BOYS VS GIRLS
DUMB AND DUMBER
I completely agree that if my girl is anything like any of those three girls in Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2, life will be a disaster. Those girls, to say the least, are irritating. I couldn’t help nodding in agreement when Gogo says in that epic rant against women that women were responsible for ALL the problems in men’s lives. But then, aren’t the boys to be blamed too? If the girls were dumb and irritating, I found the three boys equally dumb. After watching the film, I come to the conclusion that it is a story of six stupid people whose lives I would never choose to live!
I have spent a large part of my student life in a boys’ hostel and a bit of my professional life in a men’s mess. I had a group of thick buddies in college and all of us used to go through a circus of emotions thanks to our love lives. But we haven’t ever been so dumb as to allow ourselves to be used as sugar daddies. I have also seen girls whom I can readily identify with the characters shown in this film. We have always laughed at these girls, mentally shivering as to what life would be for a man who gets any of them as a girlfriend or wife!
The film tries to portray men in good humour while stripping off everything worth appreciating in women. Today, the issue is not a gender debate but a bigger one where youngsters, irrespective of their gender and sexuality, tend to be clones of each other in stupidity and dumbness.
Boy 1
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT
“Women are all that we’re ever going to know of paradise on earth.” Yes, that’s an Albert Camus line quoted by Woody Allen’s struggling artist David Dobel in the film Anything Else. The three dudes in Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 may agree with that line. Or maybe not. There’s a reason why the three friends end up alone in a bar drinking. And there’s also a reason why I quietly walked out of the theatre before the end credits rolled. Why? Did I not like the film or was that scene too close for comfort?! I’ll go with the latter. Some of Anshu aka Gogo’s (Kartik Aaryan) observations in his long monologue did bring out the odd chuckle. Why do some girls feel the need to talk all the time, even after sex?! But then I remembered a guy friend of mine who would talk for hours and hours on the phone at night just to convince various girls to have sex with him!
Boy 2
THREE KINDS OF WOMEN
Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 lacked the punch and freshness of the first film. Although it had its fair share of fun moments, it went a little overboard with its cliched sexist, Sardar and engineer jokes. Exhibit A: Engineers are boring and look like uncles. Luv Ranjan, the director, clearly has some misplaced anger towards engineers.
Just like the prequel, the second part sees three boys, with the mental make-up of 10-year-olds, fall in love on the very same day with a gold digger, a quintessential queen bee and a spineless seductress. Yes, the SAME three girls from the previous movie. Clearly, according to Mr Luv the love guru, women can only fall under one of the three aforementioned categories.
But I’d be lying if I said I couldn’t identify with any of the three relationships. I’ve had friends who dated the queen bee and then again that friend who had decided the names of his future children with the woman who was just fooling around with him. Unfortunately, I’ve not yet seen the gold diggers, simply because all my friends are broke!
Boy 3
THESE MEN MUST BE FROM MARS!
Is it our problem that the men in the Pyaar Ka Punchnama films have terrible taste in women? That they are consistently, and often willingly, manipulated and made fools of by the women they fall in love with? And that they are so dumb — or would frustrated be the correct word? — that they continue to fall for the same calculating and controlling women, even when two out of the three men have actually changed from the first film?!
Don’t get me wrong. I like watching the Pyaar Ka Punchnama films because underneath the all-out female bashing and the stereotyped gender portrayal, the franchise packs in enough belly laughs to ensure that I walk out of the theatre with a chuckle. I also understand that in this age of Mardaani and Kahaani — where woman power often translates into women bludgeoning their male oppressors to pulp, both literally and figuratively — men get a special high out of high-fiving each other over a film where they are shown as the oppressed.
But then, why fall for such women in the first place? Any self-respecting man I know wouldn’t touch a nyaka and nagging woman like Ruchika even with a bargepole or put up with a faux feminist like Kusum even for a minute. And have you heard of anyone like our man Siddharth aka Chauka — he not only helps his girlfriend’s parents set up an account for her on a matrimonial site but also accompanies her on her first date with her future husband! Did someone say men are from Mars? Well these men clearly are… and are best left there!
