3
Esha
In my daydreams
This review may contain spoilers
Extreme Amount of Slapstick and Dumbness Go Hand in Hand
Congrats My Ex! is a Thai comedy film starring Bella Ranee, Bright Vachirawit, Mahir Pandhi and Anahita Bhooshan in lead roles. It is about Risa, a wedding planner who has to plan an extravagant wedding of Arun, her Indian ex-boyfriend, to his fiancée Monica and accommodate their extremely large respective families, all for the money. To make things worse, she has to hire her jack-of-all-trades younger ex Tim to be their wedding photographer under certain circumstances, leading to chaotic and comical events.
The start of it was a chaotic mess, but in a good way. I enjoyed the first half of it a lot, especially when Risa’s friends embarrass her with the story of her and Arun’s past, which they did it in a musical, that was enjoyable since I am a music person, and when Risa went to meet Tim, while he was doing a magic show and the chase sequence followed by them arguing was hilarious. The other things I liked about it was that the depiction of Indian wedding was a lot on point, and Coolforthesummer already mentioned it so I’d suggest you read their review first for better insight, but I also liked the Sangeet the mot, because I loved how “Bollywood” it was and that all of the four actors mentioned danced to a Hindi song. I also liked the chemistry between Bright and Bella, much more than that of Bella and Mahir. I liked it when they were in conflict because it was the most fun out of the movie (plus when Tim couldn’t swim in shallow water, it had me in splits). I somehow find it refreshing that they incorporate a lot of Bollywoodness in another movie though I’m not the biggest fan of Bollywood musicals. In short, the depiction of Indo-Thai culture was nice, because a lot of it didn’t feel real, and I’ll get to that. The settings and location was very pretty, as well as the costumes (I can’t stop gushing over how good Bright and Bella look in Indian cloths in the Sangeet part).
This is my first-time seeing Bella Ranee’s work, and she did well in her job. She and Bright made me laugh. Mahir Pandhi was decent, though I didn’t like his character at all, and his line delivery seemed forced. Anahita Bhooshan was actually good.
Now to what I disliked about this movie. The second half of it got on my nerves, and I only endured it for Bright, not only because I like him, but also his character is the most tolerable out of all the characters on this movie. I hated how the part that Monica knew that Risa was Arun’s ex and that Arun is still in love with her was dealt with, and when Arun was about to have a moment with Risa in the climax, and I really felt sorry for Monica at that time. They could’ve kept the basic plot with Arun being open about Risa being his ex and having conflicts about it prior going to Thailand to get married. Or if this was dealt with better.
Risa also annoyed me to an extent. This character lacks maturity as a full-grown woman. However, out of all the characters, Arun annoyed me the most. God, whenever I see him confused/still in love with Risa, I was like, “Indian men, Indian men”, yeah!! Like please make a clear decision, and also what’s there to hide about the fact that Risa was his ex to his fiancée? Why did you even choose to marry her and at the same time have a moment with Risa, a day before the wedding? This is beyond my comprehension, and I actually felt sorry for Monica in the end. But it was dealt with poorly, when Monica chose to marry him anyways! They wouldn’t even last a month of divorce was seen on a more positive light and if anyone stopped caring about “log kya kahenge?” (What will people say?). Another thing I want to point out is that when Arun’s dad had a heart attack, why did Tim do the CPR himself instead of calling the ambulance?
The English dialogues made me cringe. It was written in a really cheesy way that no one would be convinced by that kind of speech, especially Arun’s monologues and all! And also, it makes sense for young generation urban Indians to speak English to each other but I didn’t understand why the older generation Indian characters in this movie spoke English? As an Indian myself, I observed that older-generation Indians would speak to each other in Hindi, unless if they’re from different states or so. But in this movie, all of them are families, and even Arun’s parents are speaking to each other in English in private. That robs the authenticity of the portrayal of a different culture. Although the Hindu/Indian culture was depicted well, I wish a native Hindi-speaking scriptwriter wrote the dialogues spoken by the Indian characters, because the characters seem to come from North India if I’m not mistaken.
