Audience Member
Badri is the son of a wealthy man who wants a dowry for his wedding. His father has always made his life choices for him when it comes to women. His father refuses to change though and stick by old traditions of having a wife be silent and obedient providing stability as well as children meeting certain requirements. Plus he's always stood by the idea that wives should not take on getting a job as it's more of the husband's duty to do so. Things change though when Badri meets a woman, Vaidehi at a wedding, sparks fly between them but she doesn't believe in having a husband. He wants nothing more than to marry her, yet she wants to pursue her dream of becoming an air hostess. Even if it means going against her father's wishes losing his approval. Vaidehi doesn't want to feel suffocated being tied down with an arranged marriage. So she and Badri decide to find a suitable spouse for her sister. And over the course of the film they start to realize maybe marrying off other people isn't what they had in mind after all. This movie handles a lot of social issues when it comes to tradition, patriarchal society, breaking away from strict norms, and being brave enough to take charge of your own happyness. Intelligence and independence are just as important to a woman. Marriage has to be more than just an agreement. Love is more than just respecting one another, it can be all kinds of things if both parties are willing to recognize their own dreams and passions. The two leads have such terrific chemistry that you can still forgive the predictability of it all. The bright colors, vivid dance numbers, and the likable leads make this another winner from Bollywood.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
05/30/23
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Audience Member
Should've stopped with Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania!
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/08/23
Full Review
yash b
"Badrinath Ki Dulhania" has a decent start and seems like it will be a fairly entertaining movie. The movie quickly changes in the second half into a painfully boring melodrama. The light and fun feel of the beginning is gone instantaneously and never really comes back. I also feel like some of the actions by certain characters are pretty problematic and don't think some of it is addressed properly. Overall, this is a movie that could have been decent entertainment, but because of its lackluster second half, I don't think the end result is worth watching.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
jon c
Badri is the son of a wealthy man who wants a dowry for his wedding. His father has always made his life choices for him when it comes to women. His father refuses to change though and stick by old traditions of having a wife be silent and obedient providing stability as well as children meeting certain requirements. Plus he's always stood by the idea that wives should not take on getting a job as it's more of the husband's duty to do so.Things change though when Badri meets a woman, Vaidehi at a wedding, sparks fly between them but she doesn't believe in having a husband.He wants nothing more than to marry her, yet she wants to pursue her dream of becoming an air hostess. Even if it means going against her father's wishes losing his approval.
Vaidehi doesn't want to feel suffocated being tied down with an arranged marriage. So she and Badri decide to find a suitable spouse for her sister. And over the course of the film they start to realize maybe marrying off other people isn't what they had in mind after all.This movie handles a lot of social issues when it comes to tradition, patriarchal society, breaking away from strict norms, and being brave enough to take charge of your own happiness. Intelligence and independence are just as important to a woman. Marriage has to be more than just an agreement. Love is more than just respecting one another, it can be all kinds of things if both parties are willing to recognize their own dreams and passions.The two leads have such terrific chemistry that you can still forgive the predictability of it all.The bright colors, vivid dance numbers, and the likable leads make this another winner from Bollywood.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya" is a sharply staged and colourfully popped out ice-cream of a film: and that's particularly what you want from a romantic comedy, to turn it's cliches! But in the second half which aims too much at the progression and women empowerment, it's too bland despite being handsomely mounted and enjoyable. You just can't ignore the sluggish screenplay that hovers dangerously close to being a zero-value rom-com script which you can edit.
Watch it still, because if you go in mostly in the romcoms for the cosmic chemistry in between the leads, Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt are style and smile.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
At 139 minutes, Badrinath ki Dulhania is a traditional bollywood movie holding more modern themes that are socially progressive. Vaidehi Trivedi, played by Alia Bhatt, is the main character of this film. She falls in love with Badrinath Bansal, played by Varun Dhawan. This is similar to the plot in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. In both movies, there is a struggle for a great love that is forbidden by the parents of the main characters and an unwanted arranged marriage. Additionally, the moral universe ends up being righted via the opinions of the parents changing and the lovers uniting. However, the difference between this film and other bollywood love stories such as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, is that Vaidehi Trivedi has much more autonomy over herself. In other traditional bollywood movies, the main female role often only speaks or is spoken about in relation to a man. In Badrinath ki Dulhania, this is not the case. Both Vaidehi and her sister have the ability to make the decision several times to turn down arranged marriages because they would rather focus on their careers and education. They are complete characters with personalities and interests that don't just revolve around their men counterpart characters. Badrinath Bansal originally does not understand this way of life. He is confused when Vaidehi does not immediately want to marry him. Badrinath has been raised with traditional and patriarchal ideologies from his father. In fact, he is the one being forced into an arranged marriage in this movie rather than it typically being the main female character. In order for the movie to conclude properly and for the moral universe to be righted, Badrinath learns from Vaidehi and disobeys his father.
Although I appreciated the prevalent feminist lense in this film, there were many scenes I found problematic and inappropriate if the point of the movie was to highlight modern female power. For example, towards the middle of the movie, there is a scene where Badrinath kidnaps Vaidehi and puts her in the trunk of his car because she stood him up at the altar for their original wedding date. Even after this occurrence, Vaidehi continues to be in love with Badrinath and eventually agrees to marry him without any repercussions for his aggressive actions. In my opinion, this seems to promote physical abuse and abusive relationships. It also puts Vaidehi back in the confines of the patriarchy for tolerating this sort of behavior. This shows that although this film more notably advocates for women and a feminist lense, there is still more work to be done in this respect. The representations of women, "are split into a dual structure whereby the qualities of the 'traditional' Indian women are opposed to those of the 'modern' Westernized woman" (Dwyer and Patel, 2002). This makes movies like Badrinath ki Dulhania challenging as they try to combine both representations.
Although there is clearly more work to be done within the themes of this movie, it is overall a modernized, fun-loving bollywood movie with catchy music and great dance sequences that I would recommend watching.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
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