BALA – You are Perfect with your Imperfections

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar, Yami Gautam, Saurabh Shukla, Javed Jaffrey, Abhishek Banerjee, Seema Pahwa, Sunita Rajwar, Dheerendra Kumar Gautam

Director: Amar Kaushik

Writer: Niren Bhatt

Have you ever realised your ‘hair’ can speak? Yes, they do as ‘’Hum aapkikhubsoorti ka raazhain, aapkesaarke permanent taazhain.’’ On this note, with a quirky voice over of Vijay Raaz, Ayushmaan Khurana’s latest flick ‘Bala’ starts. This film written by Niren Bhatt and directed by Amar Kaushik has traced desperate attempts of Balmukund Shukla aka Bala’s (AyushmaanKhurrana) desire to have silky smooth hair to look his age.

Thanks to diabetes, his receding hairline has made Bala’s life miserable. He has lost his childhood girlfriend and has been demoted to inventory section from a salesman of a women’s fairness cream company. He is frustrated but doesn’t want to give up.  To him, ‘Hair loss nahain, identity loss ho rahahainhamara.’ To curb his crisis, Bala works as a stand-up comedian as well and imitates Bollywood stars.

The film takes hilarious to bizarre turns with every attempt that Bala takes for hair growth techniques, supported by Bacchaan Bhai (Javed Jaffrey) and his childhood hair stylist friend played by Abhishek Banerjee. The film’s every scene is owned by Ayushmaan’s brilliant real performance. He has become Bala in true sense of the character and has undergone the pain of an untimely bald guy. He gets the Kanpur accent perfectly with accurate body language and other nuances. Audience despite of going to splits almost in every scene empathizes with Bala.

Among the actresses, Bhumi Pednekar as strong headed dark-skinned lawyer Latika and Yami Gautam as self-styled model and Tik Tok sensation are quite impressive in their performances. Both have their own views which finally helps Bala to identify how our society wants us to look and how we should look at ourselves. Other character actors like Saurabh Shukla, Bala’s father, former Ranjhi Trophy player, Seema Pahwa, Latika’smaushi with unwanted facial hair growth, Sunita Rajwar, Bala’s confused mother who considers Bala as the most ‘edible’ bachelor of Kanpur and finally Dheerandra Kumar Gautam, Bala’s younger brother Vihaan always faces his brother’s frustrations, are all thoroughly entertaining in their own ways.

The film’s music plays mostly in the background and provides a perfect support to the film’s narrative. Director Amar Kaushik through this film has given a very strong and valid message for today’s world. We, in everyday life, always tend to look differently at individuals who are different from us. We tend to categorize them in separate brackets/classes. But, we on our own have to accept ourselves as we are from outside and from within – then only we can become our true self or else we are leading a superficial baseless life.

‘Bala’ as a film or story is beautiful with its flaws might be, but it’s a total family entertainer which makes ‘Ayushmaan’ undoubtedly the stellar performer of this year.

• About the Author

About Koyel Duttagupta

Currently residing in Pune, Koyel is a banker by profession and a mother of a 5 years old daughter who keeps her on toes always. Born and brought up in Kolkata, Koyel loves to write, watch movies, web series and read psychology books. She likes to do innovative cooking and currently busy exploring the art of tarot card reading.