Even if he breaks out into macho aggression a few times, his heart is not in it. If Badri does not come across as a creep, it’s because Varun Dhawan plays him with charm and vulnerability. Vaidehi wants to escape the suffocation of a small town with its built-in male chauvinism, Badri is an inherently decent guy who needs to get generations of patriarchal conditioning and its automatic response of violence out of his mind before he can win Vaidehi’s love and respect. The conflict, refreshingly enough, is not rich versus poor (or rather middle-class), but male entitlement versus female ambition. The film starts with a disclaimer that it does not endorse dowry, but there will be many amidst its target audience, who will not be converted by the film’s message, but you can’t blame the filmmaker for trying. The older son (Yash Sinha) capitulated and married a woman of his father’s choice Badri falls in love with Vaidehi (Alia Bhatt) and is genuinely puzzled when she does not reciprocate what’s not to like about a good-looking bloke from a rich family? Badri plots and manouevres to get a proposal, with the requisite dowry, approved by his father. From the Magazine This Election Season In UP, Lakhimpur Kheri Is The New Political Battlefield The Negotiator: Rakesh Tikait Is The Glue Holding Farmers’ Agitation Together Kashmir Minority Killings A Throwback To The Terrifying 90s Feat Of Clay: Bengal’s Idol-makers Are Pushing Boundaries Of Creativity This Durga Puja Season India's Sporting Revolution And Why Haryana, Odisha Are Model Statesīadri (Varun Dhawan) is the Jhansi dude, belonging to the feudal Bansal family, controlled by the patriarch’s (Rituraaj Singh) seeming feeble heart that seizes anytime there is a hint of protest.