Bala

Bala - Kudos to Ayushman Khurana for doing it again. He seems to slide into roles that other mainstream actors would cringe at, with such fluency that mirrors reality, and Bala is yet another proof of his diverse talent. Bala (Ayushman), the young stud boy in school whose mane was his pride suffers from premature baldness, and this becomes the central issue of his life. He has to address the problem at any cost, but his inability to control the gradual decay throws his life into a disarray first, and then he descends into embarrassment. Unable to come to terms with the situation, he tries scores of remedies until he finds a solution that will give him enough solace to find the love of his life.

Without further going into the story it's pertinent to mention that Bala is a fantastic narrative of self pity and the process of coming to terms with the reality. The social stigmas associated with premature balding and being dark toned are still a matter of reality and the embarrassment or self pity is a result of shying away from accepting oneself for what he or she is. Director Amar Kaushik allows the problem and the eventual catharsis to slowly but steadily unfold, mostly using humour as a medium that keeps the proceedings light hearted. The purge is a poignant essay by Ayushman and Bhoomi Pednekar, both of whom give firecracker performances, whilst being ably supported by the extraordinary talent pool of Abhishek Banerjee, Javed Jaffrey, Saurabh Shukla and Seema Pahwa. Bala fills you with warmth and wisdom, and may at times seem to drag a little, but you won't mind it as it's not a caricatured treatment of premature balding or a comic take on it, but an in-depth psychoanalysis of a sufferer.