Movie Review: Badhaai Do

Rating: 3 of 5

Star Cast: RajKummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar, Chum Darang, Seema Pahwa, Sheeba Chaddha, Deepak Arora

Director: Harshavardhan Kulkarni

Shardul Thakur (RajKummar Rao) is a 30+ unmarried policeman & is going through the typical “Shadi Kab?” debate bachelors go through at this age with their family. He clashes with Sumi (Bhumi Pednekar) and gets to know that she’s a lesbian. He himself being a homosexual suggests Sumi to get in a lavender marriage with him. For those unaware of the term, don’t worry, bhai aaya hai, sab bata ke jaayega. A lavender marriage is a ‘marriage of convenience’ done with no romantic angle but to fulfil one’s personal agenda to stay away from society’s stereotypical debates.

This is the classic case of great intent paired with sloppy execution. Harshavardhan Kulkarni pairs up with Suman Adhikary & Akshat Ghildial to pen a story that clearly looks like a mashup of two very different perspectives. I’ve been a fan of Kulkarni’s Hunterrr & many portions of this one takes you back to the delightfully dingy locations but it gets too formulaic with its execution. Hunterrr worked big time because it didn’t follow any set patterns, but Kulkarni loses his spark with humour falling as flat as the flattest thing you can imagine right now.

One major issue the story faces apart from the weak comical portions is the development of supporting characters. We, as an industry, have always struggled in penning the characters belonging to the LGBTQIA community. Though RajKummar & Bhumi’s roles are nicely fleshed with emotions, drama but their partners are equally dismissed. Chum Darang’s Rimjhim’s character arc is a flatline, as the writers fail to make her add any substance to the narrative.

RajKummar Rao as usual does his job of escalating even pretty ordinary lines to a level that will surely hold your interest. The supreme talent he possesses allows him to stand out from the sloppy execution. Bhumi Pednekar is flawless as Sumi as well, helping to sail the slow boat with her presence. She’s as good in every scene as she’s in her first scene.

Chum Darang gives a partially good performance, she’s great at some places but crosses the line of hamming at some. Seema Pahwa & Sheeba Chaddha doesn’t add much to the narrative, hence the makers lose a great scope of adding fun to balance the drama through them.

Harshavardhan Kulkarni should’ve gone all Hunterrr on this one leaving no stone unturned in exploring the relationship of his leads. He adds one scene highlighting the bond between Sumi and her father, relying a major part of the emotional climax on them. This and multiple such mistakes fail to create the impact he desired through the story.

Hitesh Sonik does the routine background score without taking any risk with the sound designing. Atak Gaya remains to be the best song from the album which is filled with many average tracks