It's a movie that focuses one of the major and shameful challenges that India is facing today - open defecation. While it is definitely cringe-worthy but it also compromises with women's security. While the story was great - better direction would have made the movie more impactful. Also, unnecessary marketing of government and certain brands is a total spoiler.
Story (8/10): It is based on several true stories in India where a woman leaves the in-laws place after knowing that they don't have a toilet at home. In the backdrop of a small town in UP, Keshav is a 30 something unmarried who falls in love with Jaya and eventually marries her. However, after realizing that there is no toilet at his place, Jaya refuses to defecate in open and insists that Keshav build a toilet within the house. However, it's not so easy as Keshav's father, Panditji, a highly religious man, considers it a sin to have a toilet on the same premises where they worship God. After trying many quick-fixes (jugaad), nothing works and Jaya decides to divorce Keshav until the toilet is built. The movie projects many issues that are the root of open defecation (which is just a symptom) - women oppression, blind beliefs, extremist religious views, patriarchal practices, administrative lethargy and more. Through Keshav's character, the story also conveys that it is not enough to just personally consider women as equal to provide them equal rights. If you don't fight any force that oppresses women, you are a part of oppression too. However, the story ends up projecting religion as the only reason (ignoring issues of casteism and lack of dignity of labor) behind the issue of open defecation, which is not true.
Acting (9/10): The movie boasts a great cast put together even in the character roles. People to watch out for are - Bhumi Padnekar and Sudhir Pandey. Akshay Kumar is good, although you miss Ajay Devgan in some of the scenes, especially the outburst one where this guy looks a little off (I can easily visualize Ajay doing it with so much ease). Bhumi Padnekar continues to impress in her second movie. Her command over the language is bloody amazing. Her monologue to the women of her village is definitely the heart of the movie. Sudhir Pandey, playing a negative role of an ultra-religious person, was amazing with his spot on expressions and dialog delivery. He made his presence felt very strongly. Divyendu Sharma is great as a second lead with some amazing punches throughout the movie. Anupam Kher is great, except in the scenes that describe his character. Other big names like Ayesha Raza, Atul Shrivastava, Shubha Khote and Rajesh Sharma ensured that movie never fell flat in the acting department.
Direction (6/10): The direction could have been much better - the weakest part of the movie. The build up of Keshav and Jaya's story is not convincing, especially with the character sketches of the lead pair. Director ended up trivializing stalking and taking pictures of girls without consent - which was certainly not expected from this kind of a movie. Also, while the movie successfully highlights the problem and the issues related to it, it fails to explain the root causes and instead, just focuses on the religious aspect. What he successfully achieved is to make sure that the movie isn't a drag at any point in time. The execution of scenes of Sudhir Pandey is good, especially his conversation with Anupam Kher.
Overall (7/10): Overall, it was a good effort but could have been much better. The story was good and great performances by Bhumi Padnekar and Sudhir Pandey but poor direction left the movie dangling.
