The trailer of Namaste England, starring Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor, is out. Like its prequel Namaste London, it also features a man in love with Punjab, whose wife doesn’t quite see things the same way.
In Namaste London, the female lead was forced into an arranged marriage. She flew the nest shortly thereafter, leaving behind an Indian bridegroom, to be with her English boyfriend. In Namaste England, however, the female lead (Jasmeet) is in love with Param – the man-of-the-soil type. She marries him, realises that marriage and India don’t quite give her the freedom she craves. The freedom to live life on her own terms.
Param doesn’t understand her sentiments. Heck, he doesn’t even understand women, and he says this in the trailer, with a perplexed frown on his face.
Nobody understands women, Jasmeet retorts. Nobody ever tries to understand us.
And this is true of the film’s writer-director, Vipul Amritlal Shah, who writes the female lead as a woman who has to ask her husband for freedom. She has to leave her country to find fulfillment. This says a lot about the men here and the filmmakers.
And does she have it all when she reaches England?
No.
Param goes in search of his wife. Legally, illegally, anything will do, he tells someone in the trailer. And he is shown getting into trucks, boats – anything except an aeroplane, because visa issues. He stops over in Paris, and then ultimately finds his wife in England.
We guess that he’s here to take her back. He says that it doesn’t matter where one stays. All that matters is the person we stay with. He tells this in a bid to convince her to change her mind about London. But doesn’t it work both ways?
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Vipul Shah makes it very clear where our sympathies must lie. It is with the brooding Param, who complains that his wife is having an affair with London. She loves the city more than him.
The male lead is given a truly stirring song – ‘Tere Liye’ which has visuals of Param doing all sorts of things to reach his wife.
And despite all this, our sympathies are with Jasmeet, who is pushed to the point where she has to leave behind everything she knows, in order to feel independent. And get that taste of freedom.
The film with Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra in lead roles, is scheduled to release on October 19 this year.