films today are pop culture pastiches and I feel this is true even when different social demographics are represented onscreen. I can’t really think of many recent films that engage with issues of class and privilege except for a few exceptions like Hindi Medium which just resorted to crude caricatures of the selfish socialites vs. the selfless slum dwellers. Just because a film is set in the dusty bylanes of Varanasi rather than a South Bombay mansion it doesn’t mean it isn’t recycling outdated pop culture stereotypes or that it isn’t peddling ‘empty’ entertainment, I think…
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May 18, 2018 at 8:45 AM
Feminists can breath easy and Bollywood finally has a pyaar ka punchnama in reverse.
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