The Great Indian Family movie review: Vicky Kaushal-Manushi Chhillar’s dramedy entertains in bits and pieces.
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Manushi Chhillar, Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Alka Amin, Srishti Dixit, Yashpal Sharma, Sadiya Siddiqui, Aasif Khan
Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya
Writer: Vijay Krishna Acharya
When a dejected Bhajan Kumar expresses his helplessness over his struggle to deal with his religious identity crisis, his lady love Jasmeet tells him, ‘Kabhi kabhi humhe sochna nahin chahiye, bas feel karna chahiye.’ Unfortunately, this piece of advice barely works for the audience when The Great Indian Family infuses too much ‘lecture-baazi’ in its screenplay and makes things boring.
What’s Yay: Vicky Kaushal
What’s Nay: Inconsistent writing, preachy and lackluster climax
Story
Set in Balrampur, a young Ved Kumar Vyas grows up to become the undisputed king of devotional songs and earns the sobriquet ‘Bhajan Kumar’ after a hilarious incident at his school crush’s birthday party during his childhood.
Kumar who hails from a foremost Brahmin family is a mini-celebrity of sorts who also has his share of fun with his besties when not singing bhajans and doling out blessings. During one such outing, he comes across a Sikhni girl Jasmeet with no ‘filters’ (Manushi Chhillar) and soon, makes her his ‘Sahibaan’; courtesy some singing-dancing and harmless flirting.
Everything goes hunky-dory for Bhajan Kumar until one fine day, he receives an unknown letter which reveals that he is Muslim by birth and was adopted by his family. As Kumar struggles to cope with this new-found truth, one of his pals who also likes Jasmeet, does him dirty and makes him ‘in’famous. What follows next is Kumar facing a religious identity crisis, resulting into ‘cracks’ in his ‘great Indian family.’
Direction
After the star-driven Thugs Of Hindostan (2018) which was a massive dud at the box office, Vijay Krishna Acharya offers us The Great Indian Family in 2023. The Vicky Kaushal starrer is all things fun when there’s cheer in the writing. You totally dig into Bhajan Kumar’s backstory and his shenanigans with his best friends.
However, Acharya’s efforts come undone when he paints his satire with broad strokes of ‘preachiness’. Keeping in mind the volatile climate of the country, he steers clear from being aggressive when it comes to the love-hate binary of religion. However, his commentary on the religious bigotry plaguing the socio-political climate of India has a ‘feeble’ voice’ because of the lazy stereotypes and elementary writing.
Towards the end, when the film is supposed to pack a punch in your gut, it leaves you with a dull lecture on unity in diversity. The dialogues there simply fail to leave an impact.
Performances
Vicky Kaushal is the life of The Great Indian Family. When this ‘Bhajan Kumar’ knocks the door of your hearts, you simply let him in. He gets his humour right as the small-town bhajan king and keeps you invested with his antics on screen. At times when the screenplay and the direction hits a shaky note, Vicky, the fluid performer steps in and takes charge.
Manushi Chhillar’s character of fearless Sikhni girl begins on a promising note. But Vijay Krishna Acharya doesn’t take much time to reduce that joy to pint-size. All that ‘girl power’ is wrapped up in just a handful of scenes and the two songs.
Kumud Mishra and Manoj Pahwa with their razor-sharp acting chops give you a good time. Their scenes with Vicky Kaushal strike all the boxes. On the other hand, Alka Amin, Yashpal Sharma, Sadiya Siddiqui and Srishti Dixit barely get enough chances to roll the dice in this game.
Technical Aspects
Ayananka Bose’s camera work perfectly captures the vibrancy of small-town milieu. Charu Shree Roy has a good grip on her editing scissors even when the screenplay scatters all over the place.
Music
It’s an irony that a film which has its protagonist play a singing sensation, barely has any memorable music in store for the audience. Except for the foot-tapping ‘Kanhaiyya Twitter Pe Aaja’, none of the songs register on your lips despite some meaningful lyrics.
Verdict
In The Great Indian Family, Vicky Kaushal’s character often compares his life to a game of ladders and snake. Despite the actor rolling his dice successfully, the film fails to stay on board as it gets bitten by weak execution and preachy screenplay.
