Baal-aa!!

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A line in the film Bala goes, “Bal Mukund Shukla Kanpur ke Shah Rukh Khan hain”. The same could be said about Ayushmann Khurrana; in my opinion, he IS the modern-day Shah Rukh Khan. Like SRK (of the early 90s, especially), Khurrana isn’t afraid of choosing unlikable, cynical, negative characters. Like SRK, Khurrana’s screen presence make-up for his unconventional looks. Like SRK, he came from the North, sans any godfathers, and climbed his way through the ladder of success through sheer hard work. But unlike SRK, Khurrana always manages to infuse a natural unaffected charm into every role of his, be it the swaggy Vicky of Vicky Donor, the underconfident Prem from Dum Laga Ke Haisha or the shrewd Akash from Andhadhun. And that’s where Khurrana edges over Khan. His acting, even in slapstick comedic situations, never enters the forcibly hammy territory, a territory Khan tends to casually drift into from time to time.

It is highly unusual for a review to begin with praise for its lead actor, but since this is an Ayushmann Khurrana film, being unusual is the way to go😉.

 

(Image Courtesy: imdb.com)

But the brilliance of directors like Amar Kaushik is that they don’t just give the audience a character; they give them an entire world full of memorable characters (The scene where two guys playing ludo on mobile in Stree’s Chanderi is still etched in my mind!). As a result, Khurrana is ably supported by a wide range of talented actors, beginning with Saurabh Shukla and Sunita Rajwar, who play harried parents to both Bala and his younger brother, Vihaan (Dheerendra Kumar Gautam). Dheerendra, in all honesty, has the best monologues in the film and is a talent to be watched out for. Abhishek Banerjee and Javed Jaffrey, who play Bala’s friend Ajju and his mentor Bachchan Bhaiyya respectively share crackling chemistry with Khurrana; the best comedic moments come when these three guys are onscreen. A visibly mustached Seema Pahwa as the local mausi (and Bhumi’s actual mausi) is lovable and supremely confident; I wonder how many actresses would be comfortable enough to appear onscreen without grooming.

Yami Gautam’s character Pari Mishra, a Tiktok star from Lucknow for whom good looks is a priority, is tricky to portray. Gautam could’ve easily made the character look narcissistically cruel and ditzy, but instead, she brings a rare likeability and sweetness to the role, with her bright eyes and perennial smile. Bhumi Pednekar’s character Latika is very similar to her other ‘woke’ characters - Sandhya, Jaya & Sugandha - so, although she is very good, she doesn’t surprise. Only one comment about her much disputed brown make-up though: did it have to look like it was spackled on her with a putty knife?

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In very simple, spoiler-free terms, Bala is the tale of a now-balding young man who wants to grow hair in a lame attempt to regain his lost confidence and become the stud of the town once again. Although the film is otherwise straightforward, I found some parts of it to be quite meta. Yami Gautam’s Pari Mishra advertises fairness creams, something the actress does IRL, Ayushmann Khurrana describes sibling Aparshakti Khurrana (in a too-short cameo as Sr Khurrana’s ex-flame’s boyfriend) as “head to toe mera bhai hai, siwaai baalon ke” and Dipika Chikhalia ( famous for playing Sita in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana) is called “ Sita maiyya” in one scene! Maybe I was overanalyzing the film too much, but I actually could hear strains of the background score of Meri Pyaari Bindu in some places!

The first half of the film is especially engrossing. From the airconditioned seats of the multiplex, you’re instantly transported to the hot plains of Kanpur (or as they say Kaney-pur in the film), with a lovely lilt in the accent, the pure Hindi and the laugh-a-minute dialogues. Vijay Raaz’s silvery voice as the narrator (or hair, whatever) perfectly complements the screenplay, and the montages (one, of the different methods Bala adopts to trigger hair growth and the other, a splendid Tiktok one) are pure genius. Despite being light, storywise, the first half is filled with moments of cinematic brilliance - my favorite was a conversation between Bala and his father, which begins with comedy but ends with unexpected gravitas.

It is difficult to match the pace of the first half, especially when the second half requires the story to progress as well. Bala’s second half goes down the same route to its predictable end, with the screenplay becoming tangibly slower. That’s not to say the second half isn’t enjoyable; it is just treated in a different way, quite understandably because of the story. But the smiles on the viewers’ faces remain constant throughout the film: at least mine did. Go watch Bala, because the only thing that’ll keep us sane in this constantly shaming, ecologically degrading world is laughter, and this movie promises a lot of that!