Badhai Ho Movie Review – Badhai Ho – Bollywood is moving towards content !
Making a movie is an art but making it to The Hit List in India is no less than cracking a sales code. Reasons are many. Bollywood gets challenged by regional cinema which is breaking boundaries and creating an impact even outside of their regions. Entertainment is the most searched category online. Cinema going is no longer just a weekend thing. It is more of a stress buster, a means to bring your day to a calm which otherwise seems to be concluding on a heavier side. And sometimes it is just easier to click on Amazon Prime or Netflix than driving to the theater. So to be able to pull the audiences to the theater, it has to be a real good entertainer.
While these industry nuances make film making a challenging task, the fast changing preferences of the audience only adds to it. An industry that worked on a HIT FORMULA basis all these decades, became change receptive just recently. The year 2017 brought in a wave of Bollywood releases with a moderate budget but content which is offbeat yet powerful.
So Entertainment_Entertainment_Entertainment is getting now replaced with Entertainment_Content_Entertainment. The winning formula today says: Smartly weave in the content into Entertainment. Because the basic purpose of a film still is to ENTERTAIN.
Over the years, the entertainment savvy Indians have evolved up to absorbing good and relatable content from movies. But what drives them to theaters is the act of switching off the stressful realities of their lives. So, they are ready for good content but the presentation style still has to be entertainment.
BADHAI HO is a film in the same league and has been gaining popularity because it packages content in entertainment quite well. This content packed entertainer has been enacted with finesse and is sure to leave you with a feeling of reliving the love of your life. While it hits the reality hard on our face, it positively encourages us to re-visit and challenge some age-old assumptions and customs in our society.
The title Badhai Ho makes the film more relatable to the masses and of course the classes, as it is a popular catchphrase which is often used as a substitute of “Heartiest Congratulations” which I feel is just not Indian. Does it indicate enough that the film is quite witty?!
Another interesting point of matter is that pregnancy has been presented as a journey in Bollywood before but it has mostly been about accidental parenthood or the struggle of a woman to maintain her identity after becoming a mother. Never has a film rung the bell of ‘badhai ho ji, badhai ho” so well across all generations.
It comes across as a definite clutter-breaker to the Indians who have grown up seeing the camera averting from the bed of a young couple. But when you see the camera shying away from the bed of a fiftees’ plus simpleton couple, it is definitely offbeat. Needless to mention, the presentation through and through has been quite refined and Gajaraj ji’s romance is all set you make you hold your wife’s hand instantly. And when you see Neenaji with that warmth, you would definitely get inspired to run after those little moments which if lived right can make a housewife a beloved.
Age is not the factor to derail your sex life. Desires are desires. And couples are couples. Respecting our families and placing their priorities high on our daily list of chores must never become a reason to de-priorities our desires. Because only if our desires are met positively, will we be able to emerge as a more beautiful person and of course are in a position to fulfil our responsibilities towards our family better.
So do steal some time off your routine to watch Badhai Ho and when you are convinced watching this entertainer, get into the habit of stealing some moments off your routine every day and live them with the love of your life.
BADHAI HO JI, BADHAI HO !! The moment of realization is just a watch away!!
-Ruchi Adlakha
www.ruchiadlakha.com
