Badrinath Ki Dulhania Review | Alia-Varun Once Again Prove, They Are The New-age Raj-Simran

Name: Badrinath Ki Dulhania
Item: Badrinath Ki Dulhania
Rating: 3
Author: Surabhi Redkar

- March 10, 2017 | 12:52 PM IST

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.

Badrinath Ki Dulhania Review: Direction, Music

Badrinath Ki Dulhania moves across Jhansi, Kota and Singapore and brings in full flavor from all three locations.

Shashank Khaitan’s attempt at giving it a small town twist works in this case, considering his focus on dowry and patriarchy that’s pre-dominant in these societies.

What’s good is that in spite of a message to give, the film at no point becomes didactic, it keeps its original motive of entertainment, high at times with the songs and dialogues.

Aashiq Surrender Hua and Tamma Tamma are high on energy and keep you entertained.

Scenes such as Badri apologizing to Somdev after their fight, Vaidehi getting a warning from her head about being careful about her company in Singapore after Badri’s unlawful acts are well thought out.

Also, a scene where Vaidehi confronts Badri about being a coward and not being able to stand up to his dad is amazingly captured.

There’s a lot of Singapore tourism promotion in the second half, that is yawnsome.