'Be Happy' review: Abhishek Bachchan's film is flat and uneven
What's the story
Abhishek Bachchan's Be Happy, directed by Remo D'Souza, premiered on Amazon Prime Video on Friday.
Also starring Nassar, Nora Fatehi, Inayat Verma, and Johny Lever, the film captures the bond between a single father and his spirited daughter.
Be Happy is a classic case of a film that has good intentions but deeply flawed execution, ending up as a tedious, forgettable affair.
Story
Focuses on the conflict between father-daughter
Be Happy reunites Bachchan with his Ludo co-star Verma.
He plays Shiv, who is struggling to be a good father to Dhara (Verma).
Though he loves her, they don't always see eye-to-eye because Dhara wants to make further inroads in dancing, but Shiv believes it's just a "hobby."
When Dhara is selected for a major dance show, will Shiv finally come around?
#1
You can easily predict the storyline
Out of the several aspects wrong with Be Happy, perhaps the biggest is its predictable nature.
This is a stale, run-of-the-mill story that offers absolutely nothing new, and from the first scene onward (which begins with a dream sequence), you can predict almost all of the film.
There's no novelty, no surprise factor, and nothing that can hook you for over two hours.
#2
The writing needed more work
Be Happy suffers due to its half-baked script and there is only so much that the actors can do to uplift the mediocre material.
Does the film want to focus on parent-child conflict? Does it want to talk about passion versus practicality, or does it aim to underline a single parent's struggles and loneliness?
It wants to do all of this, succeeding at nothing.
#3
No character stays with you
The film also doesn't know what to do with its characters.
Dhara is shown as a child who is mature beyond her years, and this is an annoying trope that must be retired in Hindi films now.
Lever has another underwritten part and appears only for a limited period, while Nassar's talents are also wasted.
Only Bachchan gets a meaty role and good dialogues.
#4
Everything has an easy resolution
At no point does any conflict mean anything.
It only takes one conversation for characters to change their mind, so whenever a problem rears its head, you know it will be resolved in the next two scenes.
It's only toward the end that the film tries to salvage itself through its emotional climax, but by then, it's tragically too late.
Verdict
Can skip 'Be Happy'; 1.5/5 stars
Be Happy has neither style nor substance and the script feels as if it's stuck 10 years in the past.
With better writing and more rounded characters, the film could have worked, but Be Happy is so obsessed with showing Dhara's "maturity" that it forgets to work on everything else.
The actors try, but the movie refuses to work.
1.5/5 stars.