Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhan takes on homophobia bravely but ineffectually

The film is a crackling comedy in parts and a brave take on choice more than sexual preferences

Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhan is about two gay men but it’s not a love story. Writer and debutant director, Hitesh Kewalya, hurriedly establishes the chemistry between its two leading men by recreating the nauseously romantic “take my hand and catch the train to happily ever after” scene from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. He then moves on to call out those who are physically repulsed at the sight of two male bodies colliding with their lips. What follows is pungent irony. The “Vivaah Special Express” that Kartik Singh (Ayushmann Khurrana) and Aman Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) have dramatically boarded is not an