Vicky Donor

This film has a sense of humour that cuts across class and cerebral levels

Caricature may be the name of the game, but it’s great fun here. Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar Punjabi boy meets Chittaranjan Park Bengali girl and the resultant ‘Sandesh’ (the sweet, not message) is delicious. Vicky Arora is an Aryan stud whose genes date back to Alexander the Great, or so we are told by the guy who buys his ‘jizz’.

Vicky’s sperm has excellent ‘motility’ (not to be confused with mobility)—one shot and a girl is ‘preggers’—and this high-quality baby making potion enables the unemployed youth to make a lot of money at a fertility clinic. In a conversation that the clinic’s Dr Baldev Chaddha (Annu Kapoor) has with Vicky (Ayushmann Khurrana), he suggests that the young man has been wasting his stuff for years. What should he have done, asks Vicky—store it in a Sintex tank?

Vicky Donor has a sense of humour that cuts across class and cerebral levels and has you in splits. The Punjabi characters with smaller parts, like Vicky’s mom and grandmum, are superbly created and cast, and if the movie falters sometimes, it is with the Bengali side of the equation. The quietly humming ‘Rabindra Sangeet’ sketch of Ashima Roy (Yami Gautam) is not all that convincing, and the actress doesn’t quite have the Bengali lilt.

Well, upward ‘motility’ soon leads to upward mobility, and Vicky can now afford a wife and family. Aye, there’s the rub. Donor sperm is one thing, lovemaking sperm is another. Though the movie does end on the sentimental side, it is hugely entertaining and written, for the most part, with perception, creativity and intelligence. Who would have thought that you could write such a funny story about a fertility clinic?

Annu Kapoor, we know, is a pro, but Khurrana is a revelation. He is able to establish his character in the first few minutes we see him—the mark of an intuitive and skillful actor.

About The Author

Ajit Duara