Badhai Ho : The stork visits ... uninvited !!!

There comes a sunny phase in one’s career when one can do nothing wrong.

Paulo Coelho first said it in a book and then Shahrukh Khan repeated it in some movie , that "When u want something bad, from the heart, dil se, the entire Universe (Coelho’s word) or Kaaynat (Shahrukh’s usage) conspires to give it to you". Ayushmann Khurana is going through just one such zingy time in his life. 

After such a humdinger of a complex plot in Sriram Raghavan’s AndhaDhund he signs up for just a one line story in “Badhai Ho” written by Akshat Ghildiyal & Shantanu Srivastava and directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma. Yeah , I too wondered why did they need two guys to write a one-line-story? Then I looked at the dialogue writers and they are the same pair, the story writers, and here they have scored really wonderfully. When the plot is just a single line then you need loads of dialogues and conversation to fill in 124 minutes of screen time, and here the pair does a splendid job.

We have a poor IT dude Nakul Kaushik(Ayushmann Khurana, in a rocking form) whose life is cruising at an even pace despite having the typical milieu surrounding him of urban yet decidedly middle class Gurugram. This milieu is so type cast, so type cast that one bursts into immediate laughter at the comfortable familiarity of it. It has pesky inquisitive neighbour's who feel it is their birth right to peek into your house and personal life and offer advice as if they were designate consultants from the big 5 of the world. It has the saucy neighbouring fresh bhabhiji who gives our man the lecherous glad eye, the tiresome yet crafty younger brother, the smart and sassy grand-mother (Surekha Sikri, absolutely superb), the slightly scatter-brained but loving father (Gajraj Rao) and a very warm, kind and once upon a time exceptionally pretty mother who his father just can’t get enough of. There even is one dish, where Nakul in his IT Multi-National company despite his middle-class background has managed to snag for himself; a very pretty , grounded n rich girl ( Saniya Malhotra, very charming) who adores him very much, understands him and wonder of wonder even her mother (Sheeba Chhadda) likes him too. 

So where is the fly in the ointment? The Parents decide to rumple the bed sheets again and in a fit of passion the father makes a deposit and does not withdraw in time. The cruel cold finger of fate then plays its hand and it’s the time for congratulations to be in order…again. There is a baby due and it is the parental decision to have it that blows Nakul’s world away. It’s just not done…he screams at the skies. Society is not too kind either and the kindly and the meaningful barbs keep flying here there and everywhere, each finding its mark on Nakul & his brother. It’s just his girl Renee (Saniya) who takes it casually and she even advises Nakul to take a chill pill… parents are allowed to do it you see, she cheekily tells him. Yet its easier said than done, as he has not come to terms with the shock. He blows his top at her mum, and both he and the girl split for a while and mope. The show, whenever the spotlight moves away from the young lead pair and shines on the conjugally active parents, simply rocks. The older pair are so much in character it is unbelievable and makes one feel both exasperated and warmly fuzzy at the same time. Neena Gupta and Gajraj Rao are fantastic and when the old Surekha Sikri gets her footage, does the veteran set the screen on fire or what? Mutual love, family values, the right things all rush the characters to the predictably happily ever after ending…but where the plot is linear the treatment is nuanced and sublime.

There was a time in the late 70’s and early 80’s when the Bachchan blitzkrieg swept Hindi cinema like the Tsunami tidal wave that hit many a coast… a thin, fumbling, non-descript yet charming middle-class hero called Amol Palekar stood the action onslaught and scored winner after winner with the directorial trio of the two Basu’s and a Mukherjee. Today in the big budget 100 crore bonanza movies mostly from the Khans and a few big Heroines…Ayushmann is doing his work in just as outstanding a manner as Palekar did decades back. He though is much better looking than Amol Palekar ever was but it’s his easy performances that ensures perennial longevity for the films he is a part of; wonderful. It’s a movie that can be missed because it is small and there are other movies to watch. However mark my words if you have bought a ticket for this one because the other screens in the cinema hall were full then believe me, your money is definitely well spent. Amit Ravindranath Sharma as the captain of the ship, its director can take a proud bow on a job very well done. Family drama's are a genuine balancing act and one can be excused for losing it, but not here, the accusation cannot stick. Its a top class controlled effort and deserves its rightful mention.    

