Film review: Bollywood new release Badrinath Ki Dulhania is good but not great

Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt play the lead roles in Bollywood film Badrinath Ki Dulhania. Courtesy: Fox Star India

Badrinath Ki Dulhania

Director: Shashank Khaitan

Starring: Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Sahil Vaid

Three stars

It's not often I walk out of a film feeling very confused, but I was left that way after watching Badrinath Ki Dulhania.

On one hand, the much-anticipated Bollywood film boasts seriously funny laugh out loud moments, great performances and is very easy on the eye. On the other its dated patriarchal ideas, dialogues reminiscent of the 1990s, and beliefs from the dark ages, made me cringe.

Badrinath, played by Varun Dhawan, is a loveable goon from the small town of Jhansi who works a recovery agent for his father’s moneylending business. In his family the patriarch rules with an iron fist and the belief is that women shouldn’t have jobs, and should be “shown their place” if they do anything that harms a man’s reputation.

Alia Bhatt’s character, Vaidehi, is also from a small town but she is more forward-thinking than Badrinath and hopes one day to have a successful career of her own.

Essentially the storyline is boy meets girl at wedding, falls in love at first sight, pursues her, doesn’t take no for an answer and stalks her until she decides to finally give him a chance.

As endearing as Dhawan is in his role, his character sends out a less than desirable message. But, in typical Bollywood fashion, things are all hunky dory until the girl agrees to marry him. But at the last minute, she dumps him at the altar and moves to Mumbai in hopes of making it big as an air hostess.

Badrinath follows her to Mumbai and then Singapore before it ends, but not before a few bad jokes about male rape, violence and assault have been thrown in. Even Arijit Singh’s voice crooning in the background cannot salvage those misgivings.

Then again, there is a long preachy climax — honestly it is no big surprise, you know it is coming all along — after which everything is all right.

While the message that is sent out is irresponsible, not all films have to be flagbearers for societies opinions. If you can keep your rational mind aside, Badrinath Ki Dukhania is a funny, light-hearted comedy, Dhawan and Bhatt definitely have great on-screen chemistry, and the ensemble cast adds to the laughs.

Be prepared for the second half to drag, and don’t go for the music, it is nothing to write home about, but if you’ve been waiting for a good mindless “masala” film, this may be the one for you.