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Badhaai Do
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Wikipedia article
'Badhaai Do' is a 2022 Indian Hindi comedy drama film depicting a couple in a lavender marriage. It stars Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar and is written by Suman Adhikary and Akshat Ghildial and directed by Harshavardhan Kulkarni. The film is produced by Junglee Pictures, and serves as a spiritual sequel of the 2018 film 'Badhaai Ho'. The principal photography began on 5 January 2021 in Dehradun. 'Badhaai Do' was theatrically released on 11 February 2022.
Plot
Shardul Thakur is a police officer whose widowed mother keeps bugging him to get married. On the other hand, Suman Singh, also known as Sumi, is a physical education teacher who meets a woman on a lesbian dating app. This woman asks Sumi to meet her in a caf, to which she agrees. On reaching the caf, Sumi realizes that she had been chatting with a man masquerading all along as a lesbian. Afraid, Sumi leaves the caf, but the man begins to stalk her. When she threatens to report him to the police, his counterthreat is to expose her as a lesbian. Fed up with his blackmail, Sumi reports it to Shardul, who happens to work in a police station largely peopled by female officers. Shardul meets Sumi and tells her that the man from the dating app has been warned. He makes a deal of marriage with Sumi while revealing that he is gay himself, and that getting married would placate both their families. Sumi accepts the deal and they get married.
On their honeymoon, Shardul introduces his boyfriend Kabir to Sumi. After returning from the trip, Shardul and Sumi move into police quarters. Later, Sumi gets to know Rimjhim, who works in a hospital. They go out on a date, where Rimjhim opens up about being rejected by her family for being a lesbian. They start a relationship immediately after, and Rimjhim moves into Sumi's room. Rimjhim finds Sumi's passport, which had never been stamped, and Sumi confesses her desire to have a child, and says she got the passport hoping she could move abroad to adopt. When Shardul's superior's wife questions them about Rimjhim, they brush it off saying that she is their cousin.
When Shardul becomes suspicious that Kabir is cheating on him, he hits him. This causes Kabir to walk out on him, leaving Shardul devastated. Some time later, Shardul is controlling a group of homophobic protestors outside a gay wedding, where Guru Narayan, a queer lawyer, sees him. He immediately takes a liking to Shardul, and slips his business card into Shardul's pocket. They begin dating shortly after, and Guru Narayan is introduced to Sumi and Rimjhim.
Later, Shardul and Sumi go to Shardul's home for Diwali. When questioned about her not being pregnant yet, Shardul tells his brother-in-law that Sumi is infertile, and asks him not to share it with the rest of the family. He breaks his promise and does so anyway, and Shardul's family tricks Sumi into taking a fertility test, which comes out normal. Shardul's mother moves into their quarters to make sure that they have a physical relationship. While talking about this, Sumi tells her mother-in-law that Shardul is infertile, backing this up with a falsified test from Rimjhim's lab. Shardul's and Sumi's families agree that the couple should adopt a child, which leaves Sumi overjoyed. They go to an adoption agency and put in an application.
Shardul's mother leaves for her home, but returns as she misses the train, only to see Sumi and Rimjhim being intimate. She tells this to both the families. Shardul asks Sumi not to reveal his sexual orientation. Sumi's mother and brother admonish her, and her father silently leaves the house. Sumi follows her father and tells him he thought he was the one family member who would stand by her no matter what. Shardul's family is furious with Sumi for being a lesbian. Shardul then confesses to his family that he is gay in a show of solidarity. His mother accepts his identity, which Shardul shares with Sumi with great joy. Later, Shardul puts on a rainbow-colored mask at a Pride parade, coming out to his coworkers.
Sumi and Shardul decide to get divorced, but Shardul receives a message stating that their adoption application has been accepted. This makes them reconsider divorce, and they decide to remain married so that they can adopt. One year later, Shardul and Sumi adopt a baby and perform an adoption ritual, in which Rimjhim participates as one of the parents. Shardul's superior and his wife visit their home for the ritual. Seeing them, Rimjhim leaves Sumi's side. Sumi's father tells Rimjhim to continue the ritual, telling her that the ritual needs the mother's presence. Shardul invites Guru Narayan to accompany him in the ritual. The superior remains confused seeing this, but the four smile as vibrantly as a rainbow.
