Badhaai ho Badhaai (2002)
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, Keerti Reddy, Amrish Puri, Farida Jalal
Director: Satish Kaushik
Music Director: Anu Malik
Synopsis: The Satish Kaushik - Anil Kapoor combination falls flat in this dire affair
Reviewed by: Faiz Khan

 

I tried to understand the raison d'être of this film—or indeed whether there was one at all. Why would anyone make a film like this, with absolutely nothing new to say and nothing remotely relevant to add? About the only thing it has going for it is its rousing climax, which, while admittedly unconventional, is by all intents and purposes both facile and utterly preposterous, bearing little resemblance to the hideously formulaic film that precedes it.

The story revolves around two warring families, one Hindu and one Christian. Once the closest of friends, living opposite one another for years, they now harbour nothing but bitter hatred after their respective son and daughter eloped and married outside their religions.

One day both families receive a letter informing them that the child born from that ill-fated union is coming to visit in the hope of reconciling them.

Raju (Anil Kapoor) duly arrives with his faithful sidekick, only to be coldly rejected by both households. Every attempt to reunite the feuding families ends in failure until the unexpected arrival of his supposed wife, Banto Betty (Shilpa Shetty).

Unfortunately for Raju, he isn't actually married.

Having already convinced both families that he has a wife, he is understandably bewildered by her appearance. Just who is Banto Betty?

Following a series of painfully unfunny comic misunderstandings, the truth finally emerges. Banto Betty is, in fact, the real daughter of the runaway lovers and immediately demands to know what Raju is doing impersonating her.

At this point, the film slips into flashback.

We discover that Raju was once grossly overweight and hopelessly in love with Florence (Keerthi Reddy). Determined to become "good enough" for her, he embarks upon an astonishing weight-loss programme before proudly attending a party held in her honour, only to discover that she is announcing her engagement.

As fate would have it, her fiancé belongs to the rival family, placing the young couple in the same predicament as Florence's aunt and uncle found themselves twenty-seven years earlier.

Rather than quietly eloping, Raju concocts an elaborate scheme to reunite the feuding families before seeking their blessing. Hence his masquerading as the child of the original runaway couple.

Touched by his noble intentions, Banto Betty decides to help him bring the families together, although one cannot help wondering why she never attempted precisely the same thing herself, considering both families are her own relatives. Instead, she seems content to leave the entire enterprise to Raju while, inevitably, falling in love with him along the way.

Director Satish Kaushik, who has produced some reasonably watchable films in the past, churns out an astonishingly weak piece of rubbish this time. One is left wondering what on earth possessed him. The whole business of Raju's obesity feels like nothing more than a desperate gimmick designed to generate laughs where there simply aren't any.

The film itself is little more than a patchwork of ideas borrowed from countless earlier Bollywood successes and bears more than a passing resemblance to Kuch Tum Kaho Kuch Hum Kahein, which followed much the same formula. Like that film, this one also collapsed at the box office—and quite rightly so.

Anil Kapoor makes virtually no impression in a thankless role. Sporting an Eddie Murphy-style Nutty Professor fat suit, he looks completely ridiculous. If the audience is expected to believe this is a man sacrificing everything for the love of his life, then the film misses the mark by a country mile. What we are really watching is a young man hopelessly infatuated with the first girl who ever looked beyond his weight. At no point does Florence display the slightest romantic interest in him beyond simple friendship, making his obsessive devotion rather difficult to sympathise with.

Shilpa Shetty is just about bearable. Keerthi Reddy, on the other hand, is shrill, charmless and thoroughly disastrous, displaying little evidence of genuine acting ability. The remainder of the cast scarcely register.

Anu Malik contributes a couple of reasonably pleasant songs, particularly the title track and "Raag Ban Kar". Unfortunately, Alka Yagnik's piercing rendition of Meri Zindagi Mein... threatens to shatter every window within earshot.

A colossal waste of time—and certainly nothing to celebrate.