Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar Trailer Talk: Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra’s Grunge-Travelogue

There has been much ado about Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar's release. Shot and completed a while ago, the release date was being negotiated over last year to find the ideal date. And finally, Yashraj has decided to release it between Baaghi 3 and Sooryavanshi. 

The story, of upper-class Parineeti Chopra (Sandeep) using a blue-collar Arjun Kapoor (Pinky) – who probably plays a cop – to escape to Delhi, and eventually India, is a romantic conceit. The trailer itself has two distinct halves: the first is grunge, the second a travelogue love-story. Sandeep battles the dil-dimaag conundrum while Pinky's hazy past is looking to un-mist as they fall in love.

Banerjee brings his deft detailing to the cliche: the badminton racket nailed and newspaper articles pasted on the walls (playful suspicion), the paintings exhibited but behind the plastic covers (middle-class anxieties), the Bob Marley flag on a store with Salman Khan fans (based on the bracelet) crowded around a phone, the constant referencing to achaar (she is in quite a pickle) and the violent state. Also note how Sandeep, a conventionally male name and Pinky, a conventionally female name, are given to the female and male protagonist respectively, almost as if everything is a flipped version of what you expect.

The crew is motley: Anu Malik after being vindicated on the #MeToo allegations by the National Commission of Women this January returns to the harmonium as composer, Varun Grover co-wrote the film, and Banerjee himself who not only wrote, produced, and directed, but also gave the film its background score. (The name of the lyricist is oddly missing)

The film releases on March 20, 2020.