"2 States" is a fairly entertaining watch, with adequate levels of sensible content and is surprisingly, in a way an improvement over the adapted book.
The film, revolves around the people belonging to the "two states" (of Punjab and Tamil Nadu), but there is a great deal of cultural clash which is the biggest hurdle in the way of marriage of two lovers whose parents are bound by their cultures to not like each other. In the course of attempts made by the two to diminish the differences of their families, their own grew wider. However, as always happens in the times of troubles, some wisdom dawns on men and things gradually turn out differently. It concludes with a wider message of ethnic acceptance. A little obvious and predictable, but well put.
The film's most enjoyable parts are full of homely jokes and humour, even with partially-racist pot-shots. Much of it's credit goes to Chetan Bhagat, the book's author and of course to Abhishek Verman, the debutant screenwriter-director, who projects the ability to accommodate vast number of events. At several junctures, work is subtle and Varman smartly omits possible dialogues at places to create a much obvious impact by visuals. But he does make some mistakes that a beginner would, which cause minor confusions in the timeline of the film. Nevertheless, with good cinematography (Binod Pradhan, "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag"), when almost every major scene had a "framed-picture moment"; the outstanding editing (Namrata Rao, "Kahaani"), that gives the film "flip-book" kind of effect in summary; and especially the spot-on dialogues (Hussain Dalal, "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani") add so much appeal and fun to the film that the balance is restored in favour of the film.
Background-scoring (Tubby – Parik) is decent, but almost never emits a deeper effect apart from ending scenes. Music (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy) and lyrics (Amitabh Bhattacharya) are catchy especially "Offo" and "Mast Magan", but are redundant for certain parts. The casting (Nandini Shrikent, "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara") is appropriate. Arjun Kapoor has greatly improved from his debut-film and has made some serious efforts in emoting the character of a Punjabi boy with family problems. However, he is almost never at ease in his expressions which becomes even more evident when he is opposite Alia Bhatt, playing a girl from a convetional Tamilian Brahmin family and his lover, who is a phenomenally expressive and eased-out performer. The supporting cast of Revathy and Shivkumar Subrahmaniyam (playing girl's parents), and Amrita Singh and Ronit Roy (playing the boy's) are nicely conducted and have presences of their own, a rare property. Singh and Revathy are nearly spot-on, whereas, Roy's performance is much similar to his award-winning one in "Udaan" but with positive tones.
All in all, an enjoyable experience but the fun could have been manifold had the production was a little less exhaustive. Final verdict: quite watchable!