0.5 Star (out of 4)
Watch Mere Husband Ki Biwi on Hulu
The question at the heart of any love triangle movie should be “Who’s going to win?”, not “Why are they fighting over this guy?”. The women in Mere Husband Ki Biwi (“My Husband’s Woman“) would’ve been better off staying single.
The man in the middle of this unfunny comedy is Ankur (Arjun Kapoor), who has no defining character traits. Two years after his divorce from Prabhleen (Bhumi Pednekar), he still hallucinates her everywhere. Even the opportunity to have sex with a Russian stripper at a bachelor party can’t take his mind off Prabhleen.
Ankur’s long-suffering best friend Rehan (Harsh Gujral) suggests that Ankur leave Delhi and go sell real estate for his dad (played by Shakti Kapoor) in Rishikesh. There, Ankur runs into his former college classmate, Antara (Rakul Preet Singh), who’s now a physiotherapist with a passion for adventure sports. Ankur immediately falls for her, and Rehan encourages him to be open about why his marriage failed.
Based on the way Prabhleen haunts Ankur, we assume she must have been a nightmare to live with. But in Ankur’s own retelling of the relationship, he’s obviously the villain. He expected her to clean up after him, even though she worked full-time as a journalist — a job he didn’t respect, going so far as to assault her boss and getting her fired. She makes a drastic decision unilaterally, but only because she was in a time crunch and Ankur refused to speak to her.
Even in this recounting, Ankur never owns up to his role in the breakup, seeing himself as a victim only. (We’ve also seen that he’s still a slob.) Antara’s takeaway is not concerns that he’ll repeat his mistakes with her. Instead, she’s worried that he won’t be able to top the grand romantic proposal he made to Prabhleen, should he propose to her.
Ankur being messy seems somewhat trivial, but it’s symbolic of his relationships with women. In the case of his marital home with Prabhleen, he covers their beautifully decorated living room in pizza boxes and empty bottles. It smells bad and attracts pests, and (most importantly) he knows it bothers his wife. He says that their maid can clean it up the next morning (which isn’t kind, either), but he surely knows that Prabhleen won’t rest until her beautiful home is tidy once more. He reduces her to his servant not just as punishment for her working outside the home, but simply because he can.
There’s nothing wrong with working as a house cleaner, but Ankur was attracted to Prabhleen because she was ambitious and educated. Yet once he married her, he wanted her to stop being who she was and slot into the role of “one of the women who cleans up after me.” Given that Antara is just as driven and accomplished as Prabhleen, it’s almost as if he’s choosing this type of woman deliberately — another beautiful thing for him to make a mess of.
Of course, none of these gendered relationship dynamics are interrogated in Mere Husband Ki Biwi. On the day Ankur proposes to Antara, Prabhleen gets in an accident and loses the last five years of her memory. She thinks the current day is the day Ankur proposed to her. The doctors warn everyone not to tell her the truth, lest it set back her recovery. Thus everyone has to pretend that Ankur and Prabhleen are still in love until the climactic reveal.
Just kidding! Within a few minutes, Prabhleen’s dad (played by Mukesh Rishi) tells her about the divorce, and that whole plot setup is abandoned. Prabhleen decides she wants Ankur back as a do-over.
The writing and direction of Mere Husband Ki Biwi — both the fault of Mudassar Aziz — are terrible, but the English subtitle translations don’t help. I’m not sure if the subtitles included with the version of the film showing on Hulu are the theatrical originals or if they are new for streaming, but they don’t even hint at what’s supposed to be funny in much of the dialogue. For example, when Rehan questions how Ankur has managed to get two women chasing after him, he asks, “Got some magical asphalt or something?”.
Bhumi Pednekar infuses more charm into Prabhleen than the movie deserves. Dino Morea is likewise amusing as Antara’s intimidating older brother Ricky. Arjun Kapoor and Rakul Preet Singh are just there. Same goes for Mukesh Rishi and Shakti Kapoor, who get nary a Gunda reference in this Bulla-Chutiya reunion, as far as I could tell.
Links
Like this:
Like Loading...
