The mood decides the artiste — no, not the mood of the artiste, but the mood of the audience. Today, it is, therefore, interesting when someone dares to wager on inclusivity. While Aditya Chopra unquestionably has the fiscal wherewithal to make a film that echoes what his father said very early in his career, Yash Chopra in 1959 made ‘Dhool Ka Phool’ with actor Manmohan lip-syncing the Rafi melody ‘Tu Hindu banega na Musalman banega, insaan hain insaan ki aulad bnanega.’ In the 60s, an emerging country had empathy for this thought.
Today, even distributed copies of this constitution see tolerance reflectives as cuss words. Look at what sells at the box office and one can reasonably gauge the mood, the spirit, the trend and, of course, the perspective. Credit to Vijay Krishna, whose last film wiped out all the moolah that his ‘Dhoom’ brought in: he has yet again come up with a film which even thematically will find few bakers.
With a film like ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ behind him, anything is an improvement. However, this is not on the thriller street of ‘Dhoom’ or the superficial style of ‘Tashan’. This time, the story travels to a town in the Hindi belt, Balrampur, and deals with how all are equal because everyone’s blood is the same shade of red!
Over to Balrampur: We have the calf love of two kids Aishwarya and Ved, which, thankfully, does not blossom on predictable terms two hours later. It is thematically aborted. The kid is from a traditional Brahmin family, with his father Siya Ram Tripathi (Kumud Mishra) a priest. He lives with his brother Balak Ram Tripathi (Manoj Pahwa), sister Sushila Kumari (Alka Amin), and sister-in-law Hema Tripathi (Sadiya Siddiqui).
Ved Vyas (Vicky Kaushal) has a twin sibling Gunja (Srishti Dixit). The middle-class family sees prosperity and popularity when Ved becomes Bhajan Kumar. He mixes his musical talent with the profession of the family. Never mind that his numbers could be as profound as ‘Kanhaiya Twitter pe aaja (obviously pre-X days).’ He, with two stereotypical friends, is having fun and goes to the extent of playing social police not for any reason but because they are smitten by Jasmine (Manushi Chhillar), who is the daredevil contemporary town species of the Nadia genus.
These groups try hard to play up their communal differences strictly from a selfish space of personal romance. Giving Papa Tripathi the run for his money, space, and reputation is the local competitive Pundit Jagannath Mishra (Yashpal Sharma). Mishra is abetted by his son Tulsidas Mishra (Aasif Khan – who does not attempt to look like the traditional pundit).
The local rich pocket Maalpaani is now getting daughter Aishwarya married. The two pundits, Tripathi and Mishra, debate the astrological sign for the ‘muhurat’ with the latter as the loser. Battle lines are drawn among the pundits and punditry knows no full stops. Tripathi wins the first round and leaves on an annual pilgrimage. Things take a bad turn in the absence of the iron-fisted patriarch.
Ved Vyas is told that his lineage is suspect and that he was born to Muslim parents. The immediate family too is at a crossroads, unable to accept him or embrace him in his new identity. The new identity is also a challenge to the near monopoly the family hitherto enjoyed professionally.
The film is unpretentiously preachy-loud and clear. While the theme may be the need of the hour, it is so loud that it does the production house injustice, not to mention the cause. The writing of the “inherent universality of mankind” is cliched beyond acceptance for sheer lack of subtlety. It is sad to see some talent going begging in the process, prominently Sadiya Siddiqui, Yashpal Sharma, Alka Amin and even Manoj Pahwa.
Vicky Kaushal is at the centre of the story. Given his present form, he is in fine fettle. He manoeuvres through the script with the ease of one who is making hay when summer lasts. However, that in itself is not sufficient to push the film into zones of acceptance. Perhaps, his credibility as an actor and/or incapacity to go over the top (and doesn’t he try!) is counter-productive in a script that goes whole hog to its designer pulpit. To reiterate: the philosophy badly needs reiteration, not reiteration badly. The best take-away from the film is the performance of the old reliable Kumud Mishra. Constrained, balanced, credible, authoritative and yet warm – he gets everything on board.
There is nothing great about this ‘Great Indian Family’ except the loud grandiose, grotesque message. Preachy beyond acceptance.
