The Great Weddings Of Munnes
Introduction
Onto the next release of the weekend and I finished watching the new Hindi series The Great Weddings Of Munnes on Voot Select last night. Even though I hadn’t watched its trailer, one of the reasons why I was looking forward to the show was because the show was helmed by Raaj Shaandilyaa. The man associated with The Kapil Sharma Show only to branch out and direct the Ayushmann starrer Dream Girl, had definitely shown promise even in his writing in his early days. Even his recent venture Janhit Mein Jaari was a laugh riot to begin with even though the film fell through in the second hour. So when it comes to comedy in a current day world, I would rate him right up there in terms of writing. Another aspect of his writing is that it is aimed at the family audience which means the comedy is clean without any double meaning dialogues. So with that hope I went in for the Voot Select show The Great Weddings Of Munnes and here are my two cents on the show.
Story & Screenplay
The Great Weddings Of Munnes follows the story of Munnes who in a strange turn of events travels across the country to marry and divorce a girl in order to eventually get married to his true love. The story is far fetched but hilarious and has all the right ingredients for a laugh riot. The screenplay standing at 10 episodes of roughly 20 to 30 odd minutes each means this drama can be easily binge watched. And the genius of Raaj Shaandilyaa shines through multiple one-liners(which I will get to in my next section).
The drama opens with a quick introduction of the protagonist and his family and before you know it, the sweet and love story kicks starts. One thing to bear in mind here is to not search for any logic in order to fully enjoy this drama. And so the quick love angle only to be followed by the conflict should not be viewed from a logical point of view. The drama is consistently hilarious with the humour ranging from situational to slapstick to at times both in what is essentially an out and out family entertainer.
The entire sequence of the protagonist meeting every girl in different corners of the country makes for an entertaining and hilarious watch. I pleasantly found myself laughing hysterically in so many sequences – be it the Rohtak sequence or the Hyderabad sequence which comprised of the first 4 episodes.
The drama and with it the humour slightly dips post that although the drama is consistently watchable. I did get a feeling that the writers just got a little carried away with the brilliant first half and so the second half is not as funny with the humour being seemingly forced in various places. But having said that, the humour does work in parts especially due to the outstanding performances which I will get to in my “Performances” section. The writing gets slightly convoluted, sluggish and cliched towards the end but many of the writing flaws are compensated with majorly the witty one-liners. The setup for season 2 is interesting marking a well written screenplay which is hilarious, witty and entertaining.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are witty and filled with plenty of one-liners which will make you laugh hysterically. The music is peppy and the soundtrack here is something which I plan to revisit again. The BGM is adequate and does what is needed of it. Director Sunil Subramani does a phenomenal job in delivering a wholesome family entertainer. Yes, his direction may be slightly rough around the edges in the second hour but he still manages to keep the humour flowing throughout and that is a bit of an accomplishment.
Performances
The performances are simply outstanding here and they enhance the drama in a big way. Priya Gupta, Juhi Sesani, Mamta Verma, Shirin Sewani, Bhanwarlal Jori, Pankaj Berry and Pankaj Dheer all have their moments to shine. Priti Shroff as Titli is first rate. Neha Kaul as Sumitra is pretty good. Palak Jaiswal has a good presence onscreen. Chetan Sharma as Ikka is hilarious and he cracked me up everytime he was blogging in the series. Sunil Chitkara had another interesting quality of always being negative about things which seamlessly translated into some hilarious scenes. Paresh Ganatra had an anecdote about cards and he is a prolific actor with a brilliant sense of comic timing. He managed to pull off some of the most hilarious lines. Sunita Rajwar is outstanding here and her comic timing has always been on point, she is hilarious here. I was really happy to watch Aakash Dabhade getting such a meaty and interesting part. As Suresh, he is bustling with energy with a comic timing to die for. Barkha Singh as Mahi looks pretty and definitely makes her presence felt. Abhishek Banerjee as Munnes is such a wonderful performer(we all know that by now) and I just loved how effortless he was in his role here.
Conclusion
The Great Weddings Of Munnes is a hilarious and wholesome family entertainer. Available on Voot Select.