Happy Bhag Jayegi

Mudassar Aziz's 2016 Indian film begins with Happy fleeing an arranged marriage, boarding the wrong lorry and waking up in Lahore. The person forced to help her get home is the son of a former governor, himself in the middle of a political calculation. What makes it interesting is turning the tension between India and Pakistan into ground for comedy rather than threat: each side knows the other's cliches, and the film plays with that knowledge. Diana Penty's Happy is written as the one who decides. Jimmy Shergill's abandoned groom is the film's best comic line. The story loses its shape in the second half. Who it's for: viewers who like Indian comedy and stories that cross borders. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a tightly built narrative, or troubled by political matters used as comic material.