Shaadi No. 1 (2005) - Review in English

About the story: Raj (Fardeen Khan), Aryan (Sharman Joshi) and Veer (Zayed Khan) are friends, and all three of them have been getting married on the same day. Since then, however, they have to share their wives with "rivals": Raj’s wife Bhavana (Ayesha Takia) prays all day long together with her guru, Aryan’s wife Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) is a lawyer and more concerned about her cases than about her husband, and Veer’s wife Diya (Esha Deol) fully concentrates on her career as an actress. So the three friends feel no qualms when their employer Kothari (Satish Shah) asks them to do him a favour: They shall woo Kothari’s beautiful daughters Dimple (Sophia Chaudhary), Madhuri (Riya Sen) and Rekha (Aarti Chhabria) and then break their hearts so that they agree in marriages arranged by their father. But then the friends really fall in love with their victims and even start thinking about how to arrange for double matrimonies, when they suddenly face an unexpected obstacle: Lakhwinder Singh Lakha, aka Lucky (Sanjay Dutt) whose only ambition is to put some spokes in the three friends’ wheels...


Ouch. This film was not necessary – in no way. And this I mean unfortunately also concerning Sanjay. After Ek Aur Ek Gyarah, this was the second time I experienced him unrestrainedly hamming, and my hopes that the first time possibly was a one-time lapse of Sanjay were gone with the wind... But even the film itself leaves nearly everything to be desired. Dhawan nowadays doesn’t shy away even from the most stupid slapsticks; and even worse: He makes fun of people’s justified fears of bomb attacks. To avoid his extra-marital affair to be unveiled, Zayed as cool as a cucumber picks up the phone and deadly serious maintains that a bomb is hidden in a fully crowded fairground whereupon the park immediately is evacuated and people in panic run for their lives. Hello? How irresponsible may film makers be? No need to wonder at copycats in real life anymore. And what the hell has come over Sanju to join in and also crack a little bomb-blast joke?

No, even the nice insider gags with allusions to several films of stars like Madhuri Dixit or Shahrukh Khan (including Sanjay’s own blockbuster Munnabhai MBBS) cannot save this film for me; I just want to forget it. I don’t want recommend it either, except you are a fan of the young leading actors (of whom I want to make positive remarks only for Ayesha Takia and Sharman Joshi) or of ridiculous and partially ineffable Dhawan slapstick. Or except you are thus Sanjay-fanatic that you can bear this hamming role which surely was meant to be funny but unfortunately isn’t. Sorry, Sanju, you know I love you, but please: Never ever again do something like this Lucky!

Produced by Yashu Bhagnani; Directed by David Dhawan
134 Min.; DVD: Eros, English Subtitles (including songs); the DVD also contains a Making Of and reports of the Music Launch and the Première.
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