The second film from India I have seen this year, "2 States" is a mostly good film that runs a bit too long by the end, but does a decent job of making its subject matter (foreign to me) accessible. The first third of the film deals with a couple who meets at University, falls in love, and decides to get married. The rest of the film chronicles the struggle they face in convincing their parents to let the marriage take place--an issue complicated by the two different social groups to which they belong. I'm not overly familiar with the social hierarchy of India, but even without that intimate knowledge, the film made the story easy to understand.
The film walks the line between romantic-comedy and drama, the former being more prevalent in the film's first part. There is still a decent bit of comedy to be found in the film's second part, but the energy of the earlier scenes is sometimes harder to find. A lot of time is spent with the couple trying to convince their parents to let them wed. It's a dramatic and effective storyline, but there's so much of it that the film seems to be going in circles at points (its two and a half hour runtime could have been shortened by at least ten to fifteen minutes). The drawn out nature of the narrative is at its most obvious once the girl's parents have agreed to the marriage and the couple immediately jets off to convince the boy's parents. It feels like the film has been reset, only to repeat the same story it just told with a few different variables thrown in. A more judicious editor could have kept up the pace.
Even when the film dragged, it was still fun to watch. The leading actors have strong chemistry. Arjun Kapoor manages to keep his character charming for the most part, though he can't overcome a few of the more dramatic clichés the script makes him deal with (the low point is when it resorts to the old "talking about someone when you don't know they're standing right behind you" trick). Alia Bhatt is an especially strong, bright presence in the film, turning in a more comedic performance than the one she gave in "Highway", but still exceling at dramatic moments when the film required it.
I was also entertained by the numerous musical sequences throughout the film. I still haven't seen much in the was of Asian cinema, so it is still a novelty to me. I find it hilarious that most Indian films, regardless of their genre, are also musicals to an extent. All of the song and dance numbers were fun and funny. The ones in the film's second part helped inject a boost of energy into the film, offering a break whenever the storytelling was getting too repetitive.
All in all, this was a good, entertaining film that captured comedic and dramatic moments well. Had it been cut down in length and sped up in pace, it could have been even better.
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