Mere
Husband
Ki
Biwi
collapses
into
an
unremarkable
My
Best
Friend’s
Wedding
knock-off
reducing
a
woman’s
worth
to
a
catfight,
observes
Sukanya
Verma.
Between
done-to-death
tropes
and
flimsily
updated
ones,
Mere
Husband
Ki
Biwi
sticks
to
ancient
formulae
yet
gives
a
semblance
of
keeping
up
with
the
times
only
to
confirm
that
old
habits
die
hard.
In
Mudassar
Aziz’s
routine
rom-com,
a
divorcee
dangles
between
his
fiery
ex
and
doting
fiancée
sparking
off
a
battle
for
one-upmanship.
It
starts
like
a
cheesy
David
Dhawan
comedy
salvaged
by
Govinda’s
inimitable
lunacy
back
in
the
day
and
advances
into
a
My
Best
Friend’s
Wedding
rehash
sans
the
deliciousness
of
Julia
Roberts
and
Cameron
Diaz’s
jell-o
pitted
against
creme
brulee.
Except
this
return
to
the
1990s
style
of
whimsy
evokes
more
nausea
than
nostalgia
with
its
drab
humour
and
out
of
sync
performances.
Once
again,
Delhi-based
Punjabi
boys
and
girls
are
in
the
fray
of
this
burned-out
love
triangle,
which
begins
with
Piyush
Mishra’s
frantic
voiceover
on
how
the
shaadi
sucks
syndrome
has
sapped
the
life
out
of
Ankur
Chaddha
(Arjun
Kapoor)
haunted
by
ex-wife
Prableen
Dhillon’s
(Bhumi
Pednekar)
ghostly
memories.
She’s
alive
and
amnesiac,
selectively
of
course,
which
proves
to
be
a
glitch
in
his
upcoming
wedding
to
Antara
Khanna
(Rakul
Singh)
since
in
her
head,
Prableen’s
still
happily
married
to
Ankur.
Replace
Julia
Robert’s
jealous
BFF
instincts
with
Mera
ex-Pati
Sirf
Mera
Hai
obduracy
and
forgotten
pacts
with
retrograde
amnesia
and
Mere
Husband
Ki
Biwi
collapses
into
an
unfunny,
unremarkable
My
Best
Friend’s
Wedding
knock-off
reducing
a
woman’s
worth
to
a
catfight
while
the
guy
coolly
tells
her
off
at
every
opportunity.
As
much
as
one
appreciates
Mudassar
Aziz’s
efforts
to
keep
the
hysterics
down,
a
rarity
for
such
a
premise,
the
tug
of
war
he’s
conducting
has
its
roots
so
deep
in
soap
opera
energy,
the
restrained
approach
rarely
works
until
subverted
to
produce
sharp,
self-aware
humour.
Tossing
Israel-Palestine
or
Russia-Ukraine
war
references
as
casually
as
blinking
eyelids,
cheeping
Naatu
Naatu
like
a
euphemism
for
bam
wham
thank
you
ma’am
or
the
sight
of
a
man
puking,
girl
giggling
and
love
is
in
the
air-announcing
romantic
ballads
playing
on
cue
is
certainly
not
a
step
in
the
right
direction.
Nor
is
a
cast
ill-equipped
to
lift
the
material
from
hmm
to
heh.
Harsh
Gujral
pitches
in
the
mandatory
expressionless
standup
comic
turned
one-liner
muttering
best
friend
to
the
hero.
Speaking
of
which,
Arjun
Kapoor
pays
several
hat
tips
to
Shah
Rukh
Khan’s
romantic
antics
but
neither
his
smitten
kitten
ardour
nor
straightforward
sulking
works
for
Mere
Husband
Ki
Biwi‘s
innately
roguish
vibe.
Rakul
Singh’s
saucy
pout
and
Bhumi
Pednekar’s
hammy
display
channel
Raveena
Tandon
and
Karisma
Kapoor’s
rivalry
of
sass
but
cannot
muster
the
emotional
excesses
that
came
so
organically
to
the
’90s
divas.
Mostly
though,
it’s
a
pity
to
watch
Bhumi’s
jumbled
character
description
jumping
from
career-obsessed
to
chudail
for
no
apparent
reason
across
Mere
Husband
Ki
Biwi‘s
deceptively
sober
prism.
The
ultimate
male
fantasy
isn’t
gone
anywhere.
From
men
dancing
between
women
ready
to
claw
each
other’s
eyes
out
for
his
attention
to
women
proposing
to
women
on
behalf
of
the
men
they
love
or
lose,
if
anything,
it’s
unlocked
new
levels.
Mere
Husband
Ki
Biwi Review
Rediff
Rating:
