Critics rating: 2 Stars

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, R Madhavan, Jimmy Sheirgill

Direction: Aanand L Rai

Produced: Kishore Lulla, Anand L. Rai.

Written: Himanshu Sharma.

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Duration: 120 Mins.

Much drama ensued in the prequel before the eponymous characters finally tied the knot (after untying a few others). Manoj “Manu” Sharma (R Madhavan) had loved Tanuja “Tanu” Trivedi (Kangana Ranaut) since the first moment he saw her. In a creepy moment (of which are several in Hindi cinema’s courtships) when she is asleep in her bedroom, he kisses her and takes her photograph on his phone, consent be damned.

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After being needlessly nice to a woman he has nothing in common with, the loving twosome get hitched with a grand desi ceremony. Their wedding video is filmy too, with Sun Saiba Sun as background while a hexagon of the bride’s faces revolve around the groom’s and vice versa.

The hilarity is supposed to carry forward four years later in London, when the squabbling couple visit a mental asylum to sort out their marital discord and not a marriage counsellor. She is flirtatious, he is dull. The argument reaches a crescendo; Manu is immediately confined for a week in the asylum, because who needs paperwork and mental evaluations in the UK, logic be damned?

Uncaring about these little nitty-gritties, Tanu returns to India and to her bigger, badder wild-child avatar. Where she was reckless in the earlier film, she is eccentric in this one. Why else would she walk into a room where her relative is seeing a prospective suitor, wrapped in a bath towel?

Why would she want to make overtly friendly overtures to law student Chintu (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), a tenant who has overstayed his welcome at her father’s home? Her motivation is never clear and that subplot goes nowhere. “Hai, itni udaas aankhein hain. Kahaan se lagwaayin?” he sighs and you know that the flirtations from his end will run much deeper. Manu, meanwhile, is at the tail-end of his detention at the asylum. Just saying. Tanu’s lack of concern edges her in an Amy Elliott-Dunne space (Gone Girl, anyone?).

Things certainly go south in the marriage and you have to agree with Manu’s side kick Pappi (Deepak Dobriyal) when he quips, “Arhar ki daal mein ajinomoto kahaan padhta hai?”

Manu bumps into Tanu’s look-alike, the State-level athlete Kusum in Delhi. She may speak coarse Haryanvi, though her mannerisms are anything but. She is an upgrade on the original model in terms of long-term viability, so Manu ends up filing for divorce, the actual time taken for such legal technicalities be damned. The proceedings are gladly embraced by Tanu’s former fiance Raja Awasthi (Jimmy Sheirgill), who could do with second chances.

The film offers no new perspective on marriage. It is the women who morph into nagging demons, while the men have to bear it in silence. A little speech on a woman’s right to choose her spouse and a side-track on artificial insemination add little to the plot. Tonally, the makers seem conflicted between maintaining the farce or branching off into socially relevant commentary. It is all stitched together with gaping holes that are the expected standard of Hindi movies these days (an unfortunate perception).

Except Kusum and Raja, none of the characters deserve a smidgen of sympathy. Tanu and Manu’s parents are barely around to voice their two bits on the turn of events, which get increasingly silly with little fruition.

Still, things have a happy ending, the film gets a good box office opening and the audience returns home satisfied. It is worth a watch for Deepak Dobriyal’s energy and Kusum. The former was an asset in the predecessor and the latter takes this film up a few notches.