Overall, it was a fun watch, with a lot comedy and all, but the story was really dumb in the end, though I’m glad Risa and Tim actually got together in the end because Bella and Bright indeed have chemistry. But it got straight-up dumb in the end combined with slapstick comedy. It isn’t completely unwatchable, but the only way to watch and tolerate this movie is 1. Turn off your brain and enjoy the ride and 2. Only focus on Bright.
The start of it was a chaotic mess, but in a good way. I enjoyed the first half of it a lot, especially when Risa’s friends embarrass her with the story of her and Arun’s past, which they did it in a musical, that was enjoyable since I am a music person, and when Risa went to meet Tim, while he was doing a magic show and the chase sequence followed by them arguing was hilarious. The other things I liked about it was that the depiction of Indian wedding was a lot on point, and Coolforthesummer already mentioned it so I’d suggest you read their review first for better insight, but I also liked the Sangeet the mot, because I loved how “Bollywood” it was and that all of the four actors mentioned danced to a Hindi song. I also liked the chemistry between Bright and Bella, much more than that of Bella and Mahir. I liked it when they were in conflict because it was the most fun out of the movie (plus when Tim couldn’t swim in shallow water, it had me in splits). I somehow find it refreshing that they incorporate a lot of Bollywoodness in another movie though I’m not the biggest fan of Bollywood musicals. In short, the depiction of Indo-Thai culture was nice, because a lot of it didn’t feel real, and I’ll get to that. The settings and location was very pretty, as well as the costumes (I can’t stop gushing over how good Bright and Bella look in Indian cloths in the Sangeet part).
This is my first-time seeing Bella Ranee’s work, and she did well in her job. She and Bright made me laugh. Mahir Pandhi was decent, though I didn’t like his character at all, and his line delivery seemed forced. Anahita Bhooshan was actually good.
Now to what I disliked about this movie. The second half of it got on my nerves, and I only endured it for Bright, not only because I like him, but also his character is the most tolerable out of all the characters on this movie. I hated how the part that Monica knew that Risa was Arun’s ex and that Arun is still in love with her was dealt with, and when Arun was about to have a moment with Risa in the climax, and I really felt sorry for Monica at that time. They could’ve kept the basic plot with Arun being open about Risa being his ex and having conflicts about it prior going to Thailand to get married. Or if this was dealt with better.
Risa also annoyed me to an extent. This character lacks maturity as a full-grown woman. However, out of all the characters, Arun annoyed me the most. God, whenever I see him confused/still in love with Risa, I was like, “Indian men, Indian men”, yeah!! Like please make a clear decision, and also what’s there to hide about the fact that Risa was his ex to his fiancée? Why did you even choose to marry her and at the same time have a moment with Risa, a day before the wedding? This is beyond my comprehension, and I actually felt sorry for Monica in the end. But it was dealt with poorly, when Monica chose to marry him anyways! They wouldn’t even last a month of divorce was seen on a more positive light and if anyone stopped caring about “log kya kahenge?” (What will people say?). Another thing I want to point out is that when Arun’s dad had a heart attack, why did Tim do the CPR himself instead of calling the ambulance?
The English dialogues made me cringe. It was written in a really cheesy way that no one would be convinced by that kind of speech, especially Arun’s monologues and all! And also, it makes sense for young generation urban Indians to speak English to each other but I didn’t understand why the older generation Indian characters in this movie spoke English? As an Indian myself, I observed that older-generation Indians would speak to each other in Hindi, unless if they’re from different states or so. But in this movie, all of them are families, and even Arun’s parents are speaking to each other in English in private. That robs the authenticity of the portrayal of a different culture. Although the Hindu/Indian culture was depicted well, I wish a native Hindi-speaking scriptwriter wrote the dialogues spoken by the Indian characters, because the characters seem to come from North India if I’m not mistaken.
Overall, it was a fun watch, with a lot comedy and all, but the story was really dumb in the end, though I’m glad Risa and Tim actually got together in the end because Bella and Bright indeed have chemistry. But it got straight-up dumb in the end combined with slapstick comedy. It isn’t completely unwatchable, but the only way to watch and tolerate this movie is 1. Turn off your brain and enjoy the ride and 2. Only focus on Bright.
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