Hindi
Badrinath Ki Dulhania: Part fun, part dull
Director Shashank Khaitan seems to be creating a franchise of his own as he comes back with ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’ after his earlier film, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. This film too starts off in Hindi belt but later traverses to Singapore to break the monotony.
In the process, Badrinath Ki Dulhania also heavily promotes the woman’s cause, her independence and right to choose.
Varun Dhawan’s character is a barely educated lad from Jhansi working as a recovery man for his well-off but steadfast and old-fashioned father played by Rituraj Singh. Singh’s character considers himself lucky. Since he has sired two sons, daughters, according to him, are a liability. He does not care if his sons love some girl, they have to marry according to his wishes and the dowry that the girl brings is his prime consideration.
Accordingly, his elder son, Yash Sinha’s character had to sacrifice his love and marry Shweta Basu Prasad’s character who brought along a car showroom besides cash as dowry. She is well-educated but a working woman is no-no for Rituraj.
Varun joins the baraat of his friend headed for Kota. There, he spots Alia Bhatt, also a guest, and instantly falls for her. It is a one-sided love as Alia is a headstrong and independent girl who wants to work to bring her middle-class family out of a tight financial situation. Also, Alia has an elder sister, played by Aakanksha Singh, who, according to tradition, has to marry first.
Nice guy that he is, Varun decides to help Alia and her family find a suitor for Aakanksha on the condition that Alia will marry him in the same mandap. Varun does manage to find a match for Aakanksha and the wedding day is decided.
Things don’t go as planned, however, and Varun has to chase Alia all over again.
Enjoyable so far, the film loses pace as the location shifts to Singapore where Alia has taken up a career in an airline. Varun is left to do a Devdas act, slipping into a bout of self-pity. This part slows down the film considerably for a while before it comes back into some fun and songs. The climax is interesting while it also delivering a message.
The script is penned keeping in mind that the theme is youth-oriented and romance, with light moments aplenty, especially in the first part. The second half needed to be spruced up. Direction is competent and the songs are well placed.
The film has a popular musical score with Humsafar…..,Rokenaruke…. Tenutakiyabina…. being hummable while the title song has a sectional appeal. The remixed Tammatamma… is already popular number from the film Thanedaar (1989). Cinematography is good.
Varun plays his carefree character with élan. Alia makes a good pair with him, and acts well. Sahil Vaid makes a mark. Rituraj is impressive. Yash, Shweta and Aakanksha land good support.
Otherwise a plus film, Badri Ki Dulhania will have to contend with pre-Holi weekend which affects collections, especially in the Hindi belt, board exams and election results aftereffects for next few days.
Producers: Hiroo Johar, Karan Johar.
Director: Shashank Khaitan.
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Gauahar Khan, Mohit Marwah, Aakanksha Singh.
Hindi
Remembering Gyan Sahay, the lens behind film, television and advertising
From a puppet rabbit selling poppadums to Hindi cinema, he framed it all.
MUMBAI: There are careers, and then there are canvases. Gyan Sahay, the veteran cinematographer, director, and producer who passed away on 10 March 2026 in Mumbai, had one of the latter. Over several decades in the Indian film and television industry, he turned lenses, lights, and the occasional puppet rabbit into something approaching art.
A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Sahay built his reputation as a director of photography across a career that stretched from the early 1970s all the way to the digital age. He was the kind of craftsman who understood that a well-composed shot is not merely a technical achievement but a quiet act of storytelling.
For most Indians of a certain age, however, Sahay will forever be the man behind the rabbit. His direction of the iconic long-running television commercial for Lijjat Papad, featuring its now-legendary puppet bunny, gave the country one of its most cheerfully persistent advertising images. It was the sort of work that sneaks into the national subconscious and takes up permanent residence.
His big-screen credits as cinematographer include Anokhi Pehchan (1972), Pagli (1974), Pas de Deux (1981), and Hum Farishte Nahin (1988). In 1999, he stepped behind a different kind of camera altogether, making his directorial debut with Sar Ankhon Par, a drama that featured Vikas Bhalla and Shruti Ulfat, with a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan for good measure.
On television, Sahay was particularly prized for his command of multi-camera production setups, a skill that made him a go-to technician for large-scale shows and reality programmes. In an industry that has never been especially patient with complexity, he was the calm hand on the rig.
In later life, Sahay turned teacher. He participated regularly in masterclasses and Digi-Talks, often hosted by organisations such as Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna, sharing hard-won wisdom on cinematography, the comedy of timing in a shot, and the sweeping changes brought by the shift from celluloid to digital. He was also said to have been involved in a project concerning a biographical film on Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Tributes from the film industry poured in following the news of his passing, with colleagues remembering him as a senior cameraman who served as a rare bridge between two entirely different eras of Indian cinema. That is, perhaps, the finest thing one can say of any craftsman: he kept up, and he brought others along with him.
