There’s no better sight on a movie screen than two stars who know exactly what makes them tick and doing that with aplomb. Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt, two of the students of the year of 2012, have in these five years become big forces at the box office and when the biggest production house rolls out the second part of a successful first film meant to showcase them in all their starry goodness, they tamma tamma their way through the movie.
But the Daddy and the Amma, especially the Daddy, has a lot of problems. Problems a lot of Daddys have in this country. And that’s the beauty about Badrinath ki Dulhania. Despite being yet another Dharma rom com that ticks all the commercial boxes — young stars, old songs rapped and remixed, new fashion — it flushes quite a load of patriarchal poop down the toilet. This streak of celluloid social responsibility is quite refreshing and two thumbs up to writer-director Shashank Khaitan for spearheading this parivartan cinema.
The Bansal family is what’s rotten in not just the small towns of this country but also the big cities. A well-to-do businessman in Jhansi, the father (Rituraj, welcome back) demands big dowries for his two sons. The elder son had to forego his love story and the girl (Shweta Basu Prasad, welcome back too) he married, despite being a topper in her college, plays the role of domesticated bahu in the house. And when she becomes pregnant, she’s put on a giant weighing scale for some puja that ensures a baby boy!
For the second son Badrinath (Varun), the father has similar ambitions. That doesn’t look too difficult on paper because Badri himself is obnoxiously regressive. His views on girls, education, marriage, dowry are going to make you squirm in your seats.
On the other end of the spectrum is Vaidehi (Alia), who is once bitten and twice shy as far as relationships go but her dreams of flying away from the all-round social “claustrophobia” (the only word she’s shown spelling in English class) are still unruffled.
The film has clearly been written as two distinct halves and no one can see the twist coming in the interval. Till that point the first half is fast and funny, with a couple of terrific scenes — one in the bus when Badri stalks Vaidehi and then at the Maata Ki Chowki. The second half is a little all over the place and no matter how much you disguise it, the in-your-face branding of Singapore Tourism and Silk Air gets to you after a point. The ending, back in Jhansi, is very strong, though, and leaves you on a buoyant note.
But over and above everything else, Badrinath ki Dulhania should be watched for Varun and Alia individually and for their rip-roaring chemistry together. Having started their careers with the same film, they are very easy together and feed off each other scene after scene, the dialogues no longer sounding scripted or the acting rehearsed.
There’s nothing that has not been written or said about the tour de force that is Alia Bhatt. She is good here as well and effortlessly so and maybe that’s why it is Varun who really catches your eye. He has those big scenes, the rebel scenes, the drunk scenes and you might argue that he does go over the top every now and then, but he always keeps you engaged with his histrionics. And that’s a sweet deal in the Govinda 2.0 space he’s started to own.
The music is a mixed bag really. Despite pumping in those YouTube views, the new Tamma tamma doesn’t really have the thunder on the big screen and that none of the songs really stick must have been evident at the edit table itself, because they finally had to use the Main tenu samjhawan tune in the climax to wrap things up.
Badrinath ki Dulhania is not always a smooth ride and the second half does feel very long, but for all the social evils it takes head-on and that fun pair in the lead, it deserves both your time and money this colourful weekend. That other title they discuss in the movie sure would have been sweeter — ‘Vaidehi ka Dulha’. Maybe next time.
