ETimes Decoded: How Payal and Tanuja’s friendship in Tanu Weds Manu was a welcome break from the sugar-coated, caricaturish depictions on screen | Hindi Movie News – Times of India

Often in Bollywood, friendships depicted on screen are linear and one dimensional – ranging from Dosti (1964), to Zanjeer (1975) to Sholay (1975). In recent decades though, some movies like Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Rang De Basanti (2006), and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) have managed to get it quite right in the ‘bromance’ domain. However, except a Queen (2013), Parched (2015), or Angry Indian Goddesses (2015) scattered far and wide, female friendships in mainstream Bollywood have largely been limited to the two leading ladies falling in love with the same man (think Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega, Mujhse Dosti Karoge!) – and while one of them gets him, the other either still pines for him decades later, or quickly moves on to find someone new, just before the end credits roll in, signalling a ‘Happy Ending’ for one and all.

Here is where a movie like Tanu Weds Manu(2011), directed by Aanand L.

Rai, comes like a breath of fresh air. While in its entirety, the romantic drama, starring R. Madhavan and Kangana Ranaut in lead roles is essentially a love story between the feistyTanuja Trivedi (Tanu) and the humble, reticent Manoj K. Sharma (Manu), it also brought to the fore a realistic, fresh bond between Tanu and Payal (played by Swara Bhasker). Of course, there was the inimitable Pappi Bhaiya (Deepak Dobriyal), Manu’s nerdy, but lovable friend and confidant lighting up the screen with his impeccable comic timing, but we will keep him for another day…
In one of the scenes, Payal is seen getting her best friend ready for her engagement to part goon, part businessman Raja Awasthi (Jimmy Sheirgill), who the rebel Tanu has chosen over the quiet, unassuming London based doctor Manu, who in turn, is madly in love with her. Visibly exasperated at the way Tanu leads her life, newly married Payal nevertheless, cuts short her honeymoon and heads back for her friend’s big day, even as she berates her by saying, “Tu na bhatakti aatma hai, tujhe kabhi shaanti nahi milegi“. (you are a hapless soul, you will never get salvation)
A far cry from the caricaturish, gooey, almost whimsical friendships we see on screen, Payal and Tanu’s relationship is a reality check we all need in life. While loving her friend to bits, Payal, at no point, puts up with her tantrums and a ‘rebel without a cause attitude’. Constantly reminding Tanu that college life and its antics are over, Payal is unfiltered, often brash, yet the perfect foil to the otherwise confused and messy Tanu.
While there is no backstory to Payal and Tanu’s friendship and they are just known to be college friends, writer Himanshu Sharma does a brilliant job of painting them as realistically as possible – two small town girls who have been with each other through thick and thin, sharing joy and sorrow (and an occasional cigarette), are each other’s backbone, yet do not shy from calling each other out, if needed. Their conversation is also free-flowing, colloquial and sans pretence, often peppered with a healthy dose of sarcasm, common with close friends.

While never distancing herself from Tanu, despite her eccentricities, Payal is constantly trying to show her the mirror, knowing well enough what a perfect man Manu is and fervently hoping that better sense prevails into her best friend.
Throughout the movie, Payal also raises a pertinent point about how you do not have to be a rebel, just for the heck of it and defying your parents for something they are doing for your own good is passé and not termed ‘cool’ anymore. When Tanu’s family eventually comes around to her and Raja’s alliance, all thanks to Manu convincing them, Payal is the only one to realise that even this is not enough to make Tanu happy, deep down knowing that she will now rue the fact that her ‘freedom’ to go against her parents has been taken away from her.
As Payal perfectly sums it up by telling Tanu, “Madhubala nahi ho, jo puri duniya tumhare prem mein bhaagti rahe” (you are no Madhubala, that everyone will run around madly in your love), we too often, need someone to jolt us out of our self-induced vain slumber.
You can watch Tanu Weds Manu on a leading OTT channel
ETimes Decoded is our new, weekly column where we deconstruct movies, characters or plots to uncover a fresh, often undiscovered perspective.