Gen X gives birth to Gen Z ( Badhai HO)

Ayushman khurana and the new wave cinema are spoiling us. A year back I would have been raving about this utterly natural cinema with a trustworthy script, honest art direction, from the heart acting by the astonishingly perfect ten casting and yet the new benchmark created is so high that you happily retain your feel about it being a better than average movie without guilt. It only speaks highly of the high standards seeping into the Indian Film Industry and that can only bode well for the audiences. Ayushman, Rajkumar Rao, Radhika Apte are among the new wave age actors who seem to do no wrong in the scripts they encourage. And despite the commercial  heft of the success they see, there is none of the overhanging arrogant stardom around them. That is heartening. Character artistes like Gajraj Rao and Pankaj tripathi are strengthening the foundation of the starcentred storylines and adding solidity to it.

But back to Badhai HO and to speak not about the hero or heroine but the rock star of the movie,the grandma played by Surekha Sikri. At 73 she peaks to chew the screen out. In the 90s Banegi Apni Baat saw her impressing the TV landscape and with this act, the NSD graduate simply rocks. Gajraj Rao in a much understated role brings on the maximum laughter with his gentle embarrassed cringes and plays perfect foil to the accomplished Neena. You wonder why she was missing all these years

The premise is startling and yet simple. An aged couple with elderly working children accidentally land with the responsibility of having to give birth to and be parents of an accidental procreation. It also draws sniggers and blushing attention from a traditionally reserved population that deems people with grown up children as retirees from work and also from the pleasures of life. The Film attempts to challenge this unfair unspoken ratification by society.

Why is a country that obviously has worked hard to create a billion plus population fighing shy of pleasures of the act beyond the purpose of procreation alone. An aged mother on path of pregnancy helps to raise the necessary emotional conflict and confusion in the script to keep the story moving but the premise runs out of comical steam soon and the director sets out on sub plots which seem like a soft manipulation of the audience but with seemingly less than necessary impact. At just over two hours the makers do feel the strain of keeping the laughs genuine and the plot interesting to keep the audience rooted.

The lack of energy in parts should not take away from the fact that the movie is a sum of the whole talented cast that star in the script with a Bachchanesque Surekha stealing most of the popular lines. Ayushman shows with Rajkumar they are redefining superstardom. In a middle class milieu highly reminiscent of the Tanu Weds Manu or that of the more recent Bareily ke Barfi , recreation of the North Indian middle class is outstanding and the writers with the directors and the cast play a big role.

In the end you feel the director wondering if he should also rope in the message of the girl child but then decides against it preferring to retain the movie as a more modern effort to free up the unfairly boxed in expectations of life from Gen X. Wish they had invented more plausible sub plots to strengthen the story.

But it is a very decent watch and full marks to the cast. Another movie that needs to be encouraged. Because it dares to dream that Gen X will give birth to Gen Z

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