“The smile of a daughter is the secret purpose of every father,” I read this quote somewhere a long time ago. When Amazon Prime released Abhishek Bachchan, Nassar and Inayat Verma starrer Be Happy, I decided to try it.
As a father of a sweet little girl who will turn one in a bit, I wanted to watch this movie to see if I could relate. My daughter is too young to understand ambitions, bonds, and dreams.
Be Happy movie plot
Shiv Rastogi (Abhishek Bachchan), a banker, lives with his daughter Dhara (Inayat Verma) and father-in-law Nadar (Nassar) in Tamil Nadu’s picturesque hill town Ooty. Shiv’s father-in-law is also his boss at work.
Dhara dreams about becoming a dancing superstar one day, much to his father’s disapproval who wants her to study. After winning an inter-school dance competition, Dhara is offered by Maggie (Nora Fatehi) to join her dance academy to hone her skills to be able to participate in a dance reality TV show.
But Shiv rejects her offer, leaving his daughter sad. Dhara’s mother and Shiv’s wife Rohini (Harleen Sethi of Broken But Beautiful fame), died in a road accident. Shiv is persuaded by his father-in-law to move to Mumbai for Dhara’s better future.
Shifting to a new place is never easy, especially after you have lived in a comfort zone. Dhara and Shiv struggle to adapt to Mumbai’s lifestyle. While Dhara finds it hard to make new friends in her school, Shiv’s work life is also a bumpy ride.
One day, Dhara visits Maggie’s dance academy and soon impresses everyone. She is befriended by one batchmate Prem, who is too Gen Alpha (I suppose). Watching him made me think, are today’s kids that confident and unfiltered?
Dhara participates in the dance TV reality show and is selected. With her performances, she becomes a national star, and the success is reflected in her life too. As you say, nothing goes in your life as planned. A tragedy hits Dhara and the small happy family’s life takes a turbulent turn.
What happened to Dhara? Did she win the reality show? I am not gonna reveal everything here.
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Be Happy review
Honestly, Be Happy is a feel good film about a father’s bond with his daughter. After I Want to Talk, wherein he played cancer-survivor dad, Abhishek Bachchan dons the father’s avatar for the second time in a year.
I would like to steal a moment from your happy reading to praise Inayat for her performance. She is a lively girl with a lot of dreams in the film, and fully lives up to the character. I just hope Nora Fatehi should have been given a stronger screen presence than just being a dance teacher.