Why Kapil Sharma-starrer 'Daadi Ki Shaadi' is more family melodrama and less a fun outing

Popular comedian and host Kapil Sharma’s latest venture as an actor comes with a happy-go-lucky title that suggests it may break, if not challenge, stereotypes around marriageable age. Yes, Vimla Ahuja aka Daadi (Neetu Kapoor) is a tad lonely and sad in Shimla, but this story is less about her and more about her kids’ and their families’ detachment from their widowed mother.

Daadi Ki Shaadi taking that route is a narrative choice; the trouble is that it turns into a familiar Baghban-like growing-up-for-adults exercise with negligible moments of depth and emotional connection.

Interestingly, it’s not Sharma alone performing the task of providing the laughs. In fact, the real delights here are Daadi’s two sons Jeevan and Nag, played Deepak Dutta and Jitender Hooda, who steal the spotlight. If Jeevan is constantly cranky, embarrassed and worried at being a societal outcast over the prospect of his mother’s second marriage, Nag, when not trying to break the wedding, is berating his wife. The comic relief comes from seeing the two men struggle to deal with change and have their narrow-mindedness laid open.

Sharma’s Tony is the meddler, who starts off by trying to woo his prospective fianc and break up Daadi’s union to safeguard his own future. But his perspective and purpose change as he becomes the do-gooder avoiding a family split. He delivers the snarky zingers, but it is when he is niggling and teasing the brothers that Daadi Ki Shaadi is at its most entertaining. Riddhima Kapoor serves as the sister who makes an entry halfway through to talk about her financial stake, which sets off a debate on whether nurturing and responsibility can be quantified.

There’s much promise to have a grandmother as the titular character and showcase her as an independent, single senior woman, but Daadi Ki Shaadi is least concerned with an idea that’s perhaps too radical for it to handle. The film is a wasted opportunity to explore friendships and companionships in old age. In this case, the presence of a retired colonel as the groom offers hope to focus on a dynamic that’s lesser seen. But the makers are least interested in even remotely addressing the narrative possibilities. What viewers get is a guide to school the kids on how to treat one’s parents.

Neetu Kapoor’s warm presence and relative ease is a reminder that it’s great to have the actress back on screen. If only she was given a nuanced character that afforded her agency. As random roles keep getting introduced in blink-and-miss appearances and songs arrive sporadically, Daadi Ki Shaadi seems like that wedding which one cannot wait to conclude.

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