Badboli Bhavna review: A short film packaged well with humour and some food for thought

3/5

Story:

Life can be difficult if your partner is a social media influencer and the story of Badboli Bhavna revolves around that. The film, produced by India Lifestyle Network and directed by Pranjal Dua, revolves around the life of Bhavna, a budding social media influencer (Apoorva) and her introvert husband, Sankalp (Ankush) who are in a constant struggle of striking the perfect balance between their personal and digital lives and keeping them separate.

Review:

The film opens with a shot of Sankalp (Ankush) secretly deleting a video posted by his social media influencer wife, Bhavna. She later finds it out and has a fight with him, arguing about how embarrassing it is upload the same reel again and gathering all the views and likes she's got until then. She is seen cribbing about how badly she wants the 1 million followers on her account, Badboli Bhavna.

Bhavna is often seen dragging her husband into creating some cute lovey-dovey couple videos, which he does not clearly enjoy. She then cribs to him about not giving a perfect take and gets upset about how another influencer's video got about 40k followers within minutes of uploading it.

The character of Bhavna is someone you'd love to hate. She is very fascinating. Her obssession to get one million followers on her social media account can be sometimes annoying but yet very innocent. The way she sits through the conversations with irritating friends and relatives and later takes it out on them by creating reels on social media is fun to watch. She's very bold and does not care about what people think. She's more worried about her followers on social media. Apoorva has nailed it as Badboli Bhavna.

Ankush Bahuguna, as her husband Sankalp, has done fairly good job and it does not seem like this is his acting debut. Even though the film is just about 28 minutes long, the character graphs are well developed. Sankalp is seen adjusting to her lifestyle even though he gets a little impatient now and then. He is seen becoming more accepting and understanding of his wife's profession. And Apoorva also realises that she needs to find space for her husband in her busy and demanding social media life.

The story is crisp and well-written by Garima Pura Patiyaalvi and Pranjali Dubey. The way how the entire story unfolds during the dinner table conversation while the couple is celebrating their wedding anniversary is interesting. The film gets you thinking. It addresses the issues faced by a social media influencer very well, packed with humour from everyday life. It's not just about creating engaging content frequently but also listening to taunts about how it is not a 'real job' by loved and near ones.

The film makes for an interesting watch in a snackable format.

Verdict:

The short film is quirky, fun and gives you some food for thought.

(The film is available to stream on Amazon miniTV)