Tanu Weds Manu

Manu, a doctor working in London, comes to India to get married. In Kanpur, the woman he is introduced to, Tanu, is asleep and sedated at the time. Manu decides the moment he sees her. When Tanu wakes, the first thing she says is that she loves someone else and does not want this marriage. The subject is not romance but whether a man will accept the answer no. Manu withdraws and starts helping Tanu make her own choice, and what is interesting is that the hero demands nothing for a long stretch. The form is a wedding comedy set in the small cities of northern India: crowded families, noisy streets, ceremonies arriving one after another. It is one of the examples of mainstream Indian cinema turning at that time from the metropolis to the provinces. The production changed Kangana Ranaut's career; until then she had been seen mostly in dark roles. It was an unexpected box office success and was followed by a sequel. Aanand L. Rai directs. R. Madhavan plays Manu and Jimmy Shergill the man Tanu loves. Who it is for: viewers who like Indian romantic comedy and provincial wedding stories. Who it is not for: anyone who wants the woman treated in her own right; the film keeps describing Tanu through how men see her.