It won’t be a surprise if one expected Tiku Weds Sheru to be a part of the Tanu Weds Manu universe. The obvious tell is the title itself. The Tiku in question is also a boisterous, rebellious, Tier-2 city girl who agrees to marry a less attractive suitor for ulterior motives. Sheru, on the other hand, is a hopeless romantic who likes to watch her laugh. The film even has Kangana Ranaut as the producer.
One can also expect Tiku Weds Sheru to be another feather in the sehra of its lead Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The actor has lately been indulging in ‘marriage comedies’, (for Bollywood nothing comforts better than a wedding) latest being Jogira Sara Ra Ra. Tiku…, if it has to be explained, is a rom-com mish-mashed and mismatched with grim, gritty realism. It is a small-town comedy trying to fit in a big bad city drama. The result is as funny and as absurd as a photograph of Nawazuddin holding a camera in a still from Photograph (2019).
Shiraz ‘Sheru’ Khan Afghani (Siddiqui) is a jugaadu junior artiste by day and pimp by night (‘Whatever I do, I do with passion’). He walks around a movie set like he owns it and claims himself to be a royal without an estate. He gets a marriage proposal and has to take a train back to his hometown, Bhopal. The prospective bride is the free-spirited Tasleem ‘Tiku’ Khan (Avneet Kaur). She rejects him initially because of his unconventional looks. I expected a film in which love blooms when the female lead discovers the male protagonist’s selflessness as his inner beauty or something. But then she agrees as she also harbours a dream of becoming an actress. The wedding is a win-win for both. Tiku gets to escape her patriarchal family, Sheru gets Rs 10 lakh in dowry (he has debts to pay).
Back in Mumbai, Tiku absconds but not with the money (a movie for another day). She is pregnant and meets her boyfriend who promised to make her a star. Turns out he is married. Dejected, Tiku returns and Sheru accepts her and the baby. I expected a title reveal before the credits roll: ‘Sheru accepts Tiku’s Return’. But what I would consider the climax in any other opposites attract love story turns out to be mere padding in Tiku Weds Sheru.
It is ultimately revealed that the film is basically about two dreamers in the city of dreams. Tiku, after two drinks, spills out that she never wanted to be poor and would choose death over it. Sheru, in order to win her over, starts selling drugs. He gets jailed and Tiku has to fend for herself. We know how that will turn out.
Tiku… has a tonal imbalance. It starts off as being a marriage comedy then becomes a marriage drama and finally becomes a story of Mumbai and its thousand failed dreams. It’s like pasting a Laxman Utekar film onto a Madhur Bhandarkar film.
Siddiqui at times tries to pull it back into the comedy sphere. He summons his inner Travis Bickle when asked if he can dance (‘You talking to me?’) before breaking out into a salsa. He fake-cries when cornered and stops as if a switch is turned off. Regular, Siddiqui comic signatures now seem to be fading.
Avneet Kaur, in her debut lead appearance, is desperate to leave a mark. She cries profusely in the shower, loudly professes her love at the beach and when all else fails, exhibits her dancing acumen in an ill-fitted item number. But by the end, the film can do nothing but ‘drag’. Finally reunited, Tiku has a script idea for Sheru. It’s called ‘Shaadi Ka Laddoo’. Ah, damn, here we go again.
Tiku Weds Sheru
Directed by: Sai Kabir
Written by: Amit Tiwari and Sai Kabir
Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Avneet Kaur, Vipin Sharma, Zakir Hussain
Rating: 2/5