Aaha Kalyanam (2014)

"Wedding planning? Will that work out here?" Sakthivel asks Shruthi Subramaniam, as she reveals her business plan. "Why not? Isn't marriage universal?" she shoots back, and for a moment, it feels like this is the sort of conversation that the makers of Aaha Kalyanam would have had before remaking Band Baaja Baaraat. The genre of the film — romance — is universal, and romance is what drives most of our movies to an extent. So, it is not really surprising that this remake works fine. That said, however, like the concept of wedding planning, the film too feels a little alien, and we don't really fall in love with it entirely. The chief reason for this is the casting — Vaani Kapoor hardly looks like a Tamizh ponnu and her lip sync is often amiss that, despite her making it up with her expressions, we do not get attached to the character of Shruthi. Nani is certainly better, though his whiny accent screams Telugu (which the director cheekily acknowledges through a comment from a character) but he manages to compensate for it with wit and roguish charm. The innumerable songs and the overpowering background score (by Dharan), too are Bollywood-ish while the wedding festivities, for all the colour and flair, feel more North Indian. And, yet, for all these flaws, Aaha Kalyanam manages to hold your interest and that is mainly because of Habib Faizal's winning script. Debutant Gokul Krishna sensibly sticks faithfully to the original and lets the inherent drama in the script drive the story. The plot involves the classic romance movie set-up — opposite characters getting attracted to each other — and the wholesome characterization of the leads gives the film some punch. Twenty-year-old Shruthi is, by nature, a planner. She has decided what she wants to take up as a career, has charted how she will go about achieving it and has even decided when she will give it up to marry as per her parents' wishes. Meanwhile, Sakthi is clueless about the future. All he knows is that he doesn't want to take up his family's business — farming. So, he is captivated by Shruthi's idea of turning a wedding planner and tries his best to partner with her. She seems to like his insouciant charm and takes him aboard Getti Melam, her wedding planning company, but is very particular that their financial arrangement shouldn't become a romantic tangle. But, this being a love story, that inevitably happens, when the two, during a night of drunken revelry, end up in bed. The morning after, she is smiling at the development while he is confused about the transgression. After all, hadn't she wanted not to let their friendship get to the next level? He becomes indifferent while she gets resentful and soon, they part ways, setting up their own businesses (and floundering). But when an opportunity comes up their way to get together again, will they take it up and finally express their actual feelings to one another? It is not a spoiler to say that they do (this is a breezy romance after all) but the film manages to reach this point with enough interesting twists that make it worth a dekko.