Pati Patni Aur Woh is a 1978 film about a
married man who has an affair with his secretary.
When she first walks into his office, he stares
at her breasts and imagines undressing her.
He also says, aap jawaan hain, 
khubsoorat hain, aapki figure bahut acchi hain.
In other words, this is exactly the film that
you don’t want to remake for our post Me Too times.
And yet, writer-director Mudassar Aziz 
attempts to deliver a reboot
that is lively, funny and 
at least superficially progressive.
He doesn’t always succeed 
but there is fun to be had here.
The original film’s stance was that 
Ranjeet Chaddha has an affair
because boys will be boys.
Men just aren’t designed for monogamy.
In one scene, Ranjeet tells his friend - 
Aurat ek waqt mein ek aadmi ko pyar kar sakti hai
aur aadmi naam ke janvar 
ka dil itna bada hota hai
ki ek waqt main kaayion 
ko baant sakta hai.
But Mudassar and co-writer Jasmeet K. Reen
want to do better than this.
So they create circumstances 
that lead to
PWD engineer Chintu Tyagi’s 
detour from his marriage.
Chintu is a pliable, tame, middle class boy
whose father – whom he calls Hitler Tyagi
controls him.
This is in sharp contrast 
to his wife Vedika.
In their first meeting, she speaks frankly
about her ex-boyfriend, sex life
and declares, bas thoda 
high maintenance hain hum emotionally.
She’s a woman who 
charts her own path.
In a cleverly done sequence, we get a sense
of how their marriage is progressing through
Chintu’s downgrading lunchboxes – from
elaborate meals, it goes to sandwiches and
biscuits because Vedika is 
now busy with her own job.
Over three years, 
a humdrum domesticity sets in.
Enter Tapasya who with her big city style
and wind-blown hair,
embodies the excitement 
that Chintu’s life needs.
Critically, she is not his secretary.
She’s a designer from Delhi 
and as he says, she's out of his league.
After a lifetime of being the dutiful son
and husband, he decides to take some risks.
He lies to Tapasya about Vedika having an
affair and kicks off a comedy of errors.
The story shuttles between Lucknow, 
Kanpur and Delhi.
We are in the same small town- territory that
actors like Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao
have successfully made into a genre.
We get the local sights and sounds – bazaars,
malls, homes with open courtyards
and that specific Hindi – in one scene Vedika says:
humare pati charitraheen ho gaye hain.
In between the laughs, Mudassar attempts to
weave in insights on marriage and relationships.
Toward the end, we even get some preaching
about why men should be faithful to their wives.
But the story is too 
lightweight and too low IQ
to carry complex ideas about men 
and women and what sustains or erodes a bond.
For that, go to 
Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story.
Pati Patni Aur Woh works like a sitcom with
sparkling dialogue and amusing characters.
Aparshakti Khurana, who has cornered 
the market on the buddy role,
is terrific as Chintu’s loyal friend.
In one scene, he solemnly tells him – 
yeh Agneepath hai bro.
And watch out for Shubham Kumar 
as Vedika’s admirer Rakesh Yadav.
I think the swaggering lovelorn Rakesh 
deserves at least his own short film.
Kartik Aaryan, in thick moustache 
and staid checked shirts,
enthusiastically commits to 
being a personality-free pendu.
Chintu is a bit of a dullard.
The women are so much more 
dynamic, ambitious and mature
that you have to wonder 
why they are so invested in him.
Ananya Pandey is asked to play a fantasy 
and she manages that efficiently.
But it’s Bhumi Pednekar’s spirited Vedika
who lifts the material up a notch.
Bhumi has an intelligence that rescues 
some of the silliest scenes in this film,
especially in the climax.
At one point, she forcefully says, 
zamana kultaon ka hai.
I fully agree.
Sunny Singh also makes the most of his brief
role as the local bad boy named Doga.
In life, I think a woman like Vedika 
would probably have dumped Chintu for Doga.
Now that’s a sequel worth considering.
