The Great Indian Family movie review: Just the kind of film Bollywood shouldn’t be making

To get to that point, the film pads the plot, something Yash Raj Films has been guilty of before. Billu, who lives with his pandit father (Mishra) and uncle (Pahwa) has an introductory song-and-cutesy-childhood-sequence in which his backstory is explained in a voiceover (groan). There’s a lot of chatter about Govinda and ‘pooja’ and ‘havan’, and if the intention is to send up our dependence on religious rituals, it doesn’t work. Billu is made to bump up against a brash Sikhni (Chhillar, coming off strictly ornamental) in a Muslim neighbourhood bristling with stereotyped identifiers– lots of burkhas, kohl-lined eyes– in which the residents can be ‘pechanoed from their kapdas’ (recognised from their attire). In what way does this depiction break stereotypes?

A classic lost-and-found twist gives the story an excuse to introduce paper-thin characters of a Parsi doctor, a dying Muslim mother, and a benevolent Hindu couple who bring home a motherless baby home, and bring it up as their own. The complexities arising from confusion, identity politics, and the importance of inclusion and liberalism are turned into underlined dialogue-baazi, lest anyone take them seriously. If you want to be brave, the writing needs to match: here, even such wonderful actors like Mishra, Pahwa, Siddiqui stand no chance. Neither does the always watchable Vicky Kaushal. Done well, this could have been such a crucial film for these times when we are being pitted against each other. Such a pity.

The Great Indian Family movie cast: Vicky Kaushal, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra, Manushi Chhillar, Sadia Siddiqui
The Great Indian Family movie director: Vijay Krishna Acharya
The Great Indian Family movie rating: One and a half stars