Pati Patni Aur Woh

 

Title reminded me of Sanjeev Kumar’s 1978 hit ‘Pati Patni Aur Woh’ the original film starred Sanjeev Kumar as Pati (Husband), Vidya Sinha as Patni (Wife) and Ranjeeta as Woh (the mistress), the new starring Kartik Aaryan, Bhumi Pednekar and Ananya Panday. It is produced by T-Series and BR Studios. The concept of extra-marital affairs has probably existed ever since the institution of marriage came into existence, and this is the premise of Pati Patni Aur Woh.

Abhinav "Chintu" Tyagi is an ordinary, middle-class man from Kanpur, and a government engineer in the Public Works Department. He has been married to Vedika Tripathi, a physics tuition teacher from Lucknow, for three years at the time of the story. Chintu is happy in Kanpur, but he is harassed by his controlling parents for not planning a child, and by Vedika who wants to move to a big city. He often seeks advice from his PWD colleague and childhood friend Fahim Rizvi.

Bored in his day-to-day life, Chintu suddenly finds comfort in Tapasya Singh, a young wannabe fashion designer from Delhi he met at his office. Chintu finds himself drawn towards Tapasya and decides to enjoy his life. At a hotel pool, he lies to her that Vedika is having an affair with a certain Rakesh Yadav, who is actually a student of her class besotten with her. Fahim is peeved when he comes to know of the matter, and laments that, in trying to save Chintu repeatedly from various situations, he will himself fall into serious trouble, and so it does.

Vedika see both of them in a mall, and realise he is cheating on her, so leaves home early to attend Kanupriya's wedding. There she discovers her ex-boyfriend Doga, a local bad boy whom she had left for Chintu, and the two get on well. Meanwhile Chintu goes to Tapasya's home in Delhi and meets her friends. One morning, Rakesh Yadav, a flirt and Vedika's student, who has come with Fahim, finds a morose and depressed Chintu at his home and informs him that Vedika is leaving for Canada for good. The three rush to the Lucknow airport, with Chintu's family and the police in hot pursuit. At the airport, Chintu finds Vedika, Tapasya and Doga. He tries to stop them, but Tapasya spares him, saying that she will not slap him no matter how much she wants to, because he did not get physical with her while in Delhi. He finds out that it is Doga who is going to Canada and that this was Doga's plan to make him realise Vedika's worth. Vedika forgives him and they reconcile.

Nothing new, nothing unexpected. Mudassar Aziz's masala entertainer was a stark contrast to the one made in 1978 ; in that the female characters appeared to be helpless in the earlier one, but in this both of them are strong women, available and ready to help one another. Comming of age ha?