Marathi drama about having a baby to stay married is definitely not Well Done
A MARRIED couple have come to the end of the road and take the difficult decision to get divorced. But when the wife discovers she is pregnant, they see a new baby as a chance to fix their broken relationship.
The relatively low-budget Marathi movie, which recently premiered on streaming site Amazon Prime, is a slow-burning, UK-set drama that attempts to explore the breaking down of different aspects of a couple’s seemingly perfect bond, and them trying to mend it. Although it seems like a winning idea, many may find the message of the film of staying together for the sake of a baby problematic.
The story goes down that well-trodden path of an unplanned baby bringing a couple back together, which viewers have seen many times before, including in the 2005 Bollywood film Salaam Namaste. By staying with that same approach Well Done Baby doesn’t really offer the audience anything new and quickly becomes predictable.
The only real saving grace is some comic moments and solid performances from the two lead actors, but it just isn’t enough to lift this drab drama to a higher level. The technically poor effort comes across as more of an overly long TV drama than an entertaining movie, and it is difficult to see who it will appeal to. Even couples going through a difficult time will likely find this an unrealistic attempt at exploring a real relationship.
There is a widely acclaimed Norwegian movie, imaginatively titled Ninjababy, which tackles the same subject of an unplanned pregnancy in a far more original way, which is more in tune with the times we live in today.
Unlike Well Done Baby, it doesn’t tread down the conventional path and is recommended instead of this dated effort from India, which could have been so much more.