Another Indian Romantic Comedy — With a Twist

Movie Review: Badhaai Do (2022) on Netflix

A gay cop and a lesbian teacher enter a sham marriage to pacify their families.

I generally avoid those increasingly popular romantic comedies from India. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the bright colors, expansive sets, and big dance numbers. I am gay, after all. The reason I avoid them is because they portray a distressingly myopic heterosexual world view.

Big Dance Number in Badhaai Do

When Badhaai Do (Hindi for “give the good news”) appeared in my Netflix feed, I almost dismissed it out of hand. But then the description caught my eye: “A gay cop and a lesbian teacher enter a sham marriage to pacify their families …”

The film, released last year in India to positive reviews, features Shardul (Rajkummar Rao), a secretly gay cop who overcompensates with stern machismo, and Suman (played by Bhumi Pednekar), a closeted lesbian school teacher who seeks fleeting companionship on hookup apps.

The two thirtysomething singles are hounded by their respective families to get married before they get too old. Persistent matriarchal aunts deploy parents, siblings, cousins, and uncles in failed matchmaking efforts.

Shardul (Rajkummar Rao) tries to convince Suman (Bhumi Pednekar) to enter into a sham marriage.

The pressure to marry is so intense that when Shardul becomes acquainted with Suman through a police encounter and suspects she is Lesbian, he strikes up a proposal that they get married to get the families off their backs. Though they barely know each other and in spite of multiple signs they aren’t compatible, they agree to be legally wed while living separate lives.

The newly married couple reluctantly poses for a honeymoon photo demanded by their families.

At first, the families are sated and content to have the two married off, but before long, new concerns arise when the couple fails to have a baby. The pressure to produce children exceeds even the pressure to get married, to the point where an army of Shardul’s female relatives trick Suman into a medical exam of her reproductive system.

The couple’s friendship slowly grows and they develop a deeper (platonic) intimacy. They start to form a partnership similar to marriage, though without sex, and try to protect each other from the growing danger of being outed.

Couple in sham marriage grows into a mutually beneficial (platonic) partnership.

Shardul and Suman’s dramatic and comic story is accented with vibrant cinematography showing a range of Indian life from beautiful seaside to intense city traffic.

With the sudden appearance of many background singers, the characters twice break into song. Colorful dancers are so extravagantly choreographed that they put American superbowl half-time shows to shame.

This film challenges rigid assumptions about masculinity and femininity, at least in Indian middle class Hindi culture. It directly confronts the deeply ingrained expectations that all men and all women should marry each other and have children. A stern cop can be vulnerable and sensitive. A woman who interacts exclusively with other women can have a close male friend.

This review also appears in Movie Buff, a column for Circling, the Jonathan’s Circle newsletter (subscription only, no link).