Tanu or Datto? (Post does not contain spoilers)
Imagine that there is going to be wedding in the family - who are you rooting for Tanu or Datto?
It's a bit late for a review - so this isn't one. It has been already established that Tanu Weds Manu Returns is an original and entertaining fare, a combination which is somewhat rare in Bollywood. (About the minor inconsistencies in the plot - that we can all live with, right?!) and I have nothing to add to what you may have already read or heard about it. A quick and big kudos to the team and actors who were just spot-on in their performances and especially to Kangana Ranaut for giving us Tanu and Datto.
So we have an incredible badass Tanu with all her idiosyncrasies and we have an immensely mature Datto with a passionate state-level accent. And I could not decide who I was rooting for and I still can't.
Not all of us can agree with Tanu - she thrives on challenges, flirts with all her heart and is a woe, to all. And yet, there is that endearing warmth in her that draws you close to her even as she points out the pointless in that brazen manner of hers. If complexity had another name, Tanu would probably be it.
Where we have Tanu - a rebel without a cause, we have Datto - a rebel with a cause. Don't get distracted by her humongous dental attributes (which may have contributed to her name) or her accented personality, she knows exactly what she wants and how to hold her ground with ease. She doesn't have airs, she knows her strengths, her weaknesses, and has a level head over her athletic shoulders.
Where we have Tanu - a rebel without a cause, we have Datto - a rebel with a cause. Don't get distracted by her humongous dental attributes (which may have contributed to her name) or her accented personality, she knows exactly what she wants and how to hold her ground with ease. She doesn't have airs, she knows her strengths, her weaknesses, and has a level head over her athletic shoulders.
Where am I going with this? They are not real characters, you may say, and my perception could well be purported from excellent work of the talented Ranaut.
True. No matter how much I would want them to be, they are what they are - screen characters. We may never see a real life Tanu wrapped in a tiny towel interrogating a prospective groom or a Datto exercising her freedom to make choices minus the heavyweight category risk of being hung or shot.
However, given the immense popularity of the movie, I kind of take heart in the assumption that we have made space for the likes of Tanu and Datto - graceful and crazy or crass and good-natured, but both empowered, the latter perhaps a bit more than the former. Time then to fill that space in flesh and blood.
So, imagine that there is going to be wedding in the family - who are you rooting for Tanu or Datto?
