Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)

Badrinath Ki Dulhania (English: Badrinath's Bride) is a 2017 Indian romantic comedy film, directed by Shashank Khaitan, and produced by Karan Johar under the Dharma Productions banner. Starring Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt in the lead, the film marks the second installment of a franchise that began with Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014). Principal photography for the film began in May 2016, and the film was released on 10 March 2017, on the Holi weekend.

Contents

• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast
• 3 Production
• 4 Themes
• 5 Soundtrack
• 6 Critical reception
• 7 Box office
  • 7.1 Domestic
• 8 External links

Plot

Badrinath "Badri" Bansal (Varun Dhawan) is the younger son of a wealthy family in Jhansi. In a flashback, we see that Badri's older brother, Alok (Yash Sinha) was in love with a girl and was going to leave the family for her (because their father disapproved), but decided against it after their father's first heart attack. Now Alok is married to Urmila (Swetha Basu Prasad) through an arranged marriage and she is not allowed to work despite being very intelligent and professionally trained, more than Alok himself. Alok is also depressed at having to leave his love and be forced into a marriage, so spends a lot of time drinking. Badri fears the same fate for himself so when he sees Vaidehi Trivedi (Alia Bhatt) at a wedding, he becomes obsessed with her and makes it his mission to marry her with his father's approval.


Vaidehi is also clearly more intelligent than Badri. She has a full education and is secretly training to become a flight attendant while Badri only passed the tenth grade. She's initially uninterested in getting married and is even offended by his marriage offer. But when Badri helps Vaidehi's older sister, Kritika find a husband and even resolves a dowry crisis, Vaidehi agrees to marry him. On their wedding day, however, Vaidehi never shows. Badri is heartbroken and his father is furious. He commands Badri to find Vaidehi and bring her back so that they can "hang her from the ceiling." Despite being afraid of his father's words, Badri goes to Mumbai to find Vaidehi, where he discovers that she's already moved to Singapore for a flight attendant training program.


Badri shows up on Vaidehi's doorstep in Singapore and kidnaps her. On the way, he pulls over and lets her out of the car trunk and they have an argument. Badri is furious at her for leaving him at the altar and she apologizes, trying to assure him that the reason she left was not because of him. Badri grabs her by the throat when a police car pulls up and takes them to the police station. At the police station, Vaidehi covers for Badri despite him having kidnapped her and attempted to choke her. Over the next few days, Badri stalks Vaidehi. When his father calls, Badri lies and tells him that he didn't find Vaidehi and his father tells him that he's started looking for other brides. This terrifies Badri and he attempts entry into Vaidehi's workplace. She stops him and tells him she'll marry him only if he can convince his father to let her work and live in Singapore. Badri gets drunk that night and causes a scene outside Vaidehi's residential building and they have to go to the police again, where this time Vaidehi has to pay $1500 to bail him out.


Badri moves into Vaidehi's apartment where she cares for him by cooking for him before leaving for work every day, which humbles him. They spend time together with friends and tour Singapore together. Over time Badri begins to respect Vaidehi's independence and grows impressed by her job and intelligence. He also remembers his sister in law and feels sorry that she doesn't get to work. When Badri is finally deported, Vaidehi comes to miss him and becomes depressed by his absence.
Back in Jhansi, Badri's sister-in-law is pregnant and the father holds a mega-pooja to ensure a boy is born. Badri feels sorry for his sister in law and finally understands why Vaidehi ran away. Before the pooja, he gets severely drunk and berates his father for being disrespectful to women. He blames his father for being the reason that he can't have Vaidehi when suddenly he sees Vaidehi from the corner of his eye. She tells him that she loves him and wants to marry him. Together they stand up to his dad and tell him that they will get married and Vaidehi will work as she pleases regardless of whether he agrees or not.


In the epilogue, it is shown that Badri and Vaidehi maintain a long distance relationship while she finishes her training program in Singapore before moving back to India and starting her own flight attendant training center. Badri's sister in law gives birth to twins, one boy and girl, and it is shown that insofar his father has been treating both of them equally. She also starts working in the family's car showroom with Alok and even gets her own office. Badri and Vaidehi promise not to collect any dowry for any of their children.

