Zara Hatke Zara Bachke Movie Review

Sometimes filmmakers take risky routes to convey a certain point but compromise on plausibility along the way, which makes the whole attempt seem superficial. Director Laxman Utekar’s Zara Hatke Zara Bachke falls in the same category. ‘It’s all about loving your family’ is a universal theme, and time and again we have seen makers across the world explore this concept. This Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan starrer is one such attempt in the same direction. While the path it has chosen to reach there is unique, disappoints. Why is it hard to understand that ‘emotions’ is not the only answer to figure out every second half?

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke: Movie Plot

Set in Indore, Zara Hatke Zara Bachke revolves around Kapil (Vicky) and Saumya (Sara), who live with the former’s parents. However, because of his Mama and Mami’s arrival, they miss out on their privacy and look for an apartment where they can build their own life. But the fast-growing property prices become a hindrance, so they opt for a tricky plan that not only tests their own relationship but their equation with their families too. What follows is a lot of confusion, drama, emotions, tears, and comedy.

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke: What’s Good?

The film starts on a promising note and remains engaging till the interval. The first hour has enough comedy situations to keep you entertained, and a large credit for it should go to dialogue writers Maitrey Bajpai and Ramiz Ilham Khan. Despite the predictable narrative, there are a few high points in the initial portion that will keep you glued to the story. Sandeep Shirodkar’s background score helps elevate sequences, while Sachin-Jigar’s music adds a lot of value to the overall experience of the movie. “Phir Aur Kya Chahiye” and “Tere Vaaste” are magical compositions, and so are their lyrics penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

Director Of Photography Raghav Ramadoss’ lens beautifully captures the essence of Indore, while production designers Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray stay true to the look and feel of the film. Costume designer Sheetal Iqbal Sharma has also done justice to the director’s vision for Zara Hatke Zara Bachke.

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke: What’s Not so Good?

The second half of the film, especially the part that leads up to the climax. It doesn’t work for me at all. It largely plays up on emotions, and completely gives up on believability making it look like a half-baked and rushed attempt. In times when filmmakers are expected to make relatable stories, one thing they shouldn't compromise on while doing so is plausibility. Director-writer Laxman Utekar along with Maitrey Bajpai and Ramiz Ilham Khan should have spent a little more time correcting this aspect on the writing table. Editor Manish Pradhan could have also worked his magic on the second half that seems a bit stretched too.

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke: Movie Review

What is love? For decades Bollywood has taught you that love is about grand gestures - flowers, chocolates, yelling your name at airports to stop you from leaving. For most parts, however, that is love in a dystopian world, and even if it were real, it would be far beyond the reach of any of us. When the camera zooms into smaller cities, towns with tim-timati lightein, chhajje wali chhatt, and right into a middle-class house, love is a completely different feeling. That's a world director Laxman Utekar creates with much ease in most of his films. But, just like inhi middle-class gharon ki rasoi mein bani hui daal, sometimes namak kam pad jata hai.

Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan-starrer Zara Hatke Zara Bachke is that daal with kam namak.

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke: Script analysis

Vicky Kaushal's Kapil Dubey is the only son of a Pandit family in Indore, a Yoga instructor by day, and a miser (read chindi) at heart - a habit he attributes to his middle-class upbringing. When you grow up counting pennies, you imbibe the habit of buying Rs 20 ki sabzi at Rs 17 and saving three bucks. Something many of us do, whether we live in Delhi or Mumbai, Or Indore. He is happily married to Sara Ali Khan’s Soumya Chawla Dubey. When she is not teaching at a coaching center, she is trying to fit into a culturally diverse Hindu household with her Punjaban sensibilities and be the ideal bahu.

Kapil and Soumya fell in love over 1-by-2 cola and a daily dose of 5-Star chocolate bars, but like several other young couples in similar tiny homes, they long for freedom, the freedom of space, that is. However, loving the in-laws maybe, a makeshift gadda bed in the kitchen is no place to get intimate. Soumya has but one dream - apna ghar ho, jahan privacy ho. And that's where it all starts.

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke: Story

Laxman Utekar touches upon aspects of a middle-class life that often plague us, but fails to dive deep into any of them, reducing them to mere garnish. Like for instance, the union between a shuddh shakahaari, teetotler Pandit family, and a Punjabi family that loves their chicken and whiskey ke pegs. It is not an apparent problem, but then there is that taane maarne wali teekhi maami who loves kalesh and will point out how a Punjaban has phasaoed their seedha-saadha ladka in her jaal.

Society gives us a template for life - study, get a job, get married, buy a house and a car, have kids, and the hustle that comes with is considered living happily ever after. When Soumya and Kapil find a home they love, they also find that it is out of their budget. Government offers 'Avas Yojna' someone informs them, and their hustle takes a detour of Sarkari daftar ke chakkar. In Love Per Square Foot, Vicky Kaushal's Sanjay Chaturvedi decides to get married for want of a house, in Zara Hatke Zara Bachke, Kapil and Soumya file for divorce so that she would be eligible as a divorcee, homeless woman. Government schemes often lead to scams, and this young couple, like so many others, find themselves back at the starting point, only Rs 4 lakh poorer, and well, separated. The desperation of the middle class is at play here, and Laxman Utekar, once again, touches upon a serious aspect but skirts it.

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke: Star Performances

Vicky Kaushal is the star of the film. He plays his character of a small-town, adaptive, sincere, and madly in love boy to the T. Vicky Kaushal, who has the chameleon-like ability to slip into just about any character. But it is a space he is far too comfortable in, especially after we've watched Love Per Square Foot and Govinda Naam Mera. Sara Ali Khan, on the other hand, just can't seem to get the tempo right, and the transition from a bubbly Geet-like lightness to a well, Geet-like reality check feels jerky.

Akarsh Khurana and Anubha Fatehpuria as Kapil's parents, and Rakesh Bedi and Sushmita Mukherjee as Soumya's parents are also sprinkled like a garnish. They do their job, because that's what strong actors like them do, and leave an impression. Kanupriya Pandit as the taane maarne wali mami takes the cake.

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke: Conclusion

Kapil and Soumya frequent this roadside Chinese joint for a 1-by-2 plate of spicey noodles as they ponder and plan their lives. We wish Laxman Utekar had taken a dash of that spice and given us some lip-smacking moments. For in its current state, Zara Hatke Zara Bachke is bland.