Thank You For Coming Star Cast/ Actors: Bhumi Pednekar as Kanika Kapoor, Natasha Rastogi as Dr. Bina Kapoor, Karan Kundrra as Arjun, Anil Kapoor as Professor, Shehnaaz Gill as Rushi Kalra, Dolly Singh as Pallavi Khanna, Kusha Kapila as Neha, and Shibani Bedi as Tina Das.
Thank You For Coming Director: Karan Boolani
Thank You For Coming Release Date: 6 October, 2023
Thank You For Coming Available On: Theatrical release (and likely to be released on Netflix)
Thank You For Coming Released/ Available In Languages: Hindi
Thank You For Coming Runtime: 1 Hour 57 Minutes
Thank You For Coming Critic Review:
32-year-old Kanika Kapoor (Bhumi Pednekar) has never had an orgasm.
Join the gang of 70 per cent of women in India.
That’s the stats Kanika gets from her unabashedly unwed mother Dr Bina Kapoor (Natasha Rastogi), unapologetic about her choices. At a frustrated point (over the elusive Big ‘O’), mom also explains to Kanika that when the heart and mind are not in sync, the body can hardly perform lower down.
It does sum up Kanika, confused over what she desires. She definitely doesn’t want to be her mother, she doesn’t want to be called ‘thandi’ and her search has sent her from the arms of Rahul (Sushant Divgikar), Arjun (Karan Kundrra) and Professor (Anil Kapoor) to the besotted, bespectacled Jeevan ((Pradhuman Singh) who she’s all set to wed.
For a girl labelled ‘thandi’, there’s no lack of suitors. It is a fairy tale.
Sex sells.
So does ‘smash patriarchy’.
Director Karan Boolani, with writers Radhika Anand and stand-up comedian Prashasti Singh, combine the two and hope to pull it off.
They do get applauded by the same quarters that blindly celebrate feminism however flawed its portrayal. Thank You For Coming does deserve a pat for two reasons: the three-gen family of women led by a grandmother (Dolly Ahluwalia), the gynaec mother and Kanika, living it up despite differences in opinion, is refreshing. Fortunately, Boolani doesn’t stray into societal frowns on the women-only family and keeps it to Kanika’s search for happy fulfilment. The warm relationship between Kanika and her bestie’s teenage daughter Rabeya (Saloni Daini) is welcome too.
The second merit-worthy point is its unapologetic, frivolous tone, the many references to sex and orgasm never turning outrageous or obscene. Puns are fun, the title itself is one when Kanika finally follows her mom’s prescription and finds that pleasure is all in her own hands (there lies another pun). ‘Thank you for coming, Kanika,’ says Kanika, after she’s discovered that self-help is the best help.
There are moments of humour too, like the gently ageing Anil Kapoor and his line to every woman, “Gulzar is my buddy”.
Bhumi Pednekar, over the top as demanded by Kanika, is completely uninhibited in her body language and is well cast, carrying the show that’s totally about her.
But the route that Karan takes has chunks of boredom and preachiness about women and their desires which is repeated on loop to an exhausting point.
Seventeen years ago, Kanika had been admonished on the school stage for saying, “Couples have sex”, inspired by her mom. For the climax, no pun here, it’s back to the same stage to liberate the girl students and smash patriarchy. Loud and overdone but in current times, you dare not diss it.
One isn’t sure why ‘Pari hoon main’ where Rahul shows his real side is a surprise since ‘trans’ people are so in, in our cinema. The rest of the music too, is without sparkle.
The flabby screenplay rarely moves to real companionship between women who share secrets and stories. It’s all about Kanika and her orgasm. Like nobody, including her, has anything else to do or discuss. It reduces all the influencers and stand-up performers (Shibani Bedi, Dolly Singh, Shehnaz Gill, Kusha Kapila et al), especially her girl gang, to ‘sideys’ and not besties.
Women deserve more…than just an orgasm.
Thank You For Coming – Watch Or Not?: It’s strictly for chick flick fans who want to giggle over sex and fancy the idea of smashing patriarchy.
Thank You For Coming Review Score Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (i.e. 2.5/5)
Thank You For Coming Official Trailer:
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