Love, sex aur arranged marriage
Divyendu Sharma, the gullible and innovatively monikered 'Liquid' in the 2011 romcom, Pyar Ka Punchnama, adds another lovelorn turn to his repertoire with Sandeep A Varma's 20-minute short film, The Virgins. As Sushant, an engineer with a big MNC, he nervously goes over a mock-conversation while waiting for his fiancée, Anika (Pia Bajpai), to arrive at a restaurant. She finds this call to meet a week before the wedding ominous. "Vo Queen picture mein nahi dekha?" she asks, referencing the Kangana Ranaut film in which her character is dumped by the fiancé ahead of D-Day.
When placing an order, Sushant jokes "Beer?" and both parties laugh. He is momentarily pleased with his wit (it's preposterous for girls to drink, let alone your soon-to-be-wife). She suspects he's blown her conservative cover.
The convo veers towards the 'V' interrogation that often punctuates arranged matches in India. It is this moment that sets the tone for the film as both gear up to enter virgin territory that is holy matrimony - he as someone who's never experienced physical intimacy, she as one who has to pretend otherwise. There's a lot of groping in the dark, literally and figuratively, as the duo devise ways to navigate their future life.
Divyendu and Pia are effortless save for the time when they say the 'V' word in the most laboured way possible. Akshay Oberoi as Anika's good looking, creative boyfriend is easy on the eyes and works well with the material, but his is a role that furthers the protagonists' journey more than anything else. It's an interesting theme given how calling out social stigmas has become massively popular and rightfully so. While the format seems a restrictive for a new and interesting subject, the film eventually triumphs in its brevity.
