Badrinath ki Dulhaniya Movie Review

There is a trend in main stream hindi cinema, to use the main stream format to talk about socially taboo topics without proselytising. Kapoor & Sons spoke about homosexuality in a serious way. Kahaani 2 dealt with child sexual abuse, Udta Punjab spoke about the drug issue in Punjab, Dear Zindagi brought into the mainstream, the use of psychological counselling and now Badrinath ki Dulhaniya deals with the dual topics about Dowry and a woman's desire/right to pursue her career after marriage. Set in the hard-core Hindi Belt of Jhansi and Kota- the movie is a hard core mainstream Masala movie - with Varun playing a moderately literate boy from a rich family who slowly transforms being the very emblem of patriarchy- to a man who is willing to stand up to his family and society for his wife's right to pursue her career and to oppose Dowry. Alia's movie choices this year seem to indicate that she takes her role as a youth icon seriously. She plays a young fiery girl with aspirations far beyond her reality. She is unwilling to conform to social norms, opposes Dowry, and is willing to do what it takes to pursue her dreams of being an air hostess. While the underlying theme of the movie has much going for it, the producers compulsions to reach a wider audience beyond the 'multiplexes, mean that the movie is stretched way beyond its desired length making it, in its second half- a major drag. The first half is zippy and fun, but the second half is slow and pretty boring. However Varun and Alia make for a really cute on screen pair, and are able to keep you watching inspite of a flawed second half. Overall a 3 /5