Ammy Virk: The Biggest Movie Star Of India

The old-fashioned, some would say regressive love triangle seems to be a mash-up of David Dhawan ’s Biwi No.1 and Gharwaali Baaharwali, although  _Saunkan Saunkane_  is far more entertaining and tongue-in-cheek than Dhawan’s cretinous comedies. It’s the story of Nirmal Singh ( Ammy Virk ) who after being married for eight years, remains childless. Rather than adopt or opt for surrogacy, as any sane normal millennial couple would do, Nirmal decides to marry his wife’s younger sister. So much for artificial insinuations.

That’s where the fun begins. The two sisters turned competitive wives, played with supple mischief by  Sargun Mehta and Nimrat Khaira, provide the fun quotient in what could easily be perceived as an extremely retrogressive situation. But the Punjabis love it. The blockbuster success of Saunkan Saunkne positions its leading man Ammy Virk as the No.1 star of Punjabi cinema beating close rivals like Diljit Dosanjh , Gippy Grewal , and Guru Randhawa by a wide margin.

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_Saunkan Saunkne_  is  Ammy Virk ’s third blockbuster in a year after Prada and the recently released Aaja Mexico Chaliye. The three films have together turned  Ammy into Punjab’s favourite poster boy. Virk who played Balwinder Sandhu in Kabir Khan’s ’83 has no intentions of crossing over to Bollywood. He is most content being a  superstar in Punjab. Going by the politically poker-faced tone of his cinema, it is hard to see Ammy Virk as a  politically active entity. Last year Ammy was vocal in his support for protesting farmers. But he has learnt his lessons well. After burning his fingers in activism he has resolved to keep his political opinion to himself, giving neither negative nor positive vibes regarding burning issues. As he jokingly says, burning issues could burn you out. He believes as a singer and actor his job is to entertain his fans.  This explains the hefty fun quotient of his recent blockbusters, all of which are meant to be pure blueschasers.

Saunkan Saunkne is a turning  point for Virk. His fan following which has been multiplying steadily has now hit the roof. Looking at the film I am astonished at how polished Ammy makes this lowbrow entertainer which clearly seems to propound bigamy as a solution for childlessness. Marrying your wife’s younger sister was a tradition that one thought went out of vogue with BR Chopra’s Gumrah.  But here it is back, like the Terminator. In spite of its political incorrectness,  _Saunkan Saunkne_  succeeds in being a hugely entertaining lowbrow comedy. It is not quite what  Basu Chatterjee would dig. But it doesn’t go anywhere near David Dhawan’s depths of crassness. Most of all, Virk’s performance really works. He sparkles with an unitalicized wit. The funny lines (whose flavor you will miss if you don’t follow Punjabi) flow in a free-falling cascade.

Catch them if you can. Saunkan Saunkne’s success is not hard to explain. It is wildly funny and though there is a lot of name-calling in the spiked dialogues, Virk never stops treating his two ladies without respect. I remember that other Punjabi comic actor Kapil Sharma marrying multiple partners in a stupid Hindi film Kis Kissko Pyar Karoon. Sharma couldn’t make polygamy look graceful. Virk does come close to doing so with bigamy.

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