Puja Films’ Mere Husband Ki Biwi (UA) is the story of a man caught between two women.
Ankur Chaddha (Arjun Kapoor) is married to Prabhleen Dhillon (Bhumi Pednekar). Their marriage is anything but happy. Things come to the point of divorce. Antara Khanna (Rakul Preet Singh) enters Ankur Chaddha’s life. Even as the new romance is blossoming, circumstances force Ankur and Prabhleen to come into each other’s lives once again. Will Prabhleen’s presence jeopardise the relationship between Ankur and Antara? Will Antara sacrifice her love for Ankur? Whom will Ankur choose?
Mudassar Aziz has written a story which is quite unique and which affords space for a lot of comedy. But his screenplay overlooks several important points and turns out to be weak and one of convenience. For one, the reasons for the break-up are not very convincing as they are treated with a touch of comedy. Prabhleen appearing as a devil in Ankur’s dreams etc. are nice insofar as they evoke laughter, but such scenes do not give the drama a solid base. The first half has several comic situations but the comedy is not universal. In fact, it would evoke sporadic laughter rather than uncontrolled laughter all through the pre-interval portion, which is what was needed in a drama of this kind. Since comedy is the only selling point of the screenplay, this weakness (of intermittent laughter only) comes in the way of the full enjoyment of the drama. The drama picks up pace after interval but what again comes in the way of the unbridled enjoyment of the audience is that the comedy is juxtaposed with the serious twists and turns in the drama. Hence the viewers get confused about whether they should feel sorry for Prabhleen or Ankur or Antara. Of course, the audience want Ankur to marry Antara, but in that case, why does the same audience feel bad for Prabhleen when she is hospitalised for consuming an overdose of alcohol? In other words, the audience are unable to decide who their sympathy lies with — Ankur Chaddha, Prabhleen Dhillon or Antara Khanna. This is, perhaps, a major minus point of the script. Another minus point is that the reason for Ankur’s break-up with Antara rests on a weak foundation. His statement that Antara is no different from Prabhleen is patently wrong because Antara is, in fact, very different from Prabhleen. The only point of similarity is that both of them indulged in insulting and humiliating the other. But Ankur had divorced Prabhleen long before the insults and humiliation happened. Probably, the biggest minus point is the fact that Prabhleen is taken along with the marriage group to Scotland for the wedding of her ex-husband and Antara. If everyone is working towards what the doctor has advised — to not cause trauma in Prabhleen’s mind — why did Prabhleen ever get included in the guest list for the wedding? How on earth can Ankur, Antara, Prabhleen’s parents and the others expect that she will not be traumatised on seeing her ex-husband get married to another girl (in this case,Antara)? The climax is, no doubt, novel in thought but it does not have the desired impact because the whole concept of proposal is not too common outside the major cities of India. And this proposal is not even normal! Mudassar Aziz’s dialogues are the best part of the script. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the dialogues are extremely witty and full of fun but the drama doesn’t quite live up to them.
Arjun Kapoor does a fairly good job as Ankur Chaddha. Bhumi Pednekar shines in the role of Prabhleen Dhillon. She throws herself completely into the character and comes out trumps. Rakul Preet Singh looks very pretty and acts ably as Antara Khanna. The scenes of oneupmanship between Bhumi and Rakul are quite enjoyable not just because of the writing but also because the two actresses complement each other beautifully. Harsh Gujral lends tremendous support as Ankur Chaddha’s best buddy, Rehan Qureshi. His sense of timing is wonderful. Shakti Kapoor lends fair support in a brief role as Ankur’s father. Kavita Kapoor gets limited scope as Ankur’s mother; she is alright. Mukesh Rishi makes his presence felt as Prabhleen’s father. Alka Kaushal is okay in the role of Prabhleen’s mother. Dino Morea is quite effective as Antara’s brother, Ricky. Aditya Seal is alright in a special appearance. Tiku Talsania evokes laughter as Dr. Arun Mathur. Kanwaljit Singh and Anita Raaj lend decent support as Antara’s parents. Navaldeep Singh (as Kuki), Daman Singh (as young Kuki), Supreet Bedi (as Natasha Taylor), Neelam Daswani (as domestic help Sushma) and the others are adequate.
Mudassar Aziz’s direction is quite nice. But he should’ve given the film more gravitas even though it is basically a comedy drama. His narration is unable to make up for the weaknesses in the script. Music (Vishal Mishra, Tanishk Bagchi, Badshah, Akshay & IP, Sohail Sen, Jassi Sidhu and DJ K Square) is very good. Lyrics (Mudassar Aziz and IP) are in synch with the mood of the film. Dances (choreographer Bosco Martis for Ikk vaari; Vijay Ganguly for Gori hain kalaiyaan) are graceful. John Stewart Eduri’s background music is terrific and heightens the impact of the comic scenes. Manoj Kumar Khatoi’s cinematography is very good. Amar Shetty’s action and stunt scenes are appropriate. Rupin Suchak’s production designing, and Bharat Jain and Pooja Palan’s art direction are of a fine standard. Ninad Khanolkar’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, Mere Husband Ki Biwi does not have the strength to make a mark at the box-office in spite of excellent dialogues. The weaknesses in its screenplay are glaring!
Released on 21-2-’25 at Inox (daily 4 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PVR Inox Pictures. Publicity: very ordinary. Opening: so-so. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak at many places.