Director: Sai Kabir
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Avneet Kaur
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Rating: 2 stars
While watching Sai Kabir’s Tiku Weds Sheru, I was transported to the 90s. Sadly, not in a pleasant way. I am not talking about some rose-tinted wave of nostalgia where the film reminded me of some good memory (or film) from my childhood. Instead, it reminded me of all the over-the-top loud films from that era where titilation was instroduced for shock value and subtlety was chucked out of the window. Tiku Weds Sheru is from that genre of cinema, and it has arrived three decades too late.
As the title suggests, the film is the story of Tasleem Tiku Khan (Avneet Kaur), a girl from Bhopal who harbours the dream of becoming a superstar but is shacked by her family. She is betrothed to Shiraz Sheru Khan (Nawazuddin Sidduqui), a junior artiste who moonlights as a pimp. While Sheru falls for this beautiful girl. Tiku sees him as her ticket to Mumbai where her boyfriend is waiting. A saga of twists and turns ensues where Tiku and Sheru dream, rise, fall, both alone and together.
Kangana Ranaut, who has produced this film, recently remarked that initially, the story was supposed to star her opposite the late Irrfan Khan in the lead. And I can very well get behind this casting. A young Kangana would have aced Tiku. This is not to take anything away from the performers here. Avneet Kaur has performed admirably well in a role that was not very well written. The young actress has brought out her best dramatic side to portray Tiku’s wide-eyed innocence as well as her ferocity and resilience. She has just been let down by some pretty shoddy writing.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, as always, coasts through the film. He is effortless as Sheru and very admirably brings out constrasting sides of this man, who wants the world to see him as a suave star but is, in fact, a broken, timid man. But like his co-star, Nawaz falters because his role has not been sketched out properly.
I will chalk down the lapses of this film to Sai Kabir’s direction and and his and Amit Tiwari’s writing. While tackling a subject like film industry, casting couch, and the dreams of ‘outsiders’, the writers have discarded any semblance of subtlety and decided to jackhammer each point down our throats. The film gets too over-the-top and too dramatic in various places. The dialogue is pretty dated and takes away from the seriousness of the narrative. This also makes the otherwise earnest performances of the cast seem inconsistent. Apart from the two leads, veteran actors like Vipin Sharma and Zakir Hussain do fine jobs with their limited roles but are, yet gain, constricted by some weak direction.
Tiku Weds Sheru could have been so much more than what it is. It is an oppirtunity squandered. A cautionary tale, an ode to Mumbai and Bollywood, and a tribute to the struggles of ebery aspiring actor: these themese deserved better treatment than what this film gives them – very harsh and dated.
