Bala review : The ball is always in your court!

So it was just a coincidence that I went to watch Bala on Baaldin (14th November, children\’s day in India)! The trailer had already raised the expectations and the movie didn\’t disappoint!

What comes as a subtle sneak peek during the trailer, is actually a parallel story on the same lines. If Ayushman had been assigned the responsibility of playing all kinds of characters that he ever could, he would probably finish the job before the run machine Kohli could break Sachin\’s records. Such is the agility of Mr Ayushman Khurana. This film depicts the protagonist Balmukund Shukla fondly called as Bala because of thick mop of hair. He starts losing his hair from early adulthood and what ensues is a story from self pity and lack of confidence to self acceptance and self confidence. The story focuses on two gender stereotypes of fair skinned women and hairy, bearded men. Amar Kaushik, after Stree, delivers another Stellar performance as the director. Even early into the movie, people in the theatre where laughing their heads off, but to me dialogues clicked a bit late into the movie. Nevertheless, the dialogues have been well-timed with appropriate metaphors and similes. Thankfully some of the dialogues have managed to escape our censor board\’s strict scissors, which they normally wouldn\’t have! What\’s ironical about the casting is the makers of the film couldn\’t find an actually dusky actress for the role of Latika and settled for \”horribly artificially dark-skinned with make up\” Bhumi Pednekar. The \”Bala Ganja Hai\” writing on the wall is a scene straight away ripped off from Chak De India. The choice of songs of 90s for recreation and music in general by Sachin Jigar helps to keep the mood light of an otherwise serious topic, and will make you dance to its tunes. Aayushman has managed to mimic the mannerisms and dialogue delivery of the actors of 1990s and 2000s exceedingly well. Aayushman should be renamed as the king Midas of Bollywood because everytime he touches a film, he strikes gold. It\’s only because of his fine tuning to the poles apart characters that he plays in his consecutive films. Yami Gautam isn\’t any far behind. She has managed to ace the role of the brand ambassador of a fairness cream, who is only shining in life because of her looks, or so she says and thinks!!

The message that the film leaves us with is something that really needs to be pondered upon. You might not have that fair skin look, or a French cut beard or a thick mop of hair on your head, but there is much more to life than just these things. Losing your self confidence, self esteem and breaking down upon societal pressure and taunts will do no good to you. Instead accepting yourself as you are, can help you live life to the fullest!!

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