Badhaai Ho

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Sanya Malhotra, Neena Gupta, Gajraj Rao, Surekha Sikri, Rahul Tiwari

Writer/Director: Amit Ravindernath Sharma

Producer/s: Aleya Sen, Amit Ravindernath Sharma, Hemant Bhandari, Vineet Jain

Plot:

Badhaai Ho Movie Review Rating: 3.5/5 Stars (Three and half stars)

Star Cast: Surekha Sikri, Ayushmann Khurrana, Gajraj Rao, Neena Gupta, Sanya Malhotra, Rahul Tewari, Sheeba Chaddha

Director: Amit Ravindernath Sharma

What’s Good: Following a similar pattern as Stree, the movie relies on its refreshingly hilarious one-liners (By Akshat Ghildial), nailing the expressions more than the full-body-act each character speaks even when they aren’t saying anything!

What’s Bad: Despite everything going its way, the one line story drags at places because of its monotonous attempt at saying a thing that everyone already knows!

Loo Break: This madcap family will not let you go anywhere while they’re on screen.

Watch or Not?: A BIG FAT YES! Anyway my review will provoke you for the same but in in case if you’re not reading it ahead, book your tickets NOW!

User Rating: 

Gone are the days when you had Barjatya-esque families full with shuddh desi sanskaars for whom the word ‘sex’ was equal to a cuss word. Now we’ve families like Kapoor & Sons, Mehras (Dil Dhadakne Do), Banerjees (Piku) & joining this latest trend is our cute Kaushiks. Priyamvada is the mother of the family, a kind who emotionally blackmails her son to play Housie with her kitty party friends. Nakul (Ayushmann Khurrana) as every other son, is annoyed by his mother but loves her to the core.

Nakul has a sweet girlfriend in Renne (Sanya Malhotra) and a pretty ordinary brother in Gullar. Father-cum-Gulzar Jitendra aka Jeetu (Gajraj Rao) impregnates his wife Priyamvada and that’s where our story starts. This initiates the entire phase of ‘Log kya kahenge?’ and Nakul starts ignoring his colleagues, friends as well as Renne. The story revolves around the 9 months of pregnancy and how the family faces issues from the so-called developing society.

Badhaai Ho Movie Review: Script Analysis

The short yet impactful story penned by Akshat Ghildial and Shantanu Srivastava takes no time to set the mood the film. It takes off on a hilarious note and ends on a similar one having all the witty and emotional moments (second half) in between. From writing Kaushiks (without an apostrophe) in a Chiller font behind their car to usage of Yeh Kya Hua and the music of Kora Kagaz Tha Ye Mann Mera – makers have done everything right to portray this family as a crazy one.

However, this isn’t a perfect film ans it struggles with its fair share of flaws. The infusion of drama in the second half works well for the story as it comes as a relief when the screenplay starts to repetitive. Because the main plot was revealed in the trailer itself, there’s not a major twist happening in the story to surprise or shock you. However, all of these flaws are smartly covered by the dialogues and performances.

Badhaai Ho Movie Review: Star Performance

Ayushmann Khurrana, fresh out of Andhadhun‘s success should get ready for another one. How well he switches to a different character in so less time says a lot about the level of actor he is. I still will go with my claim of him being the most underrated actor in Bollywood and this will proof will yet again prove so. From getting the dialect on-point to speaking everything just by expressions, he has delivered a wonderful performance.

Surekha Sikri as Dadi is the biggest takeaway for me from this film. She has got some hilarious dialogues to mouth and the way she delivers them levels up the fun. Gajraj Rao is at his cutest best & his style of keeping words to his mouth makes him a treat to watch. No matter how annoyed Neena Gupta wants to look on screen, her charm goes against it making her look adorable. She has a delightful presence and she goes well with the bothersome bits too.

Sanya Malhotra is wasted! She has looked beautiful but she has a very limited screen space. She has all the talent to do more than this and I feel she could’ve distributed way more to the story. The actor playing Ayushmann Khurrana’s brother deserves appreciation, he is pretty good in his role. Rahul Tewari as Ayushmann’s friend, Junna, is good in his limited screen space. Sheeba Chaddha’s cameo is totally wasted.

Badhaai Ho Movie Review Quicker: The movie starts with a hilarious Housie sequence in which we see a frustrated Nakul (Ayushmann Khurrana) filtering the numbers out for the ladies of his area. Akshat Ghildial’s dialogues are hilarious from the word go. Without taking much time, there come one liners which will make you scream with laughter.

Makers don’t take much time to come to the main topic of Mrs Kaushik, mother of Nakul, getting impregnated at an old age. Then comes the confrontational scene in which Jeetu (Gajraj Rao) confesses about the child to his mother played by Surekha Sikri.

Surekha Sikri, being the legend she is, brings the house down with her performance. Abhishek Arora, better known for his work in Varun Dhawan’s October, has done a brilliant job with the background score in Badhaai Ho. The dialogues are the clear winner of the first half of the film; however the expressions of all the characters are very well played with.

Badhaai Ho revolves around an old couple becoming parents again. The comedy-drama features Ayushmann as the son of an elderly couple who find out that they would be turning parents for the third time.

Ayushmann Khurrana says his forthcoming film Badhaai Ho is his cleanest film so far as earlier he has worked in movies around some taboo subjects of society.

Besides Ayushmann, Badhaai Ho also stars Sanya Mahotra, Neena Gupta, Gajraj Rao and Sheeba Chaddha in key roles.

The film is directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma and produced by Vineet Jain, Aleya Sen, Hemant Bhandari and Priti Sahani under the banner of Junglee Pictures and Chrome Pictures. It will release on October 18. Stick to this space for full review!