onlinenews24seven in Film Review (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Badhaai Do Review: What to congratulate in ‘Badhaai Do’

Starting with Ayushmann Khurrana’s film Vicky Donor, the new film ‘Badhaai Do’ came in a series of new types of stories which was recently released on Netflix. It was released on February 11 at the box office and earned a decent amount with a lot of buzz. Its arrival on OTT within three weeks shows the growing importance of the OTT platform. ‘Badhaai Do’ may seem like a unique story, because such stories are rarely seen in Hindi films, whereas the basic concept of the story is very old and it started in the twentieth century. The comedy is good in the film, the theme is adult so can’t watch with children but it is a good sign that clean films can be made on sensitive subjects. The film is worth watching although there are some things which make the film a bit cumbersome.

Homosexuality of two adults has been seen as a disease, but homosexuality is also a crime in many countries, in India itself it has received legal recognition some time ago. The saddest thing about this is that homosexuals have not yet received social recognition. Any gay or lesbian person is looked down upon. In many cities, they do not get houses on rent, there is discrimination in jobs and even if everything is fine, the beautiful husband behind the back can spoil the mind of any good person. In the 20th century, gay men used to marry women with whom they did not have physical relations. Both had no problem with this because this marriage was done for convenience. The reason was the same, social shackles. This is called lavender marriage. Marriage of convenience. Many big stars in Hollywood used to be gay or lesbian, but in the 1920s contracts with artists did not allow them to be gay or lesbian. Due to this, these stars used to do lavender marriage. Due to this everyone felt that he was not gay and the condition of the contract was also fulfilled. In Badhaai Do, the story of an Indian middle class is based on this lavender marriage. The original idea is by Aayush Agarwal and the screenplay is written by Suman Adhikari and Akshat Ghildiyal (Badhaai Ho) along with director Harshvardhan Kulkarni.

Rajkumar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar are in lead roles. Rajkumar Rao has done bodybuilding to become a policeman and his acting is of a natural kind, although the glimpse of the old Rajkumar is still intact in his scene of playing the role of a man in a hurry. Rajkumar is learning a lot in terms of commercial cinema. Along with good acting, good dance, body building, a little bit of action has also come in his account, but at many places his parallel cinema part starts hitting. He is very comfortable in comedy. His comedy flavor was different in Bareilly Ki Barfi and in Badhaai Do, he does situational comedy. When Naseeruddin Shah stepped into commercial cinema with the film Tridev, you can see a glimpse of his uneasiness in Rajkumar. It is very important for Bhumi Pednekar to re-invent herself. She becomes a girl ready to fight in every role. It is possible that he may be like this in his personal life as well, but in Badhaai Do, he had the scope to show his acting ability. His role was difficult but his role was not with different shades like Rajkumar Rao. Among the co-stars, Sheeba Chadha as Rajkumar’s mother, as always, has a small but fine role. Gulshan Devaiah’s role was like a guest appearance. Chum Darang, the owner of Cafe Choo in Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh) and winner of several beauty pageants, has impressed but it is doubtful that she will get more roles in Hindi films. The role of Seema Pahwa and Nitesh Pandey was good.

The good side of Badhaai Do is the music. Bandi Toot and Stuck have become quite popular. The best song is Maange Manzooriyaan which will remain popular like a good love song for a long time. Badhaai Do’s cinematographer is Swapnil Sonawane (Newton, Bazaar, Sacred Games etc.) is a successful cinematographer but in Badhaai Do his camera didn’t do any magic that was expected of him. In 2017, he shot many wonderful scenes with his camera in the documentary “The Swords – Behind Closed Doors” based on the Aayushi murder case and then in Sacred Games. Due to being a simple story, he has probably kept the camera work simple in this film as well. Editing is done by Kirti Nakhwa who has been the editor of every project of director Harshvardhan Kulkarni.

What weakens the story in Badhaai Do is the “over-simplification” of the subject. The subject is sensitive. Convincing a gay man to marry a lesbian girl is actually not as easy as shown. When Rajkumar reveals to his family that he is gay, their inner trepidation is sweet but the ease with which his mother (Sheeba Chadha) embraces her son is deeply uncomfortable. Rajkummar Rao’s breakup and then his growing closeness with Gulshan, an attempt has been made to make comedy without talking points. If you know or have friends with any gay or lesbian person around you, then you can get an idea of their opinion on different subjects along with their body language, what is their way of thinking, but both the main characters of Badhaai Do are just faces. Melt on seeing it. Gay or lesbian couples have different feelings towards physical intimacy and they see it as love and not as sex. In Badhaai Do, these things have also been dressed up as comedy. Since the film was thought and written as a comedy-drama, many things can be ignored, but factually, if a little more depth was added to it, an emotional connect would have been made with the film. Along with watching as entertainment, one would also get to learn something from it.

The film is good, should be seen so that even a little rebellious storytellers get an opportunity to reach the screen.