The Great Indian Family is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language comedy drama film written and directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya and produced by Aditya Chopra under the banner of Yash Raj Films. It stars Vicky Kaushal as a religious, Hindu Pandit who is revealed to be Muslim by birth. Manushi Chhillar, Manoj Pahwa, and Kumud Mishra appear in supporting roles. Principal photography began on 20 November 2020 and ended on 25 February 2021. It was released theatrically on 22 September 2023. The film received negative reviews and was a box-office bomb, earning only ₹5.65 crores domestically.

Plot

The film begins with the backstory of Ved Vyas Tripathi from his school days. He has a crush on a girl in his school, called Aishwarya. She is the daughter of a famous businessman, Maalpani, who invites Ved to her birthday party. Unbeknownst to him, her father has a different plan. He has invited Ved's father, who's a Hindu priest, to sing a bhajan at Aishwarya's birthday puja. Ved surprises everyone at the party by suddenly singing a bhajan. From that day on, Ved becomes a famous religious singer as "Bhajan Kumar". He is a bachelor, and because of his religious personality, all the girls look at him as a priest, and ask for his blessings. He follows a girl called Jasmeet into the area of the local Muslim community and finds out that Jasmeet is a singer. When he unknowingly scares off their musician Abdul, Jasmeet forces them to perform at singing event, where Ved takes the stage. Ved goes on a coffee date with Jasmeet. There is a big wedding (Aishwarya's) for which Siyaram Tripathi (Ved's father) and Mishra are competing to get the priest contract. While Tripathi goes on a religious trip for 2 weeks, a person delivers a letter at his home. The letter says that Ved is not Tripathi's son, and that he is, in fact, a Muslim. Ved's eyes has lined with pitch-black kohl and also Ved has dressed up as a Muslim: green Kurta Pyjama, his Taqiyah and his kohl-lined eyes. While Ved's uncle tries to protect their Family's respect, Mishra tries to ruin Ved and his Family's image. Siyaram discloses the truth about Ved's identity and the whole Family stands together to support Ved. During the climax, Ved has his blood test done but sees the discomfort of his father and confesses that he was indeed born a Muslim but his upbringing made him a Hindu. He then gives a monologue on how everyone is the same and discrimination is bad in this era. He also exposes Mishra and his son TD (Tulsidas). In the end, Ved is proud of his "The Great Indian Family".

Cast

Production

Principal photography commenced on 20 November 2020. Production wrapped on 25 February 2021.

Music

The music of the film is composed by Pritam. All the lyrics are written by Amitabh Bhattacharya. The first single titled "Kanhaiya Twitter Pe Aaja" was released on 30 August 2023.

Release

= Theatrical

= The film was theatrically released on 22 September 2023.

= Home media

= The film premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 17 November 2023. The film premiered on Star Gold Network on 18 February 2024.

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 45% of 11 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.2/10. Dhaval Roy of The Times of India gave the film 2.5/5 stars stating, "The Great Indian Family has a genuine message but fall short in execution." In a review from The Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta gave the film 1.5/5 stars and critiqued, "If you want to be brave, the writing needs to match: here, even such wonderful actors like Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Sadi Siddiqui stand no chance. Neither does the always watchable Vicky Kaushal."

See also

The Infidel

References

External links

The Great Indian Family at IMDb The Great Indian Family at Bollywood Hungama