{"id":1571,"date":"2016-03-07T00:18:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T00:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2016-03-07T00:18:09","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T00:18:09","slug":"shaadi-mein-zaroor-aana-rajkummar-rao-kriti-kharbanda-bollywood-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=1571","title":{"rendered":"Is the Feisty Small-town Girl the New Manic Pixie Dream Girl?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span>n <\/p>Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana<\/i><\/a>, Aarti (Kriti Kharbanda) has topped every exam she\u2019s ever taken. She may live and study in a small town, but that has hardly deterred her from dreaming of a life beyond the hustle of Kanpur. On the day of her wedding, she learns that she has cleared the Provincial Civil Services Exam. But, there\u2019s a catch. Her small-town in laws expect a bahu who\u2019ll be satisfied with just <\/i>being a housewife, not someone who works after marriage.\n\nAarti has two choices: Either, marry the boy (Rajkummar Rao<\/a>) her parents have fixed for her and who she has fallen in love with, or follow her dreams. She chooses the latter and runs away from the shackles of the small-town life that await her. In the running away, Aarti joins the herd of feisty small-town heroines who have been the flavour du jour of Bollywood this year. And it\u2019s a trend that refuses to settle.\n\nThese self-made, driven women aren\u2019t fans of compromising; they want to live and love on their own terms, a way of life that is only afforded to men in the small towns that they come from. And Bollywood, having cracked a successful formula, is only happy to play along. In contrast, the Sejals<\/a> and Half-Girlfriends<\/a> of this year have failed to charm.\n\nAarti\u2019s life unfolds in roughly the same way Vaidehi\u2019s (Alia Bhatt) did, a few months back in Badrinath Ki Dulhania<\/i><\/a>. Vaidehi wants to become an airhostess and travel the world, instead of becoming the daughter-in-law of a wealthy family in Jhansi. She takes off, leaving behind the good-for-nothing Badri she was asked to substitute her dreams with — only to return to him when he makes himself worthy of her.\n\n

Phew. Take a deep breath, Bollywood. Yes, you\u2019ve got a formula that works, but can we please agree that we\u2019ve had enough of it in 2017?<\/blockquote>\n\nGet a load of the rest of the list. Bitti (Kriti Sanon) in Bareilly Ki Barfi<\/i><\/a> break-dances, smokes, and drinks to her heart\u2019s content, pursuing the man whose writing she has fallen in love with. Jaya (Bhumi Pednekar) in Toilet: Ek Prem Katha<\/i><\/a>, refuses to let marriage cow her. She is fully aware of her rights as an individual and demands her husband to construct a bathroom in their house so that she won\u2019t have to go to the fields to relieve herself every morning. Leading this feisty herd this year was the rebellious Anaarkali (Swara Bhaskar) in the surprise hit Anaarkali of Arrah<\/i><\/a>, who schools the skeevy men of her village on consent, and ensures her molester is adequately named and shamed.\n\nPhew. Take a deep breath, Bollywood. Yes, you\u2019ve got a formula that works, but can we please agree that we\u2019ve had enough of it in 2017?\n\nThe rise of the feisty small-town girl mirrors that of another Bollywood archetype we saw a couple of years ago: the manic-pixie girl or Jab We Met <\/i>a flurry of Geets. \u00a0I hope the feisty tier-II girl\u2019s box-office favourability won\u2019t mean that she will inevitably hurtle toward a tired, reductive caricature, hopeless of achieving the success of the original.\n\nLet\u2019s give the Bittis and Aartis a rest, Bollywood. Because we all know what happened to Geet\u2019s<\/a> lookalikes.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana is the latest in a series of Bollywood capers featuring a girl from tier-II India, who lives and loves on her own terms. Small-town Bittis and Aartis are the new Geet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":1572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[2866,141,2867,1511,2868],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-arranged-marriage","tag-bollywood","tag-kriti-kharbanda","tag-rajkummar-rao","tag-shaadi-mein-zaroor-aana"],"yoast_head":"\nIs the Feisty Small-town Girl the New Manic Pixie Dream Girl?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana is the latest in a series of Bollywood capers featuring a girl from tier-II India, who lives and loves on her own terms. 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