Netflix’s Meenakshi Sundareshwar Review: Sometimes Charming, Sometimes Boring

The 2021 romantic comedy Meenakshi Sundareshwar is directed by Vivek Soni and produced under the banner of Dharmatic Entertainment. The film revolves around the life of a couple who struggle with humour and hiccups in their long-distance marriage. Sanya Malhotra and Abhimanyu Dassani play the titular roles in the film with a supporting cast that includes Shiv Kumar Subramaniam and Sonali Sachdev. This Hindi language film has a runtime of 2 hours 21 minutes.

– Netflix’s Meenakshi Sundareshwar review does not contain spoilers –

Meenakshi Sundareshwar: A Arranged Marriage & What Follows

The film starts with a monologue from Abhimanyu Dassani’s Sundareshwar giving us a little mythology trip to the coming together of Lord Shiv (aka Sundareshwar) and Goddess Parvati (aka Meenakshi) as he goes on to tell his story with Sanya Malhotra’s Meenakshi. The film edges on the line of divine intervention that plays a part in making marriages work.

We witness shy, introverted Sundar meet confident, bubbly Meenakshi under the umbrella of an arranged marriage. The duo soon gets married but, a job prospect takes Sundar to a different city leaving his new bride at home. This gives rise to a series of events, some adorable and relatable, some angry and tragic. As the newlyweds try to bloom their flower of love and make their marriage work over the distance, they face challenges unbeknownst to them.

In some terms, the film can be called a musical with the music composed by Justin Prabhakaran and lyrics written by Raj Shekhar which the characters use as a medium to convey their emotions to the audience. One thing that really stands out in the film is how it follows a simple and relatable narrative to engage the audience. Over the years, Bollywood has lost its eye when it comes to romantic comedies delivering us with more action-packed pieces like Salman Khan’s ‘Tiger’ or pieces with drama and tragedy, like ‘Mimi.’ The art of making good romantic comedies seemed to be lost in the age of ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ and ‘Jab We Met.’

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Meenakshi Sundareshwar is the filmmaker’s ardent call to revive the charm of the long lost genre. The film shadows over the two main characters who are subtly funny and charismatic from the time you meet them. Sanya Malhotra is always an actor who you inevitable like when you see her on-screen. Abhimanyu Dassani is no less with his honest, soft and straight word attitude. The chemistry that sparks between our couple cannot be stereotyped by the physicality, instead, they take the route of yearning over the distance and forming a bond based on communication. Something which is gravely missed in today’s cinema with the girl and boy going from holding hands to steamy bedroom scenes in no time.

The odd aspect of this film is even though it starts so lovingly, it finds difficulty in coming to terms with the appropriate emotion to end the film with. This particular dilemma causes the film to slow down by the end. Nonetheless, all the actors deliver their best performance to hold our attention and make us feel attached to the film and root for our newly married.

Meenakshi Sundareshwar: Final Verdict

Meenakshi Sundareshwar gives an angle of reality to long-distance marriages without the thrill of infidelity, disrespect and falling apart. It shows two people trying to make it work, not against the world but, against the gap, they have put between themselves. And that just might be the best part about the film- how is it just about Meenakshi and Sundareshwar, and how they try to build a life in this modern world without distracting us with unpersuadable subplots.

You can stream the 2021 film Meenakshi Sundareshwar now on Netflix.

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