Review : ‘Badhai Do’ to this ‘Lavender Marriage’!
In recent times #Bollywood has become open minded and quite a few movie revolving around same-sex couple were made. Just a few months back #ChandigarhKareAashiqui, which showcased a story of a trans-woman was nicely accepted by the audiences. Before that ‘#ShubhMangalZyadaSaavdhan’ underlined homosexuality issue. Now ‘#BadhaiDo’ goes a step further and talks about both the lead characters in the movie being ‘gay’. It definitely is a bold move by the maker to have presented this story in the mainstream commercial cinema. Also kudos to Rajkumar Rao, who plays a Gay and Bhumi Pednekar who plays a lesbians for delivering convincing performances. The movie handles the subject with required sensitivity and it narrates the ethos of this closeted couple with a dose of humour.
Shardul Thakur (Rajkumar Rao), who hails from Haldwani, is an Inspector posted at an all female police station. Suman Singh (Bhumi Pednekar) is a PT teacher in a school in Dehradun. She falls in a love and the other person gets married and she is left high and dry. She is troubled and black mailed by a guy working with her and she lodges a complaint against him in a police station where Shardul is posted. Shardul who is 32 follows Suman who is 31 and after confrontation from her he proposes to her for a marriage because he gets to know her ‘secret’. Shardul and Suman’s respective parents are after them to get married and both of them are not interested. It’s revealed that Shardul has interest in guys while Suman fancies girls. To stop the nagging of their parents they decide to get married. Their’s is a ‘Lavender Marriage’ as same-sex marriage are still not allowed in our country. They plan to stay as room mates and continue their interests without crossing each other’s path. What happens next and how things unfold is the story of ‘Badhai Do’.
Lavender Marriage is a wedding between two homosexual people who indulge in a marriage of convenience to fit in the society and also using it as a cover to veil their sexual orientation from the society. In the film too Shardul and Suman is a closeted couple who are scared to announce their sexual orientation. The concept of the film is definitely good but it fails in execution. The first half is too lengthy without much happening in it. In the second half issues related to homosexuality and lesbianism are tackled boldly without using bold scenes. The director (Harshavardhan Kulkarni) should be given a credit for that. He has used intermittent light humour in the narration but most of it is cliched. The film immediately is on the course with the subject at hand and doesn’t ‘t deviate from it till the end.
Rajkumar Rao has become a ‘Biscuit-Boy’ in this film and his physical transformation adds to the narrative of the story. He’s dished out a good performance but the screenplay seems to have failed him. The small town humour looks doesn’t end in guffaws. Bhumi Pednekar delivers a splendid performance and plays a lesbian character without guilt. Her conviction is a plus for this movie. Seema Pahwa and Sheeba Chaddha collect good laughs and Nitesh Panday too lends good support. Gulshan Devaiah’s cameo is solid as a homosexual lawyer and newcomer Chum Darang too dishes out a good performance as Bhumi’s lesbian partner.
‘Badhai Do’ is a bold entertainer, content-wise but could have done better, but LGBTQI+ community is going to relish it.
Rating: ***