Trailer Talk: Badhaai Do
Harshvardhan Kulkarni's 'Badhaai Do' carries on its shoulders massive expectations since its first part 'Badhaai Ho' released in 2018.
Amit Sharma’s ‘Badhaai Ho’, when released was considered as one of the best films of the year. With a stellar cast of Ayushmann Khuranna, Sanya Malhotra, Neena Gupta, Gajraj Rao, and the late Surekha Sekri, the plot revolved around Nakul, a 25-year-old man who gets shocked when he realises his mother is pregnant, and how he struggles to put the news out to his girlfriend, putting their relationship in jeopardy. It surely proved in 2018, that content is king. It brought out a film to the masses which was not heard of, or seen, and was hailed for its performances and direction.
Cut to 2022, when the trailer for the second part of the franchise releases. The trailer shows us Shardul Thakur (played by Rajkumar Rao), a well-built police officer who falls in love and vouches to protect a PT teacher Suman Singh aka Sumi, played by Bhumi Pednekar. However, she does not want to get married, despite Rao trying to make several advances at her.
The reason why she does not want to get married is that she is already in love with someone. The lesbian angle crops up here as we see Pednekar in a relationship with another female. As expected, the neighbours get suspicious and the female is introduced Sumi’s cousin. It seems that Rao also belongs to the LGBTQIA+ community as he says, “Jaise aap ka koi interest nahi hai ladko me, par …” (Just like you don’t have interest in boys, but…). His expressions and emotions do the talking, and we can clearly decipher what he is trying to say.
Interestingly, the film’s poster also shows Rao and Pednekar come ‘out of the closet.’
What follows is an ‘atrangi wedding’ in a ‘satrangi setting’. The trailer ends on why our two characters can’t have children and multiple questions pop up. The supporting cast consists of some powerful performances by Seema Pahwa, Loveleen Mishra, Deepak Arora, Shashi Bhushan, and Nitesh Pandey. Sheeba Chaddha is the only constant in this trailer from the first franchise.
This film tries to make a statement on lavender marriages (a marriage between a man and a woman for the purpose of hiding homosexuality). It will be interesting to watch how the film plays out, considering how we as audiences are so used to the LGBTQIA+ formula already.
According to me, the love interest in the trailer is a sure giveaway, and the film seems to be following the regular lesbian love angle trope seen in almost every other film. Hitesh Kewaliya's ‘Shubh Mangal Zyaada Savdhaan’ starring Ayushmann Khuranna has already explored this angle in the reverse role before. And not to mention, Vighnesh Shivan's 'Love Panna Uttranam' in ‘Paava Kadhaigal.’
With glimpses of a pride march in the film, this film tries to make a statement, which will definitely be interesting to watch, but I doubt it will work for some of us as we as audiences are so used to this formula already. And most of us, already have a few expectations since the success of the first part.
