Tanu Weds Manu Returns - Must watch for Kangana, comedy

The plot of "Tanu Weds Manu Returns" is thin and does not have many non sequiturs, but director Anand Rai succeeds exceedingly well yet again, in bringing out the mundane incidents in the day to day lives of the people in the suburbs of India and showcasing them in a very interesting way.

The movie starts with Tanu and Manu settled in the UK, going through serious marital problems. After a hilarious scene with some doctors, Manu ends up in a mental asylum. Tanu comes back to India and gets back to her old fun and carefree lifestyle, even meeting up with her old love interest Raja (Jimmy Shergill).

Later Manu also comes to India and falls for Kusum (also played by Ranaut) and the story moves on alongside sub plots involving the supporting actors. Madhavan underplays his role, as per the demand of the script and delivers a decent performance.

Kangana Ranaut is currently the best mainstream Bollywood actress(I did not say heroine).

Deepika Padukone is working hard and was impressive in Piku. Vidya Balan is very capable but she has lost her fizz and needs to cut a lot of flab. The likes of Priyanka Chopra and Alia Bhat among others are all decent, but they have a lot of catching up to do after Queen, for which Ranaut won her second national award, and especially now after Tanu weds Manu Returns, that could potentially help the girl from Himachal sweep all the popular acting awards, if not a third national award.

Where she seems to score is the way she gets under the skin of a character. In a double role here, one as the feisty, big-hearted and rebellious Tanu, we know from the prequel and the other as a rustic and upright Haryanvi girl who forms a love triangle with Manu; she does complete justice to both avatars with aplomb.

To get the mannerisms and especially the diction of another language flawlessly right (Haryanvi in this case), is a great achievement in itself considering that Priyanka Chopra struggled with the same in Mary Kom (Manipuri) and even Big B did not get it perfectly right in Piku(Bangla).

The other area where the film succeeds big time is humour; the comedy is really top class. The film belongs to Pappi (Deepak Dobriyal) in equal measure. He also carries the film on his shoulders with exceptional comic timing, expressions and dialogues. Dobriyal brings the house down again and again throughout the movie, even in very serious situations.

I have rarely laughed so much off late and his comedy would go down as one of the best post 2000 right up there with the likes of Paresh Rawal and Johny Lever. The rest of the supporting cast is also top class though one would feel that very good actors like Swara Bhaskar, Rajesh Sharma and Zeeshan Ayyub were a bit wasted.

The film is not without its flaws though. After an excellent first half, where one would not be able to bat an eyelid and would get stomach cramps laughing, the second half slows down a bit and becomes too predictable, though the brilliant acting and humour stills sees it through. The lecture on women issues and one of the songs in the second half were not really required. Some of the incidents shown are a bit over the top, but then we need to give some "cinematic liberty".

I give 5 stars for Kangana, Dobriyal, and the first half. Overall the movie gets 4 stars from me.