The film Shaadi Ke Side Effects is a story of Siddhartha (Sid) and Trisha, who are happily married until Trisha gets pregnant. Sid is not ready for baby as he is a struggling music composer. In the urge to become an ideal father and a husband he relies on the advices given by his friends and Trisha’s brother in-law Ranveer which puts him in a deeper trouble.
Shaadi Ke Side Effects takes a brave and an unusual path in Hindi Cinema due to which one cannot say that it is a complete mass culture film. However, at several instances, popular beliefs of social, economical and cultural psyche of India is visible. At the core it is the story of a struggling artist. Conversation between Trisha’s mother and Trisha, body language of Ranveer and Sid and Sid’s narration show how business class is glorified and revered by Indians. Properties you own and money you make is the primary and mandatory criteria to measure your success. Due to this mindset Sid is in constant inward struggle and low at self confidence and self esteem (which is visible through his body language at several instances, e.g. while talking to Ranveer, talking to Trisha when she returns from her mother’s place, etc). This low self esteem later leads him to follow the path of Ranveer and Sid decides to portray himself as an ideal father. This fact is strikingly evident when the baby was born and due to constant “socio-cultural surveillance” by Trisha’s family Sid finds an excuse to go to the medical shop. Later when he was alone, he carries his baby for the first time and play with her.
There are several stereotypes portrayed by the means of cast, class and looks. Ranveer is shown as a typical businessman with extra pounds. As compared to him her wife looks like a newly married woman. Later he is shown to have extra marital affair which is also a predictable story angle and popular belief that all businessmen (rich) are bastards. Ranveer has a son and Sid has a daughter. Here also, script writer signals towards the social triumph of Ranveer to have a baby boy than a baby girl. The person who has a daughter is the looser in India. This message is also conveyed through this layer. Sid’s friends are shown as rowdies, with weird looks, hairstyle and clothing. That is also one of the popular imaginations of struggling music composers. They are more keen to watch a football match of MANU than to play with a baby. Moreover, Manav, Sid’s roommate, is also portrayed as druggie, sex addict, drunkard, irritating and disorderly. Collectively this portrayal tells us subconsciously that they are not serious, they are immature, they don’t know what they are doing, they don’t have sense of ownership and responsibility, they are driven by high adrenaline, etc. All these inferences can easily be made from the way they have been portrayed. This again links back to how society sees an artist. Artists are not seen as serious people, responsible people. They are seen as who don’t know what they are doing and who do what they love to do in the given moment completely and only influenced by the adrenaline rush.
Shekhar, Trisha’s neighbor, is an engineer. His neatly combed hair, bright outfits, nerdy spectacles and humble body language (and high pay cheque) show how society looks at engineers and especially IT professionals. The fact that Shekhar is an IT professional is emphasized several times in the film. This can be directly linked back to India having highest number of IT professionals, educational institutes offering IT and IT companies. These things push society to push their children to pursue IT as a viable and safe option to shape one’s career to become successful (where success is measured in terms of money as described above). At the end of the film, Sid – the artist is shown to be lost against Shekhar – the IT professional. This fictitious situation also signals to who is what in the society. When Trisha and Sid interview several ladies for the position of maid servant, the people that director has chosen clearly indicates that which class/caste/religion are representative of domestic help workers. Later Aunty’s portrayal and her relation with Trisha tell viewer how this harmonious bond between a boss and a maid (master and slave) is unusual and soothing. This is something which happens in rarest of the rare families. So this kind of understanding and support becomes enjoyable and aspirational at some places.
Throughout the film it is shown that Trisha and Sid are not economically stable and well. But at the contrary their dressing and especially the house, interior and props indicates a well to do upper middle class family. That is the pure aspirational element for Indian middle class audience. At times in soliloquy, Sid seems to be in competition with not only Ranveer but also Trisha. He has constant baggage of not able to earn enough and become successful music composer. That leads him to compete with Trisha who is best at several things and that leads him to go mad about becoming the best father. Moreover, at the games played in play house, who wins is more important than how one wins. That is the brutal reality of India where millions of people complete for the same seat be it in a college, company or public transport. Such scenario ignores the means and glorifies the end. That is humorously and convincingly portrayed in the film (which is a faulty and disastrous teaching in my point of view).
At the end when Trisha says that she is pregnant and she carries Shekhar’s baby. That is a shocking moment for the audience. Ranveer’s infidelity and Sid’s immaturity looks like a regular-normal-legitimate excuse and event, to which audience doesn’t really respond angrily. But, Trisha’s infidelity looks like a sudden disgusting act. However, script writer takes a middle path (may be to avoid possible reality in the name of an-ideal-India-woman and happily-ever-after-ending) and makes that thing a lie to test Sid’s commitment and openness. But, what makes me curious is, if Trisha had carried Shekhar’s baby, Sid might have forgiven her, but as an Indian audience would have we forgiven her? Will it be OKAY to us or will it be disgusting? I am afraid it would have not been OKAY to Indians. The film which seems sensitive towards a mother, a working woman, a modern independent lady becomes (silently and subtly) a victim of deep rooted patriarchy prevailing in Indian society.
Unsophisticated Journals 