Badrinath ki Dulhaniya is a quintessential 90’s masala entertainer which survived solely on the strength of story and performances , there used to be nothing to comment on the cinematography, sound or editing. It’s is an all heart entertainer with a dash of feminism. I will say just a dash beacuse what message comes from the story heavily coated with gender equality is little confusing and insignificant.

Just like naughty 90’s , there is a boy,Badri (Varun) and girl,Vaidehi (Alia) , meet at a wedding , share some thumkas and few glances and boy falls in love , girl doesn’t; tries all wooing tricks almost equivalent to stalking. There is a sidekick, friend/ comedian who offers all notorious suggestions , the patriach father , docile mumma and obedient family members whereas the girl’s family is “majboor” out of their middleclass problems.

!! SPOILERS AHEAD !!

Shashank Khiatan (director) sets the story in smaller cities of UP and Rajasthan which justifies the main elements of script like dowry system ,10th pased boys haling from wealthy background feeling etitled to everything and girls treated as liabilities striving to take place of boys in the family , making their families proud.
The story gives us Badri as hero who is cute but heavily misguided by the patriarchal environment , tries to win heart of Vaidehi by finding a suitable groom for her sister and secretly paying for the dowry but essentially miss Viadehi’s ideologies, her self-respect and self-worth. Vaidehi on the other hand who hails from Kota , the caoching hub of India, is unapologetically ambitious, fiery yet thoughtful. She agress to marry Badri, not out of love but as a favor for helping her sister and runs away from the wedding to persue her dreams which leaves Badri bewildered.
Our hero chases her, tracks her down , molests her, abducts her in the backseat of car , beats up other men speaking to her, creates ruckus at her workplace all in the name of love. Vaidehi on the other hand claims she did it because Badri’s main intention of helping her family was just to marry her without raising voice in support of her beilefs. She helps him everytime he misbehaves , bails him out of jail because of her guilt but when asked she denies having any feelings saying respect is more important in the relationship and at that moment none of them respected each other. So, BKD projected as a love story is more about a brat ,entitled idiot learning to respect his girl.

Shashank Khaitan may have got his feminism right but their is some fault in his concept of “menism”. In a scene where Badri is physically assaulted by a gang of masked goons which for the sake of humor is shot in a funny way, narrowly escapes from turning in a bad taste. He is saved by Vaidehi and his friends but gets mocked by them later. There is a problem with this scene because, hey! men feel infuriated and humiliated too . Vaidehi offers him, her dupatta to cover, a director’s way of role reversal and a subtle suggestion of women emopwerment . But be careful Mr. director , you may be rubbing your viewers of various interests in a wrong manner.

There is an ample dose of laughter which makes the film a watchable experience. Varun Dhawan is here to carry ahead the legacy of Govinda with an innocent face and mischievious expressions, killer-desi dance moves. He solely carries the somewhat faulty script on his shoulder and outshines everyone. Alia Bhatt is an acknowledged good actor and plays her character with poise and fire. The supporting cast does really well , special mention Sahil Vaidya (Badri’s friend).

With a cliched and convenient climax , the story gets little preachy all about women’s right but to let go the heroine to persue her career and taking a stand for her against your family gives a whiff of fresh air , although her returning after 2 years to the home town for caryying ahead her own business venture is another convenient trick of happy ending . BKD keeps everyone happy- feminists, escapists , realists and Bollywood lovers.