prasad1
Active member
I generally do not see movies.
But I watched this movie.
It is a low budget comedy.
Marriage and procreation. Very good.
The sex that is a required pit-stop? Very bad.
The ridiculous extent of Indian hypocrisy around sex, especially middle-aged or, worse, elderly sex, is laid bare in Badhaai Ho, which has to have one of the most unique propositions in Indian cinema: how do you deal with the imminent, wholly unexpected arrival of a ‘nanha mehmaan’, when you have two grown up sons—one in his mid-20s who is about to pop the question to his girl-friend, and the other stepping into testosterone-ruled teenage years—and an old cantankerous mother/ma-in-law?
The couple in question, Jeetendra and Priyamvada Kaushik (Rao and Gupta), do a good job of channeling the bewilderment mixed with joy when they learn that Priyam is pregnant. The boys and their grandmum (Sikri) are aghast. Mummy and Papa, in bed, doing, you know, that? Ugghhh.
Badhaai Ho is fashioned as a comedy of manners, as it goes about showing us nosey neighbors and nasty relatives and garish weddings in the very middle-class society that the Kaushiks inhabit. And as long as the film is in the hands of the veterans, with Gupta coming up with a pitch-perfect performance as a loving wife, mother, dutiful daughter-in-law, while also being her own person, and Rao keeping in step with her, it works. We gasp just as they do when they hear the ‘good news’, we smile when we see the tender sizzle between the two: just for the fact of showing that parents can have sexual feelings for each other, Badhaai Ho needs to be congratulated.
It reminded me of the hypocrisy of "cultural police" in this site.
But I watched this movie.
It is a low budget comedy.
Marriage and procreation. Very good.
The sex that is a required pit-stop? Very bad.
The ridiculous extent of Indian hypocrisy around sex, especially middle-aged or, worse, elderly sex, is laid bare in Badhaai Ho, which has to have one of the most unique propositions in Indian cinema: how do you deal with the imminent, wholly unexpected arrival of a ‘nanha mehmaan’, when you have two grown up sons—one in his mid-20s who is about to pop the question to his girl-friend, and the other stepping into testosterone-ruled teenage years—and an old cantankerous mother/ma-in-law?
The couple in question, Jeetendra and Priyamvada Kaushik (Rao and Gupta), do a good job of channeling the bewilderment mixed with joy when they learn that Priyam is pregnant. The boys and their grandmum (Sikri) are aghast. Mummy and Papa, in bed, doing, you know, that? Ugghhh.
Badhaai Ho is fashioned as a comedy of manners, as it goes about showing us nosey neighbors and nasty relatives and garish weddings in the very middle-class society that the Kaushiks inhabit. And as long as the film is in the hands of the veterans, with Gupta coming up with a pitch-perfect performance as a loving wife, mother, dutiful daughter-in-law, while also being her own person, and Rao keeping in step with her, it works. We gasp just as they do when they hear the ‘good news’, we smile when we see the tender sizzle between the two: just for the fact of showing that parents can have sexual feelings for each other, Badhaai Ho needs to be congratulated.
It reminded me of the hypocrisy of "cultural police" in this site.
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