‘Doctor G’ movie review

Film lsquoDoctor GrsquoDirector Anubhuti KashyapCast Ayushmann Khurrana Rakul PreetRating 35This is at its core a film about gendersexual relations meaning men and women mdash between the young and the old indeed among the old and among the youngOnce you get that it becomes simple to navigate this warm space Not that this is some turgid treatise on gender studies which strangely enough was a successor to lsquowomenrsquos studiesrsquo in academicsLikewise a character in the hospitalmedschool here makes a pertinent point about how the cancer department is referred to as lsquokark rogrsquo cancer disease while the gynaecology section is termed lsquostree rogrsquo As if stree the woman is the diseaseActor Ayushmann Khurrana plays a student in the gynaecology department in medschool Now until this movie I hadnrsquot quite ever thought of what it might be like for a man to be alsquogynaecrsquoUnless you consider a conversation I once had with writer Javed Akhtar about how his brother Salman then a medical student had a choice to either specialise in psychiatry or gynaecologyAlso Read When Tanuja choreographed her song Raat Akeli HainYoung Javed insisted Salman take up psychiatry for sure mdash because he would become famous some day and itrsquod be embarrassing for him that his brother was a gynaec Even there the thought on my mind was how Javed was so certain that hersquod be famousThe MBBS malelead here is similarly split between becoming a gynaecologist or an orthopaedic Actually hersquos determined to specialise in the latter Only that he hasnrsquot scored enough to gain admission into the course of his choice Hence he lands up in a populous class in a possibly unpopular position of being the only man in itNow we know how desis pursuing either engineering or medicine upon parental pressure is a recurring lament in popculture Except that there are too many filmsseries shining a light on the mechanics inside engineering campuses Surprisingly not as many for medical This is a relatively rare film in that regard The only guy in a class of all girls is getting hazedragged nonstop as yoursquod imagineTo be sure this isnrsquot a Munnabhai MBBS 2003 sort of LOL comedy Wherein scenes are layered over layers to elicit endless laughs That great Chaplinesque visceral humour I feel is hardest to pull off without descending to annoying slapstick anyway Neither is Doctor G to a maternity ward what Khurranarsquos strikingly riskybrave debut Vicky Donor 2012 was to the fertility clinicWhich is also to say yes this picture kinda falls into a confused space a lot of the times mdash and you may have to patiently engage with the characters in order to absorb what it is that theyrsquore really going through and how that makes sense for the point the picture is trying to make eventuallyQuite a few elemental humanist points actually mdash to do with a society so sexually separatedsegregated that itrsquos essential to express them through mediaclassroomhomeeverywhere all the timeKhurranarsquos character for one has fallen for a classmate Rakul Preet Singh seemingly not so much in form Irsquom afraid who in turn is already engaged to someone else That doesnrsquot stop the guy from being the trysexual stillHe canrsquot read signals because his social conditioning has rendered his receptors incapable That these two malefemale leads are from separate religions is gently slipped in as well mdash for how should it matter and thatrsquos a fine touch tooThe absolutely riveting Sheeba Chaddha plays an old woman seeking love in the times of Tinder Above all else of course is the gynaec coming to terms with his female patients where the clinicaltouch is supreme And shouldnrsquot all physical touch be inevitably genderless anyway when it isnrsquot consensually sexualDoctor G is director Anubhuti Kashyaprsquos debut feature Which evidently comes with its own occupational hazard of saying as much as you can at one go But then again the heartening fact is that she has a voice by which I mean she actually has something to say mdash and can execute it entertainingly enoughMy only concern stepping out of the theatre was why too many people werenrsquot talking about it as much before I stepped in And this probably has something to do with a prevailing notion that the sort of subjects staractor Khurrana has championed so far mdash amusingly challenging societal taboos films like Shubh Mangal Saavdhan Badhaai Ho Article 15 etc including Doctor G mdash have turned into a thing of home entertainmentAs against the theatrical hoopla that they were mdash heartwarmingly minting it at the boxoffice before pandemic I hope thatrsquos not permanently the case and merely a minor phaseFor societal walls being questioned if not crashing down even reversing of the male gaze in the collective experience of disparate crowds at the cinemas is what popular pictures must aim for always no Yes to thisAlso Read EXCLUSIVE Richa Chadda amp Ali Fazalrsquos wedding receptionrsquos multicuisine menu