Shaadi Ke Side Effects Review

By Alpa Pandya

Shaadi Ke Side Effects Review

Watching the trailers splattered across our Indian TV channels and the heavy promotion I fell into the trap of setting aside my precious time of one hour forty two minutes yesterday evening to watch Shaadi Ke Side Effects. Now if you are like me then you may be thinking wasn’t there a ‘Side Effect’ titled movie released before??? The answer my darlings’ is YES!!! This is the sequel to

‘Pyar Ke Side Effects’ released in 2006.

The film opens with a scene which I can only describe, as it so much reminded me of ‘Modern Family’ (if you watch American sit-coms you’ll know what I’m saying) We see a sexy looking Trisha (Vidya Balan) in a club meeting Sid (Farhan Akhtar) attempting to  rejuvenate their relationship by playing date night but posing as perfect strangers.

The film unravels itself further and focusses on the after effects of marriage or in Director Saket Chaudhary’s words ‘Side Effects’. When the honeymoon period is over and the reality sinks in

What is a Woman’s perspective of the ‘M’ word compared that to of a Man’s’?

We see the usual scenario’s which occur in a modern relationship after the new arrival of a baby.  Gone are the carefree days of freedom, partying out all night and doing as you please, responsibilities pile up, and Sid yearns for a boy’s night out. This is when trouble brews and Sid and Trisha’s marriage hits rock bottom.

I could sense that some thought had gone into the narrative and it certainly is a story which we can all relate to – Whether you’re married or not we all know of couples who have had these scenarios to deal with and can be related to in some way or another. The first half of the film is funny and has lots of laugh out loud moments which makes it interesting, however this film got boring in places and it lacked wholesome entertainment in the second half.

Vidya Balan plays the ‘nagging wife’ character pretty well and she walks through her role effortlessly. She has played the role of a pregnant woman before in ‘Kahani’ although the characters in both films are poles apart; her performance in this film is also applaudable. Vidya’s look changes in the second half of the film and she’s seen dressed frumpy at times as the film touches  on how a woman feels about her body after giving birth and the way she dresses is all about being ‘practical’ rather than ‘sexy’. Farhan Akhtar looks suave however I did feel his acting was a little one dimensional at times. Still he looked the part and did justice where he could to somewhat a thin plot.

Produced by Television drama queen Ekta Kapoor you’re almost guaranteed cameo characters from her serial world – do watch out for these in the film.

The music score by Pritam is below average and nothing like what Pritam is capable of. None of the songs struck a chord with me which was a huge disappointment.

So if you’re in a Shaadi and you want to compare your side effects this one might be for you, otherwise just wait for the DVD and watch it when you’re drowning out a bad day!!!

Rating 3/5