Review: Vicky Donor

Vicky Donor
 
Vicky Arora (Ayushmann Khurrana) is an unemployed young Delhi boy who lives in Lajpat Nagar with his mother (Dolly Ahluwalia) who runs a beauty parlour and grandmother. He is an expert in every beauty treatment and helps out in the parlour occasionally; that is when he is not playing cricket and shopping at the mall. But Vicky’s life changes when he meets Dr Chadha (Annu Kapoor). Chadha runs a faltering infertility clinic and is desperately in need of a sure-shot sperm donor. Chadha believes Vicky is the right candidate.

After a great deal of convincing, Vicky agrees and sees the big bucks rolling in. But being a sperm donor is not the most respectable job in the world, and certainly not a career. So he keeps his work a secret, describing what he does as ‘export’, ‘business’, ‘handicrafts’ etc. This explanation seems satisfactory for Vicky’s girlfriend Ashima Roy (Yami Gautam). But how can a marriage between a literate, intellectual fish loving Bengali family work with a crass, whisky drinking, chicken eating Punjabi family? This set up provides for some of the funniest scenes in the film.

Director Shoojit Sircar and writer Juhi Chaturvedi craft a sassy film that captures Delhi life to the T. Using humour they deliver a story with a message and shatter the taboo and misconceptions around the issue of sperm donation and infertility. They do this without every resorting to cheap tricks or sleazy undertones. This is the biggest positive about the film followed by performances by Annu Kapoor and Dolly Ahluwalia. Sadly the same cannot be said about the lead pair who show flashes of talent but do not rise to the needs of the more sensitive and nuanced scenes.

The music is grating and the dialogues a little too Punjabi, which will make it more appealing to the northern belt and less so to those south of Mumbai. The second half is dull and the ending contrived, nonetheless, Vicky Donor is a fun, well made film with a message. Enjoy!

 
Rating: ***

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