');var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)};})();
With “Be Happy” (2025), Remo D’Souza continues on an overconfident spree of churning out dance videos in the guise of cinematic tripe. The title itself is abundantly indicative of the sheer excruciating stupidity filling every seam of this film. Once again, we get the tussle of reaching for dreams immanent to a passion for the arts. This is done through an entirely ineffective father-daughter story, where Abhishek Bachchan and Inayat Verma are tasked with taking us on a wrenching journey. Of course, a terminal illness track gets interposed, to cover up the massive flaws, the absolute slog the film regularly settles into.
The film opens at a picturesque estate in Ooty. It’s been eight years since Shiv (Bachchan) lost his wife in an accident. He lives with his daughter, Dhara (Verma), and his father-in-law (Nassar). Dhara’s passion for dancing is immediate, buoyant and all-encompassing. Shiv, however, isn’t quite sold on the idea of her going to Mumbai for the India Super Dancer competition. However, with some time, the push of the brilliant dance instructor, Maggie (Nora Fatehi), he agrees, joining her to help realise her dreams of being on the stage and having the spotlight on her.
Conflicts are resolved swiftly; things don’t get too bristly even when matters get sombre. The treatment remains deluded and bemusedly silly, yet the farcical doesn’t ever seem that it’s specifically designed. It’s a tonal clash and the film fails to earn any individual personality, drowned out by a loosely strung tapestry of scenes simply servicing the dance stuff aiming to be eye-catching and agile. When the centrality of dance isn’t cushioned by sincere emotion, pushed instead by a barrage of unpersuasive tears and smiles and midpoint wandering, how on earth can “Be Happy” be remotely watchable?
It’s too corny, too contrived to register with cohesive comedy. The script, if we can at all accord it such dignity, throws in a patchwork of scenes built only to make way for the next dance sequence, where D’Souza is most comfortable in. The drama, sappy emotion -both of which are aplenty here -aren’t the director’s forte, and it shows in every forced scene, each moment unbearably boring and unforgivingly ham-fisted. There’s no linking between the scenes, only a slapdash knit mess with characters and their moods as forgettable as an assembly-line streaming release.
The film makes a slew of terrible choices, none of which can be justified. First, you have to overlook the criminally wasted Johny Lever, who gets to pop up for a scene where he flashes his unmatched comic prowess. But the scene judders before us so randomly, equally pulling aside the character abruptly, it’s unfathomable why the makers inserted Lever in the first place. The list of the inexcusable decisions, deviations and odd interruptions the film makes is too vast to be ignored. It leaves you scratching your head as to why stalwarts like Nassar signed up for such obvious tomfoolery, mouthing the most dated jokes. It’s either a case of a good paycheque or a gesture of goodwill.
A film with a child in a key role mandates her to have a propelling, enduring presence, that’s not always trying to show off her savviness, awe-inducing resilience. Dhara is projected as too capable and intelligent and it gets exasperating pretty quickly. Inayat Verma can do little to salvage any of it when her talent gets buried under a character like this that asks for constant exertion. Dhara monopolises the scenes in the first half and it’s her father who gets the second. In between is stuffed a flaky Nora Fatehi, showing up in strange punctuations of dance sequences, as bizarrely placed but the joke’s on you if you expect solid character development or the faintest semblance of a cogent narrative from D’Souza.
');var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)};})();
The writing is asinine, plunging the enterprise of chasing dreams in the most shallow, implausible stretches. The kid leaps through to fame and attention pretty quickly. Dhara is like a prodigy, the world seems to have been waiting for. Everyone instantly gushes over her, her fellow contestants, the judges, the entire reality show. We get an airbrushed, fantastical view of an inherently cruel business. Similarly convenient and problematic is the father’s softness for his daughter’s dance teacher.
The director privileges emotional logic at all times, eking out melodrama and emotional manipulation. “Be Happy” abandons momentum, dynamics characters have among themselves. Rather, it piles on a thick slat of mind-boggling, enervating indulgences, like making Bachchan dance with vigour at a Ganesh Chaturthi celebration on the road, while his ill daughter seeks his attention. Couched into the film is the story of a father slowly easing out of long-kept grief, removing the shell and emerging more emotionally attentive to the real needs of his child, instead of foisting his own wishes. It’s no surprise that this never edges close to any satisfying high in D’Souza’s hands.
