Cast: Prachi Bansal (Bani Awasthi), Piyush Sharma (Neel Awasthi), Luv Vispute (Chanchal), Poulomi Das (Shanty), Avinash Mishra (Vidyut),
Producer: Shyamashis Bhattacharya & Neelima Bajpai
Rating: 3.5 stars
“Insecurity kills all that is beautiful.” Readers, have you ever heard this statement? Well, quite often than not, we see this same feeling of insecurity absolutely ruin one’s own sense of confidence and charm and it can really get scary. Insecurity is one emotion that has the ability to make one human being hate another without any reason. It’s quite easy to point fingers and counsel one regarding overcoming one’s own insecurities. But the bigger question that needs to be answered is what exactly leads to it? Well, 9/10 times, it is societal trolling and stereotypical beauty standards that make one feel ‘less’ than the other. So how can one actually conquer that and embrace oneself with perfection? That’s exactly what ITap Entertainment’s latest offering, A Bra Ka D Bra is all about.
Bani Awasthi (Prachi Bansal) is a small-town girl from the city of Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. She’s an adroit and dexterous basketball player who has helped her school earn many accolades. She’s all set to begin her new journey in college in the big city of Mumbai and thereby moves in with her brother Neel Awasthi (Piyush Sharma) and father. She’s a joyful and blithe individual who always likes to see the brighter side of things but it’s just one ‘flaw’ of hers’s which she simply cannot get over with. Wondering what the flaw is according to her? Small breasts. From the age of 13 to 18, Bani tries everything between praying to God to using ‘breast enlargement’ products to enhance the size of her breasts. But alas, nothing really works. Troll comments like ‘carrom board’ and ‘flat-chested’ make the situation only worse for Bani and her self-confidence takes a huge beating.
As her college journey begins, she comes in contact with Vidyut (Avinash Mishra) who’s the undisputed ‘dude’ and ‘stud’ of college. Bani instantly develops a huge crush on Vidyut and it comes off as just one of those ‘Dream crush’ moments that look unlikely to be real. Her college life also seems incomplete without two of her friends, Chanchal (Luv Vispute) & Poulomi Das (Shanty). Although they start off as great friends in the very beginning, it takes a different turn with Bani’s changing behaviour and ‘pseudo cool’ attitude. From becoming the basketball team captain to finding a new crush, everything was going hunky-dory for Bani excerpt one thing, the inability to find a solution to her small breasts.
Henceforth, in an attempt to create an illusion about her breast size, Bani starts using fake padded cups. Although it comes off as a temporary respite, it doesn’t help in the long run. The result is an emotion of sheer exasperation and depression that results in everything going haywire in her life. From losing interest in basketball to getting entangled in brawls with her closest college mates Chanchal & Shanty, she bears the brunt of it all.
An indignant and displeased Bani eventually decides to take the route of breast implant surgery, something she’s extremely nervous about but still decides to go ahead with because the sense of fragility and gloom of having small breasts is a lot more than any nervousness or uneasiness. Eventually, does she find a solution to this humongous problem with breast implantation surgery or is there any other way she chooses to regain her confidence? No more spoilers here!
If one looks at A Bra Ka D Bra from a larger perspective, it is in some way or the other a story of every individual and that’s exactly what it tries to communicate. While some are not happy with the size of their breasts, some aren’t really content with their skin colour or height. While some weep in sorrow secretly due to their fat body being body-shamed time and again, some sob due to their inefficiency in clear and effective communication. It is exactly this ability to make the audience resonate with a story of a simple insecure girl that does more than half of the job for A Bra Ka D Bra. The screenplay flows smooth and it makes you want to quench for more from the very first frame itself. Prachi Bansal impresses as Bani Awasthi and successfully caters to the emotion required to play the character of a happy-go-lucky carefree girl who has her own inhibitions. Avinash Mishra comes off as the uber cool attractive and tempting college dude and he certainly does justice to his character. Poulomi Das and Luv Vispute too impress and do their best within the limited screen time that they had. The direction is impressive and it successfully narrates the daily hardships & affliction which average teenagers face due to stereotypical beauty standards set by society.
Watch it for two reasons, to understand why you shouldn’t bully or tease someone who is low in confidence and secondly to understand, why you yourself should be never low in confidence. A Bra Ka D Bra becomes a clear winner the very moment its audience strikes a chord between both the cardinal emotions of life. An extra 0.5 for the bold subject & exquisite execution.
3.5/5