Goodbye

Tragi-comedies are a very tricky genre to execute well on screen. While there have been numerous cases of success in Hollywood like "Amélie (2011)", "The Darjeeling Limited (2007)" and "Death At A Funeral (2010)", the genre is still in its nascent stage in Bollywood and India in general with only a few hits to its name, that too primarily after their OTT releases-like "Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi (2019)" and "Pagglait (2021)". So it was surprising that director Vikas Bahl, the visionary behind "Queen (2014)" and "Super 30 (2019)" chose the mainstream theatre release format for this genre-blender and it seems like this bravery was ill-conceived.

Amitabh Bachchan stars as "Harish Bhalla", the patriarch of the Bhalla household, who is just coming to terms with the sudden death of his loving wife "Gayatri", played by the effervescent Neena Gupta. Tasked with informing their busy and distant children of the tragic news, how he navigates the ensuing funeral and the idiosyncrasies of the family as they come together after a long time form the rest of the narrative. Rashmika Mandanna plays "Tara", Harish's only daughter and designated black sheep, after her consistent scorn towards his religious conservatism, made worse by her choice to go against his wishes and date a Muslim.

Despite its intriguing premise and a group of fine actors, a disjointed screenplay that moves along like a sequence of unrelated scenes without any real cohesion makes "Goodbye" a tedious watch. The director that gave us such natural comedy in "Queen" struggles to mount situations that deliver genuine humour, with most of the gags coming across as forced and contrived. Rashmika struggles with her Hindi accent as expected, this being her first Hindi original movie, but makes the best of an underwritten role, especially in the emotional sequences.

We are noboby to judge an Amitabh Bachchan performance and the veteran tries his best to salvage a meandering script. A scene where he gives a final goodbye to his beloved wife is a sure tearjerker but such sequences are few and far between in an otherwise, largely lackluster project which oscillates between drama and comedy inorganically, failing to deliver in both genres with equal aplomb. "Goodbye" is one film where I couldn't wait for the film to end and say "Goodbye" to an abysmal theatre experience. Not recommended!

A lovely movie that shows the struggles of a father and all his kids as they grapple with the sudden, shocking death of their beloved wife and mother. People are never ready to face the agony of losing a loved one, especially the heart of the family, the matriarch. This is a journey of evolving raw grief to content acceptance, rigid mechanical ritualism to easygoing camaraderie. Amitabh gives a master class on the agony of a man who loses the love of his life, trying very hard to come to terms with the full impact. It's heartening to see that even in dark grief, strained family bonds can be repaired and people can come together. A really heartwarming family drama.

What a funny and emotional film.

After a very long time, Bollywood has produced such a stunning film.

Death is the final but most important reality of life, and this film recounts the entire tale about it.

The movie masterfully depicts the feelings of the entire family when the most significant member of the family departs in the interim.

Different family members' emotional ups and downs are expertly depicted.

All of the actors gave their all in their performances, but Amitabh Sir & Meena Madam's chemistry easily outshines that of any brand-new coupling.

Rashmika Mandana does excellent acting.

After a long wait, Bollywood has finally produced a quality family film.

I adored it so.

Please watch it with your family.

The plot was good and emotional. But