Bala

BALA - Maddock Films

Amar Kaushik's new venture, Bala, about a man dealing with his early-age baldness might be a little hard to understand for a Western audience at first. However, the film makes sure that even a person with a foreign identity will be able to understand the weird societal inconsistencies and intricacies of India by the end of it.

The film's biggest strength is its ability to mix lighthearted comedy with a serious sense of inspiration, not allowing either of the two elements to overshadow the other by any means for most of the running time. The comedy is exercised to enhance the more motivational or dramatic scenes, with said dramatic nature made all the more personal when they are mixed with a dose of comedy. Though there might be some references to Bollywood movies that an ordinary foreign viewer will not necessarily understand, there is still enough witty and inventive jokes with respects to its surroundings and situation that will leave a person of any descent rolling on the floor with laughter.

The title character — played beautifully by Ayushman Khurrana — is charming and compelling; you will sympathize with his situation but also resent his hypocrisies and his tendency to blame his problems on others. The performance by the side characters are also charming in their unique way, standouts being both Javed Jaffery and Saurabh Shukla. Two performances that elevate the film in its most limited or slowed-down moments with their improvisation and tight comic timing.

That being said, there are two very distinct problems with this feature. This film is still strong but there are many aspects to these problems of which are repetitive and regurgitated to the point of death yet still appear in this film: the film’s over-reliance on preaching its morals rather than showing them, made more evident by its final scene, and its uninspired shots. With regards to the cinematography by Anuj Rakesh Dhawan, the audience is starved of seeing any different variety of shots that will appear except for some sweeping shots in a musical parody scene.

Still, even with its technical and preaching issues, Bala is a must-watch for anyone suffering from self-confidence issues. If this film does anything of merit, it is that it makes even the most confident-deprived person love themselves and, in an age of social media, that is all that matters.

Bala is released in the U.K. November 8th, 2019