As promised, Kulture Didi is back again this week with her take on another Bollywood film. This week she is dishing on Akiv Ali’s De De Pyaar De starring Ajay Devgn, Tabu, and Rakul Preet Singh in lead roles.
Despite being genuinely funny in parts, the film is failed by a meandering script that is on a trip to nowhere for the most part. Devgn’s Ashish is a 50-year-old man who is separated from his 47-year-old wife, Manju, played by Tabu. The film was supposed to be about Ashish falling in love with a 26-year-old, Singh’s Ayesha, but then it becomes about so many other things.
Surprisingly, the story has a mature take on relationships, especially the grey areas of it, the ones mainstream cinema shies away from – be it parents championing the practicality of live-in relationships, to how separated couples deal with the strangeness of their lingering intimacies. While this is commendable, these are the dramatic bits which deviate entirely from the tonality of the rest of the film, which is mostly light-hearted.
It is also these light-hearted bits that are the most problematic. From rampant age shaming to sexism, written by Luv Ranjan, Surabhi Bhatnagar and Tarun Jain, De De Pyaar De has it all.
Singh’s Ayesha is the kind of girl who believes that a man who doesn’t take advantage of her when she is black out drunk is passing on an opportunity! Completely missing the point that this is the very definition of rape, of course. But that’s just Ranjan for you, the one who doesn’t seem to understand women when he isn’t busy vilifying them as gold-diggers and manipulators.
While Devgn looks mostly bored and dead inside, Tabu gets the meatiest part. Alok Nath’s presence is an eyesore. And Jimmy Shergill also has a brief cameo, which is fun but ultimately pointless.
To know more about what Kulture Didi had to say about De De Pyaar De watch the video.
