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A wise man once said, “The most valuable gift one can give one’s child is time.” Is that also true in reverse? Do parents too need time from their children? Perhaps even more than having money spent on them when they have health issues, financial hiccups, legal hassles and more?
That is the question this sweet, feel-good charmer of a film poses to the viewer, but in an unusual manner: Daadi (paternal grandmother) a.k.a. Vimla Ahuja (Dimple Kapadia) lives cheerfully alone in a massive mansion in Shimla, content in the company of ‘girls’ her age (Nikhat Khan Hegde as Shakti Kapoor aunty), Flora Jacob (Malhotra aunty) and Parveen Kaour (Chauhan aunty).
Vimla has three ‘children’: the eldest is the fiery-headed Jeevan (Deepak Dutta), who is also an easy target of his wife (Tejaswini Kolhapure)’s chides and taunts. His eldest offspring is the comely Kannu (Sadia Khateeb). The second brother is Naag (Jitender Hooda), whose wife, Baby (Aditi Mittal) can be rather dense. The third of Vimla’s offsprings is Sunaina Bharadwaj (Riddhima Kapoor Sahni), who lives in Singapore after her wedding. Her brothers and their families live in Delhi.
One day, an alarming post goes viral on Facelook—Vimla states that she is going to remarry. Her children are aghast! This leads to a broken roka (engagement) between Tony (Kapil Sharma) and his love from college days, Kannu (Khateeb), who is reluctant to marry him but is forced by her family. But Tony’s father (Yograj Singh) angrily breaks off the relationship. Determined as much as Vimla’s sons to persuade Daadi from remarrying, as he will not be able to wed Kannu, Tony uses a ruse to join them.
As the truth is something else (not so credible, all told) but charming and sweet, Daadi has to arrange a ‘fake’ husband with the help of her friends—a retired colonel named Col. Theeran Devrajan (R. Sarathkumar), who vacations in Shimla for 15 days each year.
And even Shailaja surfaces there, prepared to support her mom’s marriage provided property matters are settled. What follows is a mix of the dramatic, humorous and the preachy until things are settled into a happy ending for all.
If Baghban was a whopper hit on ungrateful or unreasonable children and Vanvaas a dark flop, over here, in classic vintage Hindi film fashion, a cogent lesson is taught to offspring who are neither bad-hearted nor ungrateful, but simply caught up too much in their own (including wives and kids) families to think about a lonely mother.
The realistic dialogues and piquant situations effortlessly convey what the film intends to, but a good amount of preachiness could have been avoided all the same. Director-writer Ashish R. Mohan improves upon his last mediocre success, Khiladi 786, and the largely unfunny Welcome 2 Karachi, but the dated feel may allure a section of the audience and turn off a sizeable chunk as well. The music is serviceable and forgettable though a couple of the lyrics are nicely written.
The camerawork (Mark Nutkins & Suresh Beesaveni) makes Shimla look like a fascinating dream and the production design (Narendra Rahurikar) is also immensely well-done.
Neetu Kapoor, as Daadi, correcting errant kids here, is as much in form, if not obviously much higher, than when she was (in a dual role) correcting aberrant parents in the 1968 Do Kaliyan as child artiste Baby Sonia. Her daughter, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, in an acting debut as her reel beti, is okay.
Kapil Sharma shows yet again that he can do any role and Sadia Khateeb improves even upon her performance in The Diplomat: she is truly promising. Deepak Dutta, Jitender Hooda, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Aditi Mittal and Yograj Singh as Tony’s father make strong impressions. R. Sarathkumar as the retired colonel puts in an impressive turn. The ‘aunties’ and the four kids are adorable.
Watch this one for its old-fashioned feel-good aura that overpowers the flaws.
Rating: ***1/2
RTake Studios’ BeingU Studios’ & Shimla Talkies Production’s Daadi Ki Shaadi Produced by: Shraddha Agrawal, Akshit Lahoria, Gurjot Singh, Ginni Kapil Sharma & Komal Shahani Mohan Directed by: Ashish R. Mohan Written by: Ashish R Mohan, Bunty Rathore & Saahil S. Sharma, Music: Gulraj Singh, Payal Dev, Aditya Dev, Goldboy & Joi Barua Starring: Neetu Kapoor, Kapil Sharma, Sadia Khateeb, R. Sarathkumar, Deepak Dutta, Jitender Hooda, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Aditi Mittal, Nikhat Khan Hegde, Flora Jacob, Parveen Kaour, Yograj Singh, Mohammed Ali & others
