2 States Review

I loved this film. Just loved it. I sobbed with tears running down my face through the last third. It really touched my heart.

Krish and Ananya meet at their MBA grad school. She wants to just be friends and study partners, but Krish can't help falling in love, which leads to my favorite song of the movie "Locha-e-ulfit" which the subtitles translate to "Confuzzled in love". :)

This is modern Bollywood, and Ananya not only kisses Krish when he confesses his love, but they soon fall into bed together, and live together for the rest of their time at college. There is a beautiful song montage that takes you through various festivals to show the time passing. But Krish's proposal of marriage as their MBA program is ending is just the beginning of their story. She is from Chennai, and he is from Punjab. Her parents and his mother hate each other almost from first sight at their graduation ceremony and Krish's mother uses a slur about Southern Indians. Krish's alcoholic dad doesn't even bother to show.

Krish works hard to win over Ananya's parents in Chennai, and slowly does. That's just the first hurdle. Krish's mother is horrible to Ananya when she visits Punjab for a family wedding with Krish, and Ananya learns just how dysfunctional his relationship is with his father. The couple tries to have a vacation for the families to meet and it goes disastrously. Ananya gives up, and breaks off their engagement. Krish becomes depressed to the point of suicide. His father saves the day by visiting Ananya's parents in Chennai and smoothing things over.

2 States is based on the book by Chetan Bhagat (who also wrote the book that 3 Idiots was adapted from). I gather it's mostly autobiographical. I don't know a lot about the cultural differences and prejudices between Northern and Southern Indians, but this movie shows how hard all of that is to overcome for the couple to get together, on top of getting parents to agree to a love marriage instead of an arranged one. In India, saying "We love each other. Shouldn't that be enough?" really isn't. As Krish says, the families have to get along, too. Being in an interfaith marriage myself, I can understand some of the chasm that they had to bridge.

I thought Arjun Kapoor was fantastic as Krish, and Alia Bhatt really won me over. I wasn't impressed with her in Student of the Year, but she was absolutely charming in 2 States. This film is the best of new Bollywood, all of the great songs, but with a realistic conflict and drama to match any Hollywood film.