‘Veetla Vishesham’ movie review: RJ Balaji’s ‘Badhaai Ho’ remake is a hilarious drama

The film manages to tick all the right boxes and does justice to the source material

Bhuvanesh Chandar

(Originally published in ‘The Hindu’ on June 17, 2022)

When it was announced that actor-filmmaker RJ Balaji would remake Amit Ravindernath Sharma’s 2018 Hindi comedy-drama Badhaai Ho, the intrigue was about the filmmaking approach that he would take. This was because the original was both in Balaji’s zone — for its humour and socially relevant theme — and away — for its subtle form. Fortunately, Veetla Vishesham has everything we like about Balaji, making it both grounded and humourous. Ironically, it is serious in nature as well, especially when compared to LKG and Mookuthi Amman, the other recent films that had him in the lead.

The film follows the life of Ilango (Balaji), whose life becomes chaotic when his middle-aged parents (played by Urvashi and Sathyaraj) announce that they are about to become parents yet again. Facing humiliation and ridicule from society, the family of five, which also includes Elango’s brother and grandmother (KPAC Lalitha), are forced to carefully manoeuvre their personal and social lives.

During the promotions for the film, Balaji, who has directed the film along with NJ Saravanan, kept suggesting that he looked at this as an opportunity to…

Read the full review here: ‘Veetla Vishesham’ movie review