Bala

'Bala' is a comical film which unabashedly faces lookism, eye-to-eye: its small town comedy tropes are seamlessly driven, and not once do you feel bored by the narrative. The writing of the film is surprisingly coherent, and the performances by Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar and Seema Pahwa were my favourites. The film takes a roll on a good-looking TikTok star, a dark-skinned girl who wants to be fair, and the lead- Bala, the bald, played boldly by Ayushmann Khurrana. You should watch 'Bala' if you, just like me, suffered 'Ujda Chaman': this is a masterclass on how to make an entertaining, comical film a message one without being sermonizing in tone.

Amar Kaushik's second venture, Bala (given Hindi pet name; hair connotation), is a solidly made comedy drama that commentates about the critical social stigmas currently plaguing the country (and the world) and uses the perfect possible container to deliver it, by centralizing itself around a young balding self-conscious bachelor (Ayushmann Khurrana) from a city in Uttar Paradesh, and providing enough entertainment to sit back and relax but still uses a formulaic approach that dampens the enjoyment and which is, however, second only to the horrendous, unbearable makeup work (on Bhumi Pednekar) involved in it. TN.