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List of KDramas and Their Grades

To make your next drama selection a little easier, I have sorted all the Korean dramas I've watched into one list, ranked by grade. They...

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

InFilm to Watch: Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015)

Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015)


Lower middle-class Prem Prakash Tiwari owns a small cassette tape shop in the local market in the year 1995, living at home with his parents and aunt, with little ambition to do anything with his life. He is a high school dropout and his family struggles to make ends meet, until one day Prem's father comes up with a plan to arrange a marriage for Prem to a well-educated middle class woman. She has credentials and plans to become a teacher, thus providing more stable income for their whole family. Prem is reluctant, and even more so when he meets his bride, Sandhya, and sees she is overweight. What happens when an acquaintance makes a bet with Prem's family over who will win the local wife-carrying race? Will the new couple be able to accept their arranged marriage, or will the immature Prem ruin his chances at a loving relationship?

*I liked the transformation Prem experiences as he grows to appreciate his wife, show his vulnerable side, and as she too learns to support and love him. There is a scene where she slaps Prem (a well-deserved hit for calling her a fat cow in public while drunk), but he immediately slaps her back. That was hard for me to watch, since in America it is culturally unacceptable for a man to strike a woman, ever. Prem was chastized and beaten by his father afterwards, but there didn't seem to be as much shock over his behavior as I was expecting. It was also interesting how relatable this film was on several levels, since most people are virgins in the Indian culture when they marry, just like in the LDS culture. (It doesn't show anything, just a little kissing). I would say this film is close to a mild PG-13, simply because of some of the subject matter which included talk of suicide and marital relations. I might watch this again.*

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