The Great Indian Family Star Cast/Actors: Vicky Kaushal as Ved Vyas Tripathi, Manushi Chhillar as Sahiba. The supporting cast includes Manoj Pahwa and Kumud Mishra.
The Great Indian Family Director: Vijay Krishna Acharya
The Great Indian Family Release Date: 22 September, 2023
The Great Indian Family Available On: Theatrical release (and likely to get released on Prime Video)
The Great Indian Family Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
The Great Indian Family OTT Platform: To be released on Prime Video
The Great Indian Family Runtime: 112 minutes
The Great Indian Family Critic Review:
Traditional Brahman priest, Pandit Siyaram Tripathi (Kumud Mishra) and wife bring up a Muslim infant, orphaned at birth, as their own, with no prejudice. Love, care, sanskaar, all unstinted.
It is a fresh take on the Hindu-Muslim conundrum that has been a favourite theme of YRF right from the time Yash Chopra made Dharamputra in 1961. Set in post-Partition times, Yash Chopra had cast Shashi Kapoor as a fanatical Hindu who discovers to his dismay that he’s the illegitimate son of his parents’ Muslim neighbour. It was a reversal of Yash’s own Dhool Ka Phool (1959) in which Manmohan Krishna played a kind-hearted Muslim who brings up a Hindu baby.
Writer-director Vijay Krishna Acharya (Victor), known for Dhoom 3 and his loyalty to YRF, puts yet another spin on the Hindu-Muslim union, perhaps drawing a bit from his own inter-faith marriage.
The lead bhajan singer of the family of priests, Ved Vyas Tripathi alias Bhajan Kumar (Vicky Kaushal, cleanshaven) is a secure young man, happy to have his stray flirty moments with the opposite sex. It’s when his strong, principled father leaves their small town Balrampur on his annual teerth yatra (pilgrimage) that Bhajan Kumar’s little world comes apart. He learns that he was born to Muslim parents. Chacha (Manoj Pahwa) is unable to handle the fallout as Billoo, Bhajan Kumar’s fond pet name, reaches a point where he has to leave home, even contemplate converting to Islam.
It’s a welcome departure from showing the Hindu as a hardened bigot especially when a priest as traditional as Pandit Siyaram Tripathi returns to restore sanity in the family and in the neighbourhood. With son Billoo staunchly by his side to uphold his principles.
Victor’s work has its heart in the right place. Towns with demarcated Muslim areas where others fear to tread or growing up looking at another community as different, are commonplace in Bharat. The Tripathi patriarch’s stand on his non-biological son and the gradual acceptance of society around them where the lines between communally strong areas begin to blur with amity, are much-needed thoughts.
But alas. It’s a dull ride to such nobility as Victor makes an energy-less film. Vicky Kaushal is a sound actor but his voice is not his strength and its overuse even for background commentary adds no sparkle to the narration. Vicky’s performance too has a long, preachy dialogue that comes off like a student reciting rehearsed lines and not like a young, torn man speaking from an injured heart.
Then there are the ‘unbelievables’. When trying to be a Muslim, Bhajan Kumar wonders how they eat and is surprised that Muslims too eat like other human beings. Other situations that fall flat include Bhajan Kumar kissing girlfriend Jasmeet (Manushi Chhillar) and wondering if it was a Hindu kiss or a Muslim.
In wanting to valiantly veer away from showing either community as fanatical which is laudable, Vijay Acharya unfortunately falters in not making an engrossingly strong pitch for communal amity. The banner-wielding protest organised by Mishra (Yashpal Sharma), another Brahman priest, which is more about a rival wanting to bag Tripathi’s prestigious priestly assignments than fiery religious fervour, ends up as a weak confrontation. On the other hand, the Muslim community hesitating to let Bhajan Kumar convert to Islam is also a bit beyond the realm of reality given that it is a proselytising religion.
So, while Vijay Krishna Acharya’s neeyat (intent) is noble, it doesn’t translate into scintillating storytelling.
Additionally, there is zero chemistry between an outstandingly unimpressive Manushi Chhillar and Vicky, the kiss coming in like it was just stuck into the screenplay.
Disappointingly, Pritam’s music also joins the other lifeless departments in a subject which had potent situations for brilliant bhajans and soulful Sufi numbers. Ultimately, it’s still Yash Chopra’s ‘Tu Hindu banega ya Mussalman banega’ from Dhool Ka Phool which continues to remain timeless for its message wrapped in good music.
The Great Indian Family- Watch Or Not?: You could spare yourself a dull outing.
The Great Indian Family Review Score Rating: 2 out of 5 (i.e. 2/5)
The Great Indian Family Official Trailer: