Rediscovering The Indian Middle Class

Amit Sharma's sleeper hit, Badhaai Ho, is part of a refreshing new trend of bold filmmakers finding success in portraying the ordinary Indian family in a realistic milieu, down to its patois and accents.

- Maithili Rao

Badhaai Ho!, to our new love affair with the middle class Indian family. Recently, filmmakers and audiences seem to have rediscovered the rooted Indian family, its quirks and annoyances, charms and embarrassments, and the deep bonds that survive unexpected googlies life throws at them. This is definitely not happening in the flashy mega hits, where superstars reside in huge mansions, with the mandatory forays to London and New York, or those sumptuous NRI sagas at which nostalgic diaspora congregate as a tribal act of collective homage to a world of fantasy, of lavishly celebrated festivals and trendsetting fashions, where the unspoken dicta was Love Your Family. They are passé.

The stories are now set in crowded mohallas, and the patois is special to the milieu, be it Punjabified, uncool Delhi suburbs, Bareilly backwaters or other small towns of UP’s sprawl, marked by regional variations of idiomatically rich dialects. The common point is the narrative’s down to earth reality, that speaks directly to us. It makes us recognize ourselves and our extended families, the simple values of affection and loyalty that overcome conflicts both petty and profound.

This happens not through preachy sermons, but via quietly persuasive humour, however risqué the subject – be it the groom’s erectile dysfunction disorder, a middle-aged mother’s pregnancy, a sperm donor for a hero, the sexual rejection of an educated, overweight bride by a school dropout groom – the central problem of the story ought to shock our prudish minds, but happily it doesn’t, because the people are so real, and the observance of everyday behavior that comes through gestures, eye contact (avoided/evasive/revealing) where simple actions are weighed with emotions, is so disarmingly sharp

Perhaps a rough timeline begins with Do Dooni Char