Badrinath ki Dulhania is a tale with a twist

When feminism is the war cry of a generation, commercial cinema must pull its head out of the sand, brush itself up, and pay its respects to the new hero: the heroine.

It’s been done before. Queen, English Vinglish, Pink, Highway and Dear Zindagi all show the woman rising, fighting her battles, and emerging triumphant.

It’s a healthy, growing list. Director Shashank Khaitan’s second film in the …ki Dulhania series, Badrinath, manages to join their ranks with something clever and commendable.

First, he uses the title to remind everyone of his previous film, Humpty Sharma… (2014), a commercial success and a romantic comedy. And then — and this is the clever part — he uses the rom-com as a vehicle to deliver a message of women’s empowerment. He also takes the feminist out of the urban setting, and puts her in Tier-2 India. The choice of locations seems apt: Jhansi (UP) and Kota (Rajasthan). Both states have unflattering histories of patriarchy and skewed sex ratios.

Badrinath opens with a sharp little narrative satire. The birth of a boy is seen as an asset, and a girl child a liability. And marriage is an occasion to levy a ‘one-time dahej price’.

Badri (Varun Dhawan) is born into a wealthy, orthodox zamindar family where the autocratic father’s word is final, and where an elder brother was forced into an arranged marriage for money. Dhawan makes for a convincing small-town lout.

When he fancies a girl at a wedding (Alia Bhatt, as Vaidehi Trivedi), he goes into aggressive flirt mode. Vaidehi’s narrative is little more predictable. She’s educated, and wants to earn for herself. It’s all well-intentioned and earnest. But in parts it’s too earnest. The love-versus-respect dialogue gets preachy.

Badrinath... lacks the realism of hard-hitting indie cinema, but still takes a pertinent subject to a wide audience. In Badri’s goofy humour, and in Vaidehi’s courage, one hopes that people will see a bit of themselves.