Cast
* Rajkummar Rao as Shardul Thakur, a policeman
* Bhumi Pednekar as Suman 'Sumi' Singh, a physical education teacher
* Chum Darang as Rimjhim Jongkey, Suman's girlfriend
* Sheeba Chaddha as Mrs. Thakur, Shardul's mother
* Seema Pahwa as Shardul's tayi ji
* Gulshan Devaiah as Guru Narayan, Shardul's boyfriend
* Loveleen Mishra as Mrs. Singh, Suman's mother
* Nitesh Pandey as Prem Singh, Suman's father
* Vyom Yadav as Naman Singh, Suman's brother
* Abhay Joshi as Dehradun DSP
* Durga Sharma as DSP's wife
* Shireesh Dobriyal as Shardul's taya ji
* Priyanka Charan as Rekha, Shardul's cousin
* Shashi Bhushan as Dr. Anoop Parihar, Rekha's husband
* Nutan Sinha as Nishita, Shardul's cousin
* Archana Patel as Vineeta, Shardul's cousin
* Sarita Rana as Mahila Thana SHO
* Nindhi Bhati as Naaznin Baig, the police constable
* Krishan Kumar as Sirohi, the police constable
* Gurleen Kaur as Urvashi
* Ananya Gaur as Pihu
* Chetan Dhawan as Rajeev Paddisetti aka Raju
* Karuna Prakash as Suman's Priya Mausi
* Babita Anand as Kusum, Priya Mausi's Friend
* Mitisha Arora as Sarita, Shardul's cousin
* Arti Shahi as Udita, Shardul's cousin
* Prabhu Bhatt as Priyanshu
* Deepak Arora as Kabir, Shardul's ex-boyfriend
* Apeksha Porwal as Komal, Suman's ex-girlfriend
Production
The first schedule was wrapped on 25 February. The film was wrapped up on 6 March 2021.
Soundtrack
{{Infobox Album
| name = Badhaai Do
| type = Soundtrack
| artist = Amit Trivedi, Tanishk Bagchi, Ankit Tiwari and Khamosh Shah
| released = 1 February 2022
| genre = Feature film soundtrack
| length = 48:50
| language = Hindi
| label = Zee Music Company
| misc =
}}
The music of film was composed by Amit Trivedi, Tanishk Bagchi, Ankit Tiwari and Khamosh Shah while lyrics written by Varun Grover, Vayu, Anurag Bhumia, Azeem Shirazi and Anvita Dutt.
Reception
Box office
'Badhaai Do' earned 1.65 crore at the domestic box office on its opening day. On the second day, the film collected 2.72 crore. On the third day, the film collected 3.45 crore, taking total weekend domestic collection to 7.82 crore., the film grossed crore in India and crore overseas, for a worldwide gross collection of crore.
Critical response
Rachana Dubey of 'The Times of India' gave the film 4/5 and wrote "Badhaai Do attempts to normalise the big-screen depiction of the gay and lesbian community and their romantic relationships. The film sensitively portrays the immense loneliness and sense of isolation that a gay person feels, especially when they lack a window to communicate openly with their family, and are forced to deal with issues on their own" Prathyush Parasuraman of 'Firstpost' gave the film a rating of 4/5 and wrote "Badhaai Do is largely, and rightfully preoccupied with the sexuality of the characters, characters who are not paragons but people, they burp and fart and have loose anger and dark circles". Devesh Sharma of 'Filmfare' gave the film a rating of 4/5 and wrote "The film makes a point that all kinds of love exists in the world and we shouldn't just pick one colour out of the rainbow but embrace the whole spectrum".Saibal Chatterjee of 'NDTV' gave 3.5 out of 5 and wrote "The film unequivocally champions the cause of individuality and inclusivity while delivering an engaging story that is funny, thought-provoking and intriguingly angular in one fell swoop". 'Zoom' gave the film a rating of 3.5/5 and wrote "Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar and team shoulder this bold film to show that 'love is love'" Stutee Ghosh of 'The Quint' gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "Badhaai Do Has Solid Performances, But Seems Overeager to Impress". Mohar Basu of 'Mid-Day' gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "Badhaai Do is an honest effort in the right direction, and one of the reasons it works is because it makes you wonder why the law doesn't allow members of LGBTQiA+ community to marry and have children". Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri of 'The Free Press Journal' gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "the film is eminently watchable, thanks in no mean manner to the two lead actors and the occasional throwaway line like being a lesbian 'hamare life ka hissa hai, puri life thodi na hai".
'Pinkvilla' gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "Badhaai Do strives to start a conversation but shines light on the actuality that we have a long way to go by holding a mirror to the society". Sukanya Verma of 'Rediff' gave the film a rating of 3/5 and wrote "Rajkummar Rao is solid in what we've come to recognise as strictly Ayushmann Khurrana territory". Ankita Bhandari of 'Zee News' gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "'Badhaai Ho' appears to be just another take on LGBTQ+ issues, this time adding the adoption angle to the otherwise commonplace matter of coming out of the closet and making your families understand". Shubhra Gupta of 'Indian Express' gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote 'Badhaai Do' falls into the same trap films with 'brave subjects' gravitate towards Monika Rawal Kukreja of 'The Hindustan Times' wrote "Rajkummar Rao is in full form and on point as a gay cop. Bhumi Pednekar, too, delivers an excellent performance.
References
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