3.5 Very Good

We are all obsessed with what we don’t have. Dark skin wants to be fair and vice-versa, Hairy guys go bald as a fashion, and bald guys are desperate for hairs. Skinny people want to gain weight and there are some who slog for hours to lose it. The list is long and it’s just this obsessiveness to have something which you don’t and not being gratifiedwith what you are is probably root cause of all the depression in the society. Bala is one such film that makes you introspect about one (rather two) of the above mentioned issues.

Ayushman Khurana who has become a brand himself by now after giving us the entertainment on serval taboo subjects, comes up with another subject from the similar territory. He portrays a journey of a person from the childhood till his adulthood. A silky stylish hair kid who shreds almost all hairs in the mid-20s. He then tries 100 different ways to regrow his hairs that are available in the market. Some solutions are scientific and some are really funny. He tries them all to get his love,

Entertainment through the social message has become the norm for Ayushman lately and this one is not an exception either. It takes its own time to set up the base, and feels slightly stretched in the first half as you start wondering when is the intermission point. But after the interval it makes up for the stretchy first half. No cliché climax and I loved it. Bit preachy but you won’t mind it. That’s the best possible way probably the self-realization could have been shown.

Casting director has done is job to the fullest. All the characters are perfectly suited for their roles. Ayushman is probably the heart and soul of this movie. The two girls (Bhumi Pednekar and Yami Gautam) go neck to neck with him. Bhumi’s make up as dark girl is slightly annoying as it looks almost black. The only wish I had throughout was that the director shouldn’t have missed at least 2 or 3 opportunities to make me emotional. He has maintained the light and funny mood throughout. It’s the social message that rises above all despite of few flaws. The good thing is that it entertains in most parts and that what I went for.