Girl 1
3 IDIOTS!
Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 is Luv Ranjan’s 3 Idiots… quite literally so. Gogo, Siddharth and Tarun are a trio of idiots who get ‘duped’ into dating Chiku, Supriya and Kusum. Or should we say love is blind? Maybe lust at first sight makes you so. Yes, even the girls are ready to go naughty, naughty, but then that’s just the bait. And how the three rise to it!
Clearly, love is the last thing on the girls’ minds. It’s all about relationships with benefits. It’s as transient as a Facebook relationship status. As Gogo, Siddharth and Tarun are bullied around, you wonder what is it that keeps the boys in the relationship? If it is such torture, wouldn’t you just walk away with your sanity intact? Most of us would. So are the boys in it for sex or because no one else would date them?
Which man in his senses would plan a holiday with his tyrant girlfriend? Or be at the beck and call of his girlfriend’s dad and then bear the ultimate insult of being called her brother?! The word ‘no’ clearly doesn’t exist in their dictionary.
Girl 2
WANTED: ‘PKP3’... FOR WOMEN!
I came out of the hall wishing I had ninja hiding skills. For some inexplicable reason, I felt like a criminal who’s guilty of being… a woman!
Some parts of PKP2 are exaggerated. Like which guy will make a profile for his bae on a marriage site and then accompany her to her first meeting? Or which couple will vacation in Krabi — in the same room — and not make out? This is the 21st century, peeps.
My greatest irritant was the clapping in the movie hall each time there was a jibe at a girl. Men always think they’re right and after watching this movie, they’re going to think they totally rule this game of thrones.
Yet one cannot deny that the film is a fun watch. And, if one must look for a silver lining, it’s that the film brings to the surface topics that are often swept under the carpet in many relationships. Like money matters. Or a partner’s “best friend” who is not exactly brozoned. The movie is completely from a guy’s point of view. For every accusation against women — including the many in Kartik’s #epic monologue — there is an answer. Which hopefully will find a place in ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama … 3!’
Girl 3
KARTIK ‘GOGO’ AARYAN ON WHY PKP2 IS A WINNER
BIG BUCKS AT THE BOX OFFICE
I just knew that it’s a good script and the film is really relatable. I knew the audience would accept the film, but didn’t think it would become so big at the box office. Everyone’s raving about the film, but there’s nothing in particular that they are singling out. The relatability factor has worked in its favour and people are liking my (seven-minute) monologue, the bond between the guys (Kartik’s Gogo, Siddharth played by Sunny Singh and Omkar Kapoor’s Tarun) and the romance between the three couples. Almost everything has worked in the film.
PKP to PKP2
When he approached me for the sequel, my director Luv (Ranjan) Sir told me that this wasn’t a sequel in the true sense because all the characters would be different, but that he wanted me to be in the film because I would add face value to it and help the audience connect the first film to the second. Also, a lot of what I had done in the first film — the ‘babu’ talk with my girlfriend and the monologue — had gone viral and they wanted to cash in on that. And honestly, when I was told about the sequel, I was a little apprehensive because I felt that everything that had to be told was shown in the first film already. But then they felt that my character could take things forward and contribute even more to the film.
There was some pressure on me because I am the only guy who has been repeated from the first film. But when I heard the narration, I knew people would love the film. The box office has come as a bonus.
R FOR RELATABILITY
I could relate to most of the situations in the film. I have been in relationships and I have been in such situations… I have had friends whose girlfriends have kicked their asses! And the best thing about this film is that it is not only for the youth… relationships happen at every age. My uncles who are in their 50s as well as my naana-naani who are in their 70s could relate to the film.
WOMEN LOVE THE FILM TOO!
This is one of a kind. There are so many films in which men are portrayed as the villains, but at least now we have a film where the women are negative! You know, the kind of fan following I have got after this film, I don’t think I would have got if I had done a ‘normal’ love story (laughs). Even on my fan page, women are writing to me asking me for solutions to their relationships. If only men were watching the film, we wouldn’t have had such a big hit. Women love the film too!
HOOTING TO CLAPPING TO STANDING OVATION
I had recorded 12 minutes of the monologue (in which he breathlessly rants against women) in a single shot, of which only seven minutes have been used. I went to a theatre to see the reactions and people were not only hooting and clapping, but also gave a standing ovation at the end of it. Many guys were telling their girls: ‘Watch this, watch this!’
As told to Priyanka Roy
I loved /hated PKP2 because...
Tell t2@ abp.in
