BADHAAI DO

Da qualche anno a questa parte anche il cinema popolare hindi ha iniziato a raccontare storie con protagonisti omosessuali o transessuali. La svolta è significativa per due ragioni. Innanzitutto perché, a differenza del cinema d'autore - che in India non beneficia di una distribuzione capillare -, il cinema popolare raggiunge un vastissimo bacino di utenza, in particolare proprio quell'ampio segmento di pubblico dalla mentalità più tradizionalista. In secondo luogo perché, a differenza delle pellicole prodotte in precedenza - nelle quali i personaggi omosessuali o transessuali erano secondari, o comunque l'argomento veniva trattato in modo grossolano -, i film realizzati negli ultimi tempi sono di qualità superiore, mescolano commedia e riflessione, gli attori non sono (ancora) superstar ma sono comunque famosi perché cresciuti nell'ambiente del cinema popolare. Si assiste ad un graduale, costante approfondimento del tema, che ad ogni nuovo progetto viene arricchito da ulteriori elementi e sfumature perché affrontato con sempre maggior consapevolezza.

Restringendo dunque il campo a titoli non d'autore e non drammatici, direi che, ad oggi, Badhaai Do è il prodotto meglio riuscito. Il mix di umorismo leggero e messaggio di sensibilizzazione è dosato con maestria. L'intrattenimento, mai sopra le righe, argina il dramma, mai pesante o forzato. E i momenti di riflessione impediscono alla commedia di diluire o semplificare troppo il messaggio. Il soggetto, in altre mani, poteva tradursi in una sceneggiatura dozzinale. Per nostra fortuna, BD è stato nutrito e coccolato a dovere. La regia, attentissima, orchestra una rappresentazione quasi impeccabile. Shardul e Sumi, i protagonisti, sono estremamente amabili pur con le loro ombre, e ti ci affezioni senza scampo. Gli attori che li interpretano, Rajkummar Rao e Bhumi Pednekar, compiono un piccolo miracolo nel renderli vivi, grazie anche ai dialoghi freschi e diretti. BD si guarda e si riguarda con piacere. La trama non presenta smagliature, la narrazione ti agguanta e mantiene il ritmo costante, alcuni dettagli colpiscono per delicatezza e per accuratezza psicologica. Si sorride, si ride, ci si emoziona.

Un applauso agli sceneggiatori e al regista per aver gestito l'argomento - in India considerato ancora spinoso - con sensibilità, arguzia e abilità professionale. E ai coraggiosi produttori per aver dato loro fiducia. Con BD è stato compiuto un deciso passo verso l'obiettivo futuro di una raffigurazione misurata e pacata di personaggi comuni, realistici, la cui omosessualità (o transessualità) non sia più l'aspetto centrale caratterizzante delle vicende narrate.

TRAMA

[Spoiler] Shardul è un poliziotto, Sumi un'insegnante di educazione fisica. Sono entrambi omosessuali. I due, per salvare le apparenze, decidono di unirsi in un matrimonio di copertura reciproca. Ma la pressione delle rispettive famiglie non si allenta: a quando un nipotino? 

RECENSIONI

Film Companion:

'The psychology is well designed. (...) At first, it seems odd that musical montages account for the more fertile portions of Badhaai Do. Parts that most other movies might have waxed dramatic about are rushed through here. A song scores their wedding, a song scores their Goa honeymoon, (...) a song scores Suman’s new relationship, a song scores Shardul’s new relationship, an interlude scores Suman’s partner (...) moving in with them. It doesn’t help that the soundtrack is painfully generic. There’s also very little acknowledgment of Shardul and Suman as sexual beings. It’s almost as though the film is shy about the very people it sets out to humanize. (...) But there’s a flipside, too. Not fussing over the “landmarks” - the wooing, the meet-cutes, the sex - tends to normalize their identity. It frees the film from the cishet lens of its setting, and democratizes the nature of intimacy. By focusing on the follies of their arrangement, such films convey that finding love is simpler than finding dignity. Even Shardul’s proposal to Suman isn’t milked; the quickness of it all proves that these are adults who’ve suffered too long to be surprised by an idea like this. Badhaai Do also resists the temptation of presenting an “equal” narrative. In keeping with the patriarchy of the region, the film does not pretend to afford Suman the same catharsis as Shardul. His story feels a little more fuller than hers, because the fact is that when things go wrong, it’s the woman who bears the brunt of public scrutiny. (...) It’s eventually up to him to bat for the both of them. It’s not the wokest of perspectives, but at least it stays true to the male entitlement of their surroundings. With Badhaai Do, the Ayushmann-ification of Rajkummar Rao is complete. It’s become difficult to tell one Rao character from another. Or a bad performance from a good one. The same applies to Bhumi Pednekar. Both have an uncanny knack for body language, like character actors playing lead roles. I’d still be hard-pressed to remember a dramedy solely for them; they exist at an awkward intersection of merging into the background and standing out. Which brings me to the one drawback of Badhaai Do. Since Dum Laga Ke Haisha, there’s been a sameness about the Hindi small-town oeuvre. (...) It’s tough to tell the people from the problems. It’s impossible to tell one rousing moment from another. (...) Even the veteran actors (...) overlap. Badhaai Do tries to diversify the template (...) but the fundamental issue is the same: Situating a progressive awakening in a small-minded habitat is too easy. The ideological contrast is too binary. Risky topics are plunged into with a safety harness. Deriving entertainment from the ways of middle India is starting to get reductive. It borders on the infantilization of rural characters in urban comedies. Most of them are played for eye rolls or facepalms. Badhaai Do, like the others, takes two steps forward in terms of social significance. But I’m beginning to notice that it first takes a few steps backward to get a running start. At some point, this technique will wear off. For now, though, the finish line is all that matters'. 

