The taboo subjects in India, homosexuality and LGBTQ issues, have mostly got the humour treatment in Bollywood movies. It is almost as if the filmmakers are a bit chary to take on these ideas in a serious vein. Never mind as long as the humour is passable. Movies like Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Dostana, and Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui have worked to an extent for the general audience, though gays and LGBTQ activists have been less than impressed.
But in the Indian context, these sensitive themes can be mainstreamed only through sugarcoated pill of humour. And that is what the makers of Badhaai Do also did.
The film is about a gay man and a lesbian entering into a marriage of convenience to hoodwink their conservative parents.
The film, which released on February 11, has ready to stream. It will be available on Netflix from March 11.
A 'lavender marriage'
The title Badhaai Do follows the 2018 comedy film Badhaai Ho, which dealt with the issue of pregnancy to a woman in her 50s, one who is already mother to two grown up adults. It was funny and empathetic. It is the same spirit that makers have embraced for Badhaai Do, which stars the redoubtable Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar in the main leads.
The two, closet gays, become roommates after they agree to a 'lavender marriage'. Rajkummar is a cop while Bhumi is PE teacher, and in their marriage of convenience they eventually get a firmer understanding of their personal realities.
Director Harshvardhan Kulkarni, even while walking on the rope of humour, doesn't slip to cheapness. He keeps its sensible and sensitive. Chum Darang, Gulshan Devaiah are also in the cast.
The film got a mixed response in the cinema halls, and the subject and its treatment would make it tailor-made for OTT platforms.
Now wonder it is making it to Netflix in just a month of its theatrical release.
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