Movie Review : Badrinath ki Dulhania (2017)

Rating : 3.65/5
Genre : Romance
Year : 2017
Running time : 2 hours 19 minutes
Director : Shashank Khaitan
Cast : Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Sahil Vaid, Rituraj Singh, Gauhar Khan, Shweta Prasad
Kid rating: G

Here’s another film of the “ki Dulhania” series from the same director and the same production house. This is better than “Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania” though because it’s more forward looking and less trite.

Vaidehi Trivedi (Bhatt) is an opinionated spitfire from Kota, and Badrinath Bansal (Dhawan) is the bratty scion of a rich orthodox sahukaar from Jhansi. When Badri sets eyes on the lovely Vaidehi, he is immediately smitten, and makes plans to make her his bride. She won’t have him however because : a)She has an unwed elder sister b)Badri’s dad wants a dowry which Vaidehi is against. Badri promises to fix these 2 problems, and Vaidehi promises him marriage in return. Just when it looks like things are looking up for Badri, the unexpected happens.

Badrinath ki Dulhania was an entertaining film. There was nary a dull moment what with the lively leads, foot-tapping music and the fast pace. This film took a typical romance and brought it, so to speak, into the modern world, by challenging orthodox customs. Vaidehi, a smart small town girl, is paired up romantically with an uneducated boor (this was also how it was in Humpty Sharma). This beauty-and-the-beast scenario does gets tiresome after a while (especially on-screen), but it apparently arises from raising offspring in the traditional “Indian” way – we get smart daughters and uncouth sons.

I liked that the director had approached the problem from a young person’s point of view. The relationships seemed real, and the friendships moving. Alia’s and Varun’s characters were very well-fleshed out. Vaidehi’s leaps towards freedom, and Badri’s gradually changing mindset was believably portrayed. Yes, in real life, mindsets do not change as rapidly, but I’m willing to give them that, considering that is a commercial film and all. Sail Vaid played Badri’s childhood pal, and there were some nice moments showing the great bond they shared.

Badrinath is a rom-com with a twist. It’s not full-fledged war on the patriarchy, but this movie does blare the feminist horn in its own way. It is a bummer, that the budding of an actual relationship between Vaidehi and Badri happens in law-abiding Singapore, because were it in India, the storyline, and I say this half-sarcastically, would have to account for goons kidnapping the uppity woman and stringing her up to the nearest tree, to protect their “honor”.

The film rolls to a predictable end; the director gives the desi junta what it wants – a sundar, susheel, sanskari bahu who’s willing to tolerate the loutish ghar-ka-chirag. This movie picks easy targets – a 10th class pass hero who “needs” to mature, making the incorrect assumption that education = maturity. It does not. For the next film in the series, can we a) Have a pairing of equals b) Get off the “ki dulhania” title; women are not property.

Kidwise: Clean. No suggestive dance moves, no innuendo-laden dialogs.