Movie Review : Doctor G (2022)

Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Year: 2022
Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes
Director: Anubhuti Kashyap
Cast: Ayushman Khurana, Rakul Preet Singh, Sheeba Chaddha, Shefali Chaya
Kid rating: PG-13

Doctor G’s premise will make you think of a Friday night entertainer, which it kinda is. The main character Uday (Khurana) is the only male doctor in a sea of female physicians in the gynecology department of a medical school in Bhopal. Uday does not want to study gynaecology but has taken it up because he’s failed to get the specialization of his choice: orthopedics. He comes in for a fair bit of ribbing from his female classmates, as he pronounces gynecology to be the realm of female doctors only, but after a while settles in and makes some good friends. So the first half is fun and games with some genuine humor and some contrived comedy.

This is a bit of a coming-of-age movie, where the protagonist is “growing-up” mentally – as in broadening his perspective. Uday is a happy-go-lucky chap, well-tethered to his conservative ideology. He has little desire to change his views but change they do – when he meets the women of the stree rog vibhag.

The movie tries to take a serious message and present it with humor and comedy. The frivolity done with in the first half, the film takes a turn for the serious in the second, when Uday is involved in the grimy, personal affairs of a friend. That is when this resolve and integrity are actually tested.

Doctor G wears its feminist cred on its sleeve. We have a conservative minded young doctor who limits women to their traditional role – as paramour, uncomplaining homemaker, or mother, and refuses to acknowledge that women are people too. We see that in his disinterested attitude towards the gynecological practice (and female care) as well as his less than forgiving attitude towards his lonely, long-suffering mother (Sheeba Chaddha).

Ayushmann Khurana seems to attract these peculiar, rather interesting roles – the prolific sperm-donor of Vicky Donor, the dream girl of “Dream Girl“, the muscular body-builder boyfriend of a transgender woman in Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, the dysfunction-suffering husband of Shubh Mangal Savdhaan. And he fits right in and does well in each one! As Doctor G he give us a pretty convincing performance even though his character is not well fleshed out. The real star of the film though is Sheeba Chaddha who is marvelous as Uday’s mom. And then there is the fantastic Shefali Chhaya who plays the head of department of gynecology. Rakul Preet Singh is pleasant and likable as Fatima, Uday’s senior.

Doctor G is a good film although a little rough around the edges. The messaging, which is frankly feminist and about female empowerment, gets a little mixed in an effort to provide a comedic slant to the serious core of the film. Debut director Anubhuti Kashyap shows promise and I look forward to more of her films.

Kidwise: The premise/subject might need some explaining, but the film is clean. No kid-scarring crudity.