Badrinath Ki Dulhania

Badrinath Ki Dulhania, the second film in the Dharma franchise after Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania offers you enough fun to enjoy the film without any dullness. Unlike the last film, the conflict this time has a more relevant nature (honor killing/ dowry system etc are the points of attack) and with humor abundant in almost all scenes along with some smart and genuine on screen performances this movie preaches, but entertainingly.

Badrinath Bansal is our hero who belongs to a prominent family in Jhansi. During his friend’s wedding, Badri bumps in to this girl named Vaidehi. The old school Badri fixes her as his future wife and starts to plan things to make it happen until he finds out that Vaidehi isn’t the kind of typical girls he has seen so far. The struggle of Badri to convince her and the efforts of Vaidehi to have a life and career of her own is what creating the drama in Badrinath Ki Dulhania.

Through almost all his films Varun Dhawan has sort of established this cheerful “Govinda” mode of his which I still find very exciting on screen. Badri is this innocent guy who hasn’t really questioned the conventions and when he tries to convince Vaidehi, the whole ideology about women in Badri’s mind is getting broken. Badrinath Ki Dulhania capitalizes on this factor and creates genuinely hilarious moments and silent preaches to the society. The dialogues being less cheesy helps the film in being emotionally relatable and the kind of sarcastic approach in some of the “self realization” dialogues reduces the melodrama from the equation.

Varun Dhawan becomes Badri very elegantly. The idiotic adamant nature in the beginning, the anger in the middle and the maturity in the last leg were portrayed neatly by the actor. When you look at the whole film, Varun has got better scenes to perform and he was really good. Alia as always with her natural flair becomes Vaidehi effortlessly. The on screen chemistry of these two is really great and for a film like this with a very basic story structure that helps a lot.  Sahil Vaid as the hero’s friend Somdev was absolutely hilarious.

Shashank Khaitan keeps the film very much in the same zone of Humpty Sharma in terms of treatment. Like I already said, the progressive thoughts conveyed through minimal preach was something that I liked about the film. He makes sure that the film never really goes in to an entirely moody area. Even when Badri cries, there is a kind of innocence in the expressions and outburst that we end up laughing at him. The purpose of the film is to provide the typical song and dance entertainment and that definitely reduces depth of storytelling.  Roke Na Ruke song was really good and I really hope they stop this Badshah revamps of old songs.

Badrinath Ki Dulhania has credible performances, enough humor and an okay story that will keep you occupied for the 135 minutes of its runtime. Progressive thoughts are neatly embedded in this typical entertainer.

Rating: 3/5