Parents' Guide to Saunkan Saunkne

This comic Punjabi drama directed by Amarjit Singh Saron disappoints to the core. Saunkan Saunkne dives into polygamy in an utterly uncritical and matter-of-factly manner with the implication that a man must marry again if his wife cannot bear his kids. What's more, the orthodox set-up becomes a means of further caricaturing women, who are already reduced to baby-producing machines. Slow, repetitive, and silly, this film is often hard to sit through. All the humor in the film is based on Nirmal's position as the helpless sufferer caught between his two incessantly bickering wives. His entitlement and privileges are never questioned, nor challenged, rather the spectator is made to sympathize with him. Threats of domestic violence are tossed around just as casually as misogynistic remarks are made about the very nature of women who need to be "controlled" by their men. Ending on the typical happy note where differences and squabbles magically disappear, this film delivers problematic messages that are utterly unsuitable for younger audiences.