It was a markedly different film, but much like Shoojit Sircar’s I Want to Talk, Abhishek Bachchan plays father to a young girl yet again within four months, this time in Remo D’Souza’s new dance-drama. At 127 minutes, Be Happy starts shoddily and takes a while to find its footing. But even when it does, it’s impossible to ignore the singular truth that looms large throughout the film—that it is no better than the regurgitated trash that has come to define streaming originals lately.
It revolves around Dhara (Inayat Verma), a pre-teen who dreams of winning a popular reality dance show and her single father Shiv Rastogi’s (Abhishek Bachchan) journey of transformation from a reluctant supporter to her unwavering cheerleader.
There’s plenty to get annoyed at. We’ll start with my most dreaded pet peeve—precocious (read over-smart) movie children. The Hindi film industry has been making movies for over 100 years now. One would think it’s enough time to master the craft of creating compelling child characters, especially when they form a film’s crux. But ideal conditions are only found in a science lab, never in a Bollywood film.
It’s not like there’s any dearth of glorious examples to use as reference points. Darsheel Safary in Taare Zameen Par (2007), Harshali Malhotra in Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), Zaira Waseem in Dangal (2016), and Shweta Basu Prasad in Makdee (2002) serve as shining testaments to the magic pre-pubescent actors can create when armed with sublime writing. However, the last few years have been a masterclass in how to not write pre-teens for screen. I dread each time a film or a series features a child in a key role. Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai (2023), Citadel: Honey Bunny (2024) and now Be Happy only reconfirm the havoc an irritating child-character can wreak.
Inayat Verma’s physical fragility is so palpable that she makes for an ideal candidate for a role that demands such frailty. She also has an innocence that makes you want to protect her. And yet, each time she speaks, she is made to mouth such atrocious dialogue that all the veneer of childlike naivety melts away in an instant and makes you want to punch the wall. At one point in the film, Shiv scolds Dhara, saying, “Ziddi ho tum.” Her comeback: “Dancer hu.”
This is not just exclusive to Dhara. The dialogue in the film (credited to Kanishka and Chirag Garg) is appalling throughout. It is so bad that it single handedly saps away all emotion in scenes that would have been decent sans them. Be Happy, then, is a film that is at its best when it is not straddled with dialogue that constantly oscillates between aggravating and tiresome.
Remo D’Souza’s story and the screenplay that he’s co-written with Tushar Hiranandani demands you to send all your brain cells on leave, lest they cause you the inconvenience of trying to put two and two together. In Be Happy, 4 + 6 = 3. The film uses life-altering events as an excuse to not make sense. Melodrama is inversely proportional to logic here. It acutely suffers from the Jigra syndrome. The central character is so possessed with savior complex, the rest of the world be damned.
Know-it-all children and inane plotting aside, Be Happy also commits the blunder of grossly misusing the towering talents of veteran actors such as Nasser and Johny Lever. It is the kind of film that gives Nora Fatehi a disposable part but not one memorable dance number. I wonder what an actor like Sanya Malhotra would have done with this role. The only silver lining to this dark, passing cloud is Abhishek Bachchan as an everyman who finds himself in a situation that’s not so everyday.
(Edited by : Asmita Pant)