AndhaDhun : Wicked & Deep is the Fog that Thrills

Civilization is but a thin veneer and what keeps it on and functioning is the barest of a social construct. Give the power to anyone to be absolved of this and the animal in man emerges with a vengeance. Sriram Raghavan’s characters have always been these tight rope walkers, grey, dark, amoral and tautly wound. Their believable characteristics emerges from this.

Right from his “Ek Haseena Thhi”, “Badlapur”, “Johnny Gaddar” to now “AndhaDhun” Raghavan conveyed that every man craves and craves badly but what limits one is the wafer thin barrier created by social community living. Remove that and every man, woman and child is immoral, can stoop to any level, peer into anyone's life shamelessly, take things that may not belong to him or even wipe somebody off cleanly if they are undetected or not seen. It is like Plato said in 'The Republic' in the episode of the 'Ring of Ghyges; The Ring makes the wearer invisible. This is the truest test of moral character of what one can, shall, would and does when one is not seen.

AndhaDhun begins with a one eyed pest of a rabbit in a cabbage field evading a furious hunter and the scene abruptly fades off into an unseen climactic darkness to open up to light on Prabhat Road in Pune. From the one eyed rabbit the plot has veered onto a blind Pianist Aakash (Ayushmann Khurana) and his recently bumped into muse Sophie (Radhika Apte) on the streets of Pune. Raghavan’s comfort in his hometown makes the city one of the intrinsic characters of the plot. Sophie lands Aakash a job in Franco’s pub and there one sees the faded movie star Pramod Sinha (Anil Dhavan) and his young saucy wife of a suspect moral fiber. The blind Aakash gets embroiled in an intricate plot of wicked proportions and then with every single passing moment falls deeper and deeper into the mess. 

The plot draws inspiration from the French Movie “ L’Accordeur’ or the Piano Tuner. Raghavan does not permit you to sit still in your cinema seat relaxed for more than ten minutes and as the brilliantly nuanced characters interact with each other across rather surprising twists and turns exposing a different hue, the story hurtles onto a mind-blowing open ended climax the kind only an auteur of Raghavn’s cerebral class can come up with. Manav Vij as the philandering cop and his high strung yet loving wife Ashwini Kalsekar or Chhaya Kadam as a lottery seller and Zakir Hussain as the ordinarily never suspected doctor engaged in the nefarious organ trade…each of them is individually brilliant. Nothing in the story line is expected and it is as if a general plot line was chalked out and the actors having interacted, dashed against each other, lived their characters so fully that the story wrote itself, got enriched and taken to another level; one that is simply spectacular. 

Ayushmann  Khurana  is in a role of a life time and so spot on is his essaying the character that at every moment one starts feeling sympathy empathy wonder disgust and even dislike for the shades conveyed as is the case with Tabu who is supreme in her part that she has effortlessly drawn onto and worn like a second skin. This is the perfect foil and these two own the movie. Radhika Apte is sweet sincere and very comfortable one who is very natural. 

The punches that Raghavan gives the viewer are felt as audible gasps and thrilled embarrassed laughter of having been caught unawares in shock, surprise and thrill. The pace of the movie is relentless till post interval it meanders for a while in the organ trade business but before it loses sight is quickly back and leads to a stunning climax that joins most of the dots.

Superb camerawork, slick editing and clear story telling backed by brilliant performances undoubtedly makes this movie an unmissable, must watch movie of 2018.