Cast

• Varun Dhawan as Badrinath Bansal (Badri)
• Alia Bhatt as Vaidehi Trivedi
• Sahil Vaid as Somdev
• Yash Sinha as Aloknath Bansal (Alok)
• Shweta Basu Prasad as Urmila Aloknath Bansal
• Sukhmani Lamba as Kritika Trivedi
• Aakanksha Singh as Kiran
• Gauahar Khan as Laxmi Shankar
• Aparshakti Khurana as Bhushan
• Rituraj Singh (actor) as Badrinath's father
• Swanand Kirkire as Vaidehi's father
• Kanupriya Pandit as Vaidehi's mother
• Atul Narang as Sagar
• Gaurav Pandey as Gurmeet

Production

Badrinath Ki Dulhania marks the second installment of a franchise that began with the romantic comedy Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), which was also directed by Shashank Khaitan, produced by Karan Johar for Dharma Productions and starred Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt in the lead roles. The film was first announced on 3 May 2016 with the release of an online motion poster featuring Dhawan and Bhatt at a local village fair. Principal photography also began on the same day. Some of the scenes were also shot at the Ghatotkach Circle, Kishore Sagar Lake and Seven Wonders Park in Kota, Rajasthan.

Themes

Misogyny, patriarchy, and gender roles in India are the common themes with the film focusing on the dowry system and stigma against women in the workplace. There is also allusion to violence against women and honor killings as Badri's father makes multiple references to killing Vaidehi and Badri is violent towards her in one scene.

Soundtrack

 The music for the film has been composed by Amaal Mallik, Tanishk Bagchi, Akhil Sachdeva and Bappi Lahiri while the lyrics have been written by Kumaar, Shabbir Ahmed, Akhil Sachdeva and Badshah & Indeevar. The "Tamma Tamma" song which was originally composed by Bappi Lahiri from the 1990 film Thanedaar has been recreated by Tanishk Bagchi for this film. The music rights of the film are acquired by T-Series. The full soundtrack album which includes 6 songs was released on 14 February 2017.

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Aashiq Surrender Hua"	Shabbir Ahmed	Amaal Mallik	Amaal Mallik, Shreya Ghoshal	4:10
2.	"Roke Na Ruke Naina"	Kumaar	Amaal Mallik	Arijit Singh	4:39
3.	"Humsafar"	Akhil Sachdeva	Akhil Sachdeva	Akhil Sachdeva, Mansheel Gujral	4:29
4.	"Badri Ki Dulhania (Title Track)"	Shabbir Ahmed	Tanishk Bagchi	Dev Negi, Neha Kakkar, Monali Thakur, Ikka Singh, Rajnigandha Shekhawat	3:27
5.	"Tamma Tamma Again"	Indeevar, Badshah	Bappi Lahiri, Tanishk Bagchi	Bappi Lahiri, Anuradha Paudwal, Badshah	3:19
6.	"Humsafar" (Alia Bhatt Version)	Akhil Sachdeva	Akhil Sachdeva	Alia Bhatt, Akhil Sachdeva	2:50

Critical reception

Nihit Bhave from Times of India rated the film 3.5/5 and stated "Badrinath Ki Dulhania is a rucksack full of radioactive social issues handled cautiously". He also praised Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhat's chemistry saying, " Together, Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt are the best thing that could have happened to our screens". Rohit Rats from Hindustan Times gave film 2.5/5 and noted that Varun Dhawan by portraying a Jhansi boy, reminds of Govinda. Shubhra Gupta from The Indian Express gave film 3/5 saying, "Alia Bhatt is pitch-perfect as dulhania with a mind of her own. Varun Dhawan impresses as a boy-struggling-to-be-a-man. Together, they offer us a flavourful romance which takes down patriarchy." Tushar Joshi from DNA India described the film as light, entertaining and likeable. He writes, "Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt prove that on screen chemistry can be enough sometimes to keep you engaged in an average plot with a predictable narrative".

Box office

Domestic

The film collected ₹125.25 crore in the first week  of release becoming fourth highest Indian first week collecting film of 2017. The film was third highest domestic opener for both Bhatt and Dhawan. 

External links