7½ Phere

About the film

7+1⁄2 Phere: More Than a Wedding is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language black comedy film directed by Ishaan Trivedi and produced by Nimit Modawal. It stars Juhi Chawla and Irrfan Khan in the lead roles. The film was released in India on 29 July 2005, to mixed response.

Plot

After having tasted great success with soaps based on traditional families, a national TV network is getting into the next phase of programming - that is, "Reality TV," so they decide to go for the evergreen subject of marriages in the Indian family. Channel asks their blue-eyed guy to produce the show. Asmi Ganatra (Juhi Chawla), the first-time director, and her team find out that at present the only family in Mumbai that meets the programming brief is Joshi's.

The Joshis are stunned when Asmi visits them with a request to cover the marriage for the TV network. Though the bride's father is willing to go along with the idea, the family's Mafia, consisting of the old guard, plays the card of the family's pride, and they Veto the proposal. In the meantime, Asmi has discovered that Manoj Joshi (Irrfan), the bride's youngest uncle, has fallen for her.

Knowing very well that her career would be blocked if she were unable to pull off the deal with the bride's family, she lures him to an arrangement where a multicamera set-up is secretly installed in the huge house.

Reception

Hindustan Times praised the film, calling it light-hearted and rib-tickling. They noted it as the first time that actors Juhi Chawla and Irrfan Khan had worked together in a film, and as being both Irrfan's entry into and Juhi's return to the comedy genre. They advised that the chemistry between the two actors was to be watched and appreciated as their "conflict and resolution form an integral part of the film."

Key details