Vicky Donor

A comedy set in Delhi. Vicky is unemployed. He lives with his mother and grandmother, sits about in a hair salon, and has given up looking for work. Doctor Chaddha runs a fertility clinic. He has not found a good donor in years and the clinic is about to close. He sees the young man in the street and follows him. He makes an offer, Vicky refuses, the doctor insists, and eventually money is discussed. Vicky becomes a donor. The clinic recovers, the records grow, and the work becomes routine. Then he meets Ashima. She is a Bengali bank employee; divorced, with no intention of marrying again. They marry. Vicky does not tell her what he does. From there the film turns into a story about infertility. The couple cannot conceive, tests are done, and the truth comes out. What the narrative is interested in is not donation but fatherhood: the film argues about whom a child belongs to and how much the biological tie matters, and does it inside a comedy. The two families are a separate line. The Punjabi mother and the Bengali mother-in-law dislike each other and a long cold war runs in the kitchen. The subject was unusual for Indian cinema at the time. Making a mainstream comedy about sperm donation caused argument. Ayushmann Khurrana entered cinema with this film. Ayushmann Khurrana, Yami Gautam and Annu Kapoor are in the cast. Shoojit Sircar directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes light Indian comedy and unusual subjects. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a film that treats the subject seriously; the narrative slides into melodrama in the second half and the resolution comes easily.