Bala

Bala was proud of his hair when he was young. In his twenties it starts falling out. First he hides it; he wears a cap, looks into transplants, buys creams and pays for each of them. None works. He is mocked at work and rejected when he wants to marry. In the end he starts wearing a wig, and meets a woman that way. Pari is known on social media and does not know his situation. They marry. The truth comes out after the wedding. In the same town there is Latika; a childhood friend and a lawyer, who has faced the same kind of pressure all her life for having dark skin. Amar Kaushik directs. Ayushmann Khurrana plays Bala, Yami Gautam plays Pari and Bhumi Pednekar plays Latika; Saurabh Shukla is in the cast. The language is Hindi. The film took a strong result at the box office. The matter it treats is pressure about appearance; the film takes up hair loss and discrimination by skin colour at once. Bhumi Pednekar's skin was darkened with make up for the part, and the practice was criticised on release; the contradiction between the film's argument and its method was argued over. The narrative does not defend Bala; the character judges others by their appearance too. Its last section takes place in a courtroom and the argument is stated outright. The small town humour works inside the narrative and the supporting characters are strong. Its limit is method; the narrative is didactic and the resolution tied to a speech. Who it is for: viewers who like Indian social comedy and Ayushmann Khurrana's films. Who it is not for: it is didactic, the argument contradicts the method, and the ending too tidy.