Plot
Balmukund is the Shahrukh Khan of his class as he mimics Bollywood actors and teases his bald teachers. He is blessed with thick locks and is quite proud of those. As he grows up and turns 25 he starts losing his treasure of hair. His life takes a complete turn and along with hair he loses his long-time girlfriend, his job profile and his self-respect.
Now begins the journey of Bala to regain his dignity, his friends give him a number of remedies, but none help in the cause. How he manages to regain his life is the rest of the story.
The Good
- Brand Ayushmann is reliable and he doesn’t disappoint at all. He is incredible in this vulnerable and unglamorous character. The lead cast with Bhumi Pednekar as Bala’s classmate with dark skin, despite the criticism, is spot on. Yami Gautam as the tik-tok queen turned model has fragility in her vanity.
- The setup in Kanpur does brings out a theme of its own. The charm of India’s small towns is fascinating.
- The dialogues are fabulous. They will crack you up all the times.
- The impeccable supporting cast including Saurabh Shukla as Bala’s father, Javed Jaffery as Bachchan Pandey Bala’s friend, Seema Pahwa as Mausi, Sunita Rahvar as his mother are all superb and the family banter is one of the key narrative instruments of the story.
- Bala touches upon quite a few prejudices of our society, and director Amar Kaushik once again is able to say a lot in the guise of humor.
The Bad
- The only bad I can think of is if you are now used to the unusual path that Ayushmann takes and despite this being a new subject feel like it is kind of familiar. If you know what I mean.
But be assured you are in for full on entertainment and will not get disappointed at any point in the film. So do watch it.