Sui Dhaga : A delightful shorba from a perfect broth

Have you been hungry over a long period of time? All that comes your way during such a time is hastily put together, spicy stuff from  a hot wok that has been hurriedly fried n tossed . Then to avoid this, one goes into a fancy labelled eating place. Here under the packaging of conditioned atmosphere, good sofa sets smartly turned out waiters, with fancy crockery and cutlery that promises a hugely inflated bill and one still gets served the same insipid or over spiced fare. I have been cheated too often in this manner to know that this does not leave a nice taste in the mouth.

So one goes hungry outside and eats only at home or partakes only the home-cooked meal. This while may be good in many aspects; the range here is limited to the skill and range of the cooking available. The taste buds are left wanting. Then one day when you have left home and forgotten the lunch box, the pangs drive you into a non-descript yet clean looking place. Here looking at the simple menu on offer you order the soup. The shorba comes served in an ordinary glass bowl but the aroma has tickled the nostrils while it was approaching the table. Then the sight of it pleases ones eye at the simple clarity of the broth and as one dips into it and mouths the first spoonful, the subtle flavours explode on to your palate and one is suffused with a sensation of pure delight. A smile lingers on as one has a fill of an ordinary menu prepared quite beautifully.

Sui Dhaga is just this kind of a broth, simple, subtle and full of nuanced flavours.

Mauji ( Varun Dhavan) and Mamta (Anushka Sharma) are matter of factly launched at you as husband and wife, the son and daughter-in-law of  a pesky Babuji ( Raghuvir Yadav, competent as ever) and a Maaji (Yamini Das, who is like that extra raisin one has surprisingly found in a motichur ka laddoo. Sublimely superb) who is so much into the character that one definitely gets a feeling of the familiar watching her? Mauji is a happy go lucky simpleton, sincere, honest, hard-working, obedient, dutiful grandson of a black n white photograph hanging on the grimy wall. This wrinkled old coon in the photograph was a skilled tailor master whose business bombed and effectively turned his son , Raghuvir Yadav into a risk averse service goer of a type who cloaks his non-relevant work life into an epic of one on whom duty declared that he should be like this. His elder spineless son has left home to be a ghar jamai at a comparatively richer household and the younger Mauji who though has inherited his grandfather’s skilled fingers on a sewing machine is willing to follow his fathers footsteps by loyally playing the fool to an advantage taking shopkeeper. The crescendo of his humiliation is once witnessed by his wife who is hurt beyond measure at this demeaning role. In a very very subtle manner she pokes at his self respect that wakes up from its seemingly self-imposed slumber.

This is the tipping point and Mauji’s transformation begins from a pleasant yet simply trusting a young boy-man into a man. A man whose wife walks by his side, happily and proudly, willing to go that extra mile for her man; holding his hand, comfort him with soothing words, directing him responsibly and even at times taking cudgels for him. The story line holds no surprises finally spiralling towards a contest that one already knows who would win. The fun of this movie is not in knowing the end result much before it has come that one does, but it is in the delightful walk that Mamta and Mauji take. Their sincerity draws you into their story in such a compelling fashion at times one’s eyes moisten both with pathos and joys experienced by this quite a surprisingly adorable pair  who baffle you with their inexperience, yet make you admire their drive n persistence and even one feels like pushing  them simply over the speed breakers that keep popping up quite often in their path. Their victory is the finale and a beginning.

Sharad Katariya, the director,  has done a credible job and the movie produced by Yash Raj Films will guarantee it a good release. The movie belongs to Varun Dhavan and Anushka Sharma who have put in their hearts and souls into their characters and never once have they faltered. Anu Malik talented as ever composes a few beautiful songs to Varun Grover’s script driven lyrics. The support castled by Namit Das as the over effusive and funny relative who is also a fixer, gives out a performance that is very good and as do the others.

Those who enjoy the spicily loud fare normally dished out by Yash Raj films that are manoeuvred into the 100 crore club may give this movie a miss. This is for those who enjoy a simple story told quite well. This is the kind of food that promises to be food only and not pretending to be anything else, wholesome and entirely an absolute value for money cinema experience. Bon apetit.