5 Weddings is the story about a half white, half Indian journalist who returns to India for a piece she is writing on Indian weddings and wedding ceremonies.
However things aren't all simple as her parents had split when she was just 6 years old and she hadn't seen her father since even though he tried to keep in contact but her mother didn't let him. So now years later her mother gives her a package with family photos to give to her father in India that he had been requesting for a long time and who she has finally forgiven. Shania's father, her stance on love and her piece on weddings form the crux of the story. The story however is weak, it's not well done and it does the film a gross injustice. The movie is 1h 30m and it's just not enough to do justice to the film.
The story arc of Shania and her dad is interesting but ultimately unrewarding, it allows some emotional scenes but could have been so much better. Unfortunately the film tried to fit to much into to short a time frame and each story arc feels rushed and not fleshed out.
Shania's views on love is put to the test when she meets her liaison officer Harbhajan Singh and starts to fall for him. Unfortunately this arc as well doesn't get enough meat to it and is not fleshed out. We have them meeting, they go to a few weddings for her writing piece but soon she is leaving and they end up declaring their love for one another while juggling the drama currently happening in the film. Again another good story arc that just feels super rushed, like it's on 16x speed. If they had made this film 2h30m to 3h in length, they would have had enough screen time to do justice to the romantic story arc between Shania and Harbhajan as well as the relationship between Shania and her father and the package she was meant to deliver to him.
Casting wise I won't complain, Shania Dhaliwal is played by the beautiful Nargis Fakhri who gives us a good performance in the movie. However it's not a great performance and her character is sorely lacking in development and comes across as a "modern American" girl whose sleeping with her assistant to a girl whose suddenly realized love and marriage is actually maybe important before you go and start sleeping with someone. That being said I don't blame the actress, she does the best she can with the story and script she is given. The fault on her character being kinda boring and going from A to Z is purely on the poor, rushed storyline and script. So props to Nargis for doing a good job with limited material. Harbhajan Singh is played by Rajkummar Rao and he does a absolutely amazing job playing the cop who also falls in love with the girl (though unfortunately she has already been sleeping around with her assistant so she is second hand goods, F) and has to pick between trying to do what he thinks is right and orders from his superior. His character not being the main character or having as many story lines revolving around him, allow him to shine even with the lack luster script; something that Nargis's character Shania unfortunately cannot do without more substance and a better script.
Song wise, I don't really know what to say. There was no title of feature songs; in fact the only songs/music that is played is during the 5 weddings that Shania and Harbhajan attend.
To wrap things up let me summarize this review; The story was frankly disappointing, it had so much potential but was to rushed and had no substance to each story arc it contained. The casting was good, Rajkummar Rao shines in his role as Harbhajan Singh while Nargis Fakhri is certainly eye candy and does the best she can in her role as Shania Dhaliwal. Unfortunately she is limited and dragged down by the weak story and short runtime and is not allowed to shine. The music is alright but nothing great, you may not even notice it to be honest. I give 5 weddings a 7/10 for a few reasons, The story had potential and was still interesting to me in it's current state though the movie loses all 3 stars here. I give the movie 3 stars for Rajkummar Rao and another 3 for Nargis Fakhri both who did good jobs with what they had. The final star the movie gets is because I still enjoyed it even in its current state. Though it may be a while before I decided to ever give it a rewatch.
P. S. If the guy had been sleeping around he would also be second hand goods. No double standard here xD.
However things aren't all simple as her parents had split when she was just 6 years old and she hadn't seen her father since even though he tried to keep in contact but her mother didn't let him. So now years later her mother gives her a package with family photos to give to her father in India that he had been requesting for a long time and who she has finally forgiven. Shania's father, her stance on love and her piece on weddings form the crux of the story. The story however is weak, it's not well done and it does the film a gross injustice. The movie is 1h 30m and it's just not enough to do justice to the film.
The story arc of Shania and her dad is interesting but ultimately unrewarding, it allows some emotional scenes but could have been so much better. Unfortunately the film tried to fit to much into to short a time frame and each story arc feels rushed and not fleshed out.
Shania's views on love is put to the test when she meets her liaison officer Harbhajan Singh and starts to fall for him. Unfortunately this arc as well doesn't get enough meat to it and is not fleshed out. We have them meeting, they go to a few weddings for her writing piece but soon she is leaving and they end up declaring their love for one another while juggling the drama currently happening in the film. Again another good story arc that just feels super rushed, like it's on 16x speed. If they had made this film 2h30m to 3h in length, they would have had enough screen time to do justice to the romantic story arc between Shania and Harbhajan as well as the relationship between Shania and her father and the package she was meant to deliver to him.
Casting wise I won't complain, Shania Dhaliwal is played by the beautiful Nargis Fakhri who gives us a good performance in the movie. However it's not a great performance and her character is sorely lacking in development and comes across as a "modern American" girl whose sleeping with her assistant to a girl whose suddenly realized love and marriage is actually maybe important before you go and start sleeping with someone. That being said I don't blame the actress, she does the best she can with the story and script she is given. The fault on her character being kinda boring and going from A to Z is purely on the poor, rushed storyline and script. So props to Nargis for doing a good job with limited material. Harbhajan Singh is played by Rajkummar Rao and he does a absolutely amazing job playing the cop who also falls in love with the girl (though unfortunately she has already been sleeping around with her assistant so she is second hand goods, F) and has to pick between trying to do what he thinks is right and orders from his superior. His character not being the main character or having as many story lines revolving around him, allow him to shine even with the lack luster script; something that Nargis's character Shania unfortunately cannot do without more substance and a better script.
Song wise, I don't really know what to say. There was no title of feature songs; in fact the only songs/music that is played is during the 5 weddings that Shania and Harbhajan attend.
To wrap things up let me summarize this review; The story was frankly disappointing, it had so much potential but was to rushed and had no substance to each story arc it contained. The casting was good, Rajkummar Rao shines in his role as Harbhajan Singh while Nargis Fakhri is certainly eye candy and does the best she can in her role as Shania Dhaliwal. Unfortunately she is limited and dragged down by the weak story and short runtime and is not allowed to shine. The music is alright but nothing great, you may not even notice it to be honest. I give 5 weddings a 7/10 for a few reasons, The story had potential and was still interesting to me in it's current state though the movie loses all 3 stars here. I give the movie 3 stars for Rajkummar Rao and another 3 for Nargis Fakhri both who did good jobs with what they had. The final star the movie gets is because I still enjoyed it even in its current state. Though it may be a while before I decided to ever give it a rewatch.
P. S. If the guy had been sleeping around he would also be second hand goods. No double standard here xD.