By Diya Audrey Marks
“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” However, when you watch ‘Badhaai Do’, starring Raj Kumar Rao as (Shardul Thakur) and Bhumi Pednekar as (Sumi) you know you are going to get a lot of laughs and even a few tears. This is a movie, where the concept of Lavender marriage has been portrayed because the portrayal of LGBTQ characters in our society or in Bollywood is not that big, so just to display, this movie plays a huge role to change the mindset of our society.
There are marriages of all kinds. Love, Arranged, and so on, but here the film focuses mainly on an LGBTQ issue and especially their complicated marriage. The film talks about the narrative of a gay man and a lesbian woman, where none of them is interested in the opposite sex but in the same sex.
Here, the marriage what we see is a ‘Compromised’ marriage, only because both the families couldn’t accept the reality of their children, and only because of this Shardul and Sumi both lived a dual and socially burdened life.
As people say, “Marriages are made in heaven” and interestingly, an ample number of these ‘Heavenly marriages’ are just shiny from the outside but not from the inside. All glitters are not gold all the time and in, Badhaai Do, this compromise is something different, one that is not often spoken about but also has been in existence.
In the film, Shardul and Sumi the newlyweds live like roommates and try to hide their secrets from their parents, as they knew when their parents couldn’t accept them so how will society. In the process, they were found in numerous chaotic situations. They were both living in compromised marriage only to show their family and society but with them stayed their real partners. Eventually, their family started forcing them to share ‘Good news’ with them for which they were never ready. Later, Shardul’s mother started living with them, to keep an eye on them but things couldn’t go well as they wanted. Their identities got revealed and there got a sudden shock to everyone.
The film has also shown the isolation, immense loneliness, and the way the LGBTQ people have to survive in their own small bubble-like world. Their parents, family, friends, and society couldn’t accept them so they always lack a window to communicate openly. The conservative families have also been portrayed but instead of walking away the film brings families right into the center of the fold and has also shown their acceptance in the end.
This movie is absolutely remarkable, nonetheless life-changing for the better. They also bring some emotional baggage. The movie’s plot has a few twists and turns which makes it even more beautiful, but it throws a dilemma of confronting a heavily patriarchal setup.