Release date: 10th March 2017

Cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt

Director: Shashank Khaitan

Run time: 2hrs 14mins

Rating: 3.5/5

Badri (Varun) is a young fella from Jhansi, a lovable simpleton who wears his heart on his sleeve. He falls hard for Vaidehi (Alia), a spunky girl from Kota whom he meets at a wedding and to whom he promptly proposes marriage. But she’s got big career ambitions, and laughs in the face of his tenth-pass qualifications. She has no interest in marriage.Badri pursues her relentlessly, and because Vaidehi is amused – although still not interested – we’re meant to regard this stalking as cute.

Complications ensue, including a second-act detour to Singapore, where Vaidehi is studying to become an air hostess. (This is the best career Mr. Khaitan could dream up for his heroine?) Badrinath turns up in Singapore, too, and it’s on this non-Indian ground that the movie hammers home its point: A real man is one who respects women, or in his case, learns to. (And, yes, it’s sad that the movie’s simple moral has currency in present-day America as well as in India.)

If “Badrinath” ends up being less about female empowerment than about schooling gents on a cardinal rule, its pop comes from Ms. Bhatt. Hindi cinema conventions and Mr. Khaitan’s script may constrict Vaidehi’s options, but Ms. Bhatt cannot be contained. Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, she effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman.