‘Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari’ trailer: Diljit pe Manoj bhari?

Going by the very ebullient trailer of Abhishek Sharma’s  Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari  I wondered what came first, the title or the story idea? I mean, wouldn’t it be the easiest thing in the world to sign Manoj Bajpai and  Diljit Dosanjh to play two characters in a cat-and-mouse game named Suraj and Mangal just so that you could name your film Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari?

Everything after that falls in place effortlessly. Diljit again plays a goofy self-deprecating cute but annoying Punjabi munda with a fetish for the angrezi bhasha. Diljit can do this with his eyes closed. But this is the first time I see him mouth  double-meaning  dialogues like,  “I can speak English ghanta” and  worse still , “Papa ka doodh main hi dekhta hoon”

For a family dealing with dairy products the punchlines are woefully curdled.

Okay, I am not losing hope about the level of humour in the presentation. Sometimes the trailer  gives  off the wrong vibes. I am sure the level of humour is better than the above. It has to be. With Manoj Bajpai around. As a detective who specializes in spying on bridegrooms-to-be, Bajpai  has a ball in various disguises.

After a series of heavy psychologically traumatized character this is just the change Bajpai and his fans needed. Hence on the lowest level of expectations, we can  hope to see Manoj Bajpai letting his hair down. And having fun (though  I  have to admit he makes the worst  drag queen ever seen). There are other very good actors  visible in  the trailer like Sipriya Pilgoankar, Annu Kapoor and Manoj Pahwa.

But I am afraid the lines that they get to mouth on screen are not half as amusing to us as they are to people on screen. As of now,  from the two Diwali releases on the streaming platform, Anurag Basu’s Ludo has the edge. But you never know.