I have to get this out of my system. We need to talk about the dying — nay, extinct — art of the background score in mainstream Hindi cinema. The setup of Ginny Wedss Sunny 2 somewhat brings to mind Haseen Dillruba (2021), the romantic thriller about semi-toxic newlyweds in Haridwar; she’s a siren, he’s a Nice Guy, she cheats, then he becomes the madness and badness she craves for. I remember disliking Haseen Dillruba until a haunting theme in the climax made me rethink my reading of the entire film — a rare case of a score urging the viewer to feel a story rather than judge it. That’s the job of background music and supplementary sound: an extension of unfilmable text, not lazy mood-prompts for the audience.
Tell that to Ginny Wedss Sunny 2, the spiritual sequel to Ginny Weds Sunny (2020) and the movie version of a cartoon clown at a live-action birthday party. The score is a collection of juvenile cues that range from a sultry moan when a girl flirts with the hero, a scream when hero’s dad begs for a daughter-in-law who’s not dead, the chants of a choir when hero’s catholic friend yells Jesus, a boing (the Tom-tricking-Jerry kind) when said father mishears call-center girl as call-girl in the middle of a dramatic fight, another boing when a woman reveals that she was about to divorce her husband before he suddenly died, a gunshot to punctuate a gangster anecdote that syncs with a football exploding (don’t ask). You get the gist: a roar if a tiger (or Bajirao Singham) is mentioned, a trumpet if an elephant is cited, silent tears if a film critic is referenced. It’s 2026, and some romantic comedies still behave like their core audience is 2-year-olds who get amused by casio sound effects and sledgehammer gags. What’s the point of a visual medium when the sound is designed as if the screen is blank?