Rahul Desai, 11.02.22

Recensione integrale

Cinema Hindi: ****

Punto di forza: il coraggio, la sceneggiatura, la regia, Rajkummar Rao (al picco della forma), Bhumi Pednekar.

Punto debole: dettagli nella regia (vedi la sequenza un po' artificiale della parata) o nella sceneggiatura (l'ingresso in scena di Shardul, che sembra una copia del protagonista di Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, o il finale troppo lieto - solo lieto sarebbe bastato).

SCHEDA DEL FILM

Cast:

* Rajkummar Rao - Shardul

* Bhumi Pednekar - Sumi, moglie di Shardul

* Chum Darang - Rimjhim, compagna di Sumi

* Gulshan Devaiah - Guru, compagno di Shardul

* Sheeba Chadha - madre di Shardul

* Seema Pahwa - zia di Shardul

Regia: Harshavardhan Kulkarni

Sceneggiatura: Suman Adhikary, Akshat Ghildiyal, Harshavardhan Kulkarni

Colonna sonora: Amit Trivedi, Tanishk Bagchi, Ankit Tiwari, Khamosh Shah

Traduzione del titolo: felicitazioni

Anno: 2022

Trailer

RASSEGNA STAMPA

* Director Harshavardhan Kulkarni on 'Badhaai Do', Priyanka Roy, The Telegraph, 10 febbraio 2022:

'Were you ever wary of reactions to the sticky topic you were working on in this film?

With every year, things are becoming even more sensitive and extreme. When we started off with this film in 2018, I don’t think it (instant and knee-jerk outrage) was so so bad. I said ‘yes’ to this film not just because of its socially relevant subject, it was more in terms of, ‘Hey, I don’t know too much about the queer community and I want to explore more through these characters’. That’s what the beautiful part of the journey of film-making is. The subjects which I like to plunge into are the ones which I don’t know much about. I never thought about the backlash because all my energies were spent in getting into the skin of this concept. The only thing that we knew from the beginning was that we shouldn’t misrepresent in any way, and that we should be sensitive. Just because we are not aware doesn’t mean that we can make mistakes. That’s why we had a script consultant on board. We would write everything and we had a lot of questions and we really picked his brains. He told us everything, threadbare, and we went out and spoke to several members of the queer community and took in a lot of feedback. And even within the community, there were two sides that started fighting between themselves, claiming that this is right and that is wrong. And that made me realise that even within the community, there is no specific handbook on making a film on this theme. You have to rely on your gut and say, ‘This is what I feel is right’. One can never satisfy 100 out of 100 people. It’s not about right or wrong, it’s about the fact that the politics can never be the same. Actually, we are looking to cater to a larger audience whose views are not so extreme. The fear didn’t happen while making the film, it’s only set in as we are approaching the release date. When I keep getting questions like this is when I feel the fear more (laughs). That’s when I feel I am walking on a tightrope, eggshells, landmines... But honestly, if I can’t take criticism, I shouldn’t be making films. And opinions will come in not only for the politics of the film, but also for its telling, its story, for its characters... (...)

The quirky small-town film with a message wrapped in mirth has more or less always worked at the Bollywood box office, especially over the last few years. However, what was once a novel sub-genre now stands the risk of being overused. Would you agree?

If you turn anything into a formula, that dishonesty can be smelt by the audience and you are bound to fail. Our thing is not about doing a small-town film which is quirky and funny, and has a message. If I started off like that, it would have been a disaster. Again, it’s not set in a small town... Dehradun is a capital. When you watch the film, you will see that it’s a beautiful mix of urban and small town. We took care of shooting it in a  way that it doesn’t feel formulaic. You are right when you talk about the fatigue of overusing a template like this. I am fatigued myself (laughs). We have made a conscious effort of making it look different. (...) In Badhaai Do, you will discover how humour can sometimes be used in a very hard-hitting way to tell a bitter truth. The messaging of the film is also not what everyone is expecting it to be. It’s something that the viewer may step out of the theatre and retain for a while. I believe that this is a film that will have long legs'.

CURIOSITÀ

* BD ha acceso un dibattito all'interno della comunità LGBTQ indiana: alcuni sostengono che la pellicola potrebbe involontariamente celebrare la pratica del matrimonio di copertura reciproca.

* Film che trattano lo stesso tema: vedi L'omosessualità nel cinema hindi.