For the uninitiated ones “Badhaai Ho” means congratulations in Hindi and many other Indian languages mostly spoken in the northern part of the country.
I don’t review movies normally and this review is actually the first one here. Generally I tend to like movies that bring out stories that are local and brings about stories that are not out of this world but one that people can relate to. There were days when such movies were called parallel cinemas which had a very niche presence and people would often claim that they make these flashy movies so that they can make money. Bollywood movies were normally known to be inspired, full of dance and stories that can put down on a napkin. With new breed of movie makers and actors it is changing and the concept of parallel cinema is not there.
Story
Badhaai Ho is truly an Indian story that brings out multiple facets of our society. The bias and prejudices that exists and around which the perception are built. The story revolves around a middle class family and a situation wherein a woman of an age close to menopause conceives and this cause quite an uncomfortable situation for whole of the family. There is flawless acting by Neena Gupta (Mom), Gajraj Rao (Dad, made famous by TVF’s online shows), leads Ayushman Khurana and Sanya Malhotra. Surekha Sikri plays grandmom of Nakul and she has done a great job, I liked her role the most.
The movie has a message at multiple levels and handles the subject quite well. Mostly, I was hoping it to be a comedy movie but it goes much beyond that. Its feels really heartening to see stories like these are being made into movies and theaters are crowded and people are able to make money out of it.
We need to come to a stage where superstar movies are not the only that makes money at the box office because that becomes a vicious circle, movies are made that draws crowd and what used to draw crowd was star power.
Product Placement
None of the movies are without product placement and I am always in the look out for the great ones. This movie has two which fits in quite subtly
Godrej Security Products – Both the leads are employed at Godrej hence they show Nakul’s desk with a digital safe and later on campaign presentation for their home camera products
Fortis Hospitals – This was the obvious one as there was a delivery and Mom had to a go a hospital.
If there was anything else that I missed please do let me know, I will add here.
I highly recommend, go and watch “Badhai Ho”. Support good movies so that it creates the positive network effect.