If the title makes you wonder what kind of a last name Donor is, especially for an Indian, well, you’re in for a most pleasant surprise. Because Vicky Donor is one heck of a Delhi boy– from the Lajpat Nagar area that was my shopping-stomping grounds from many moons ago– who is as genuine a Punjabi dude as they come. Unemployed and aimless to begin with, Vicky is the face of many a youth in a metropolis without much opportunity. But opportunity comes knocking soon enough, and although Vicky doesn’t open the door right away, he opens it eventually. And what an opening it is, really. It is like opening the floodgates to life itself.
This is a very clever movie on a topic that can be difficult to talk about and even more difficult to portray on screen. But kudos to the director, the sreenwriter, and the rest of the cast who deliver fantastic performances in the roles of the ambitious doctor/businessman, the no-nonsense but long-suffering mother, the progressively-thinking and always forgiving grandmother, Vicky’s lovely love-interest, as well as her “cultured” Bengali father. All these characters come together to offer up a most novel story of love, loss, heartache, and redemption.
Lots of laughs, this one is an adventure from beginning to end that captures very well the flavor and essence of Delhi at its best and worst, and highlights the regional diversity of India as exemplified in the differences that exist in everything from food, language, clothing, customs, and a thousand other things. Very high marks for a brilliant casting and superb direction. I predict that both Vicky (Ayushmann Khurana) and Ashima (Yaami Gautam) are in for a long and successful Bollywood career.
