Actress: Alia Bhatt
Genre: Drama
Release Date: 10th March, 2017
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt
Director: Shashank Khaitan
Producer: Karan Johar, Hiroo Yash Johar
Plot:
Rating: 3/5 Stars (Three stars)
Star Cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Gauahar Khan, Aakanksha Singh, Shweta Basu Prasad, Puneet Singh Ratn, Rituraj Singh, Kanupriya Pandit, Atul Narang, Gaurav Pandey, Yash Sinha, Sahil Vaid
Director: Shashank Khaitan
What’s Good: Alia Bhatt and Dhawan shine in this rom-com with a special message.
What’s Bad: Once again the portrayal of stalking and harassment as a form of wooing a reluctant girl.
Loo Break: May be one in the second half.
Watch or Not?: Badrinath Ki Dulhania is a suitable watch for those who enjoy Bollywood rom-coms. It will make up for a perfect breezy watch for the weekend.
User Rating:
Badrinath Bansal (Varun Dhawan) considers himself to be one of the most eligible bachelors of Jhansi, thanks to his father’s financial standing. His father is patriarch who doesn’t want his daughter-in-law to work in spite of she being cleverer than his elder son.
At a wedding in Kota, Badri lays eyes on Vaidehi Trivedi (Alia Bhatt) and is smitten by her spunky attitude. She’s like a firecracker and that an ambitious one. After he proposes marriage to her, Vaidehi first declines and later tries to befriend him, at least to set up her elder sister’s marriage through his help. In the meantime, Badri keeps trying to impress her.
Pre-interval a major twist takes place and Badri and Vaidehi have a massive fallout. Will love blossom again between the two conflicting personalities is what lies ahead.
Badrinath Ki Dulhania Review: Script Analysis
At a Friday morning show, when you find half a college classroom in your auditorium, you know you’re watching a rom-com. There’s a loud cheer from the audience for both Varun and Alia’s entry and that’s a sign how loved they are when it comes to pre-teens. Using this to his advantage, Shashank Khaitan tries to make a rom-com that is light in its approach but deep down has a strong message to deliver.
Badrinath very rightly takes off by narrating the meaning of gender roles in India. A boy is an asset and a girl child is a liability for most. Questioning this concept, Khaitan’s film is a take on how a woman’s attitude (in this case Vaidehi) impacts in changing Badri’s life or making him a better individual. We have celebrated films like Chak De! India and Pink where one man stands up for women to realize their potential but Badrinath is about how a damsel doesn’t need to be saved.
In some scenes, Khaitan makes it too obvious, like the scene where Vaidehi saves Badri from being molested in Singapore. Yes! It’s a funny scene but powerful with the underlined message.
Comic elements such as the conversations between Badri and his friend Somdev (Sahil Vaid) make up for a fun watch.
There will be many who will raise questions over Badri’s stalking shown to be a way of him wooing her problematic. Particularly one scene, where he puts her in the dicky of a car should have been omitted.
In terms of relationships, it’s nice to see how Khaitan shows the conflict of loving someone and yet maintaining one’s self respect in place being a challenge to particularly our generation.
On certain occasions, you also get a Namastey London kind of feel, especially since Vaidehi is smart and how she tackles Badri’s intellect.
The first half is laden with funny dialogues and the second half is saved for emotinal and social impact. The climax seems slightly over dramatic.
Badrinath Ki Dulhania Review: Star Performance
Varun Dhawan as Badri does a fairly good job. His comic timing is spot on and I would say he has that fine balance of coming across as notorious yet cute. He is slightly weaker in the emotional scenes and his Jhansi dialect fumbles in a few places.
Alia Bhatt lights up the screen with her beauty. She is luminous in all frames and does a good job as the fiery Vaidehi. Her chemistry with Varun is adorable too.
Sahil Vaid as Somdev, Badri’s bestie does a great job. He takes the comedy to another level.
Yash Sinha and Shweta Basu Prasad (Yes! She makes a comeback to the silver screen) as Badri’s brother and sister-in-law pull of a fairly good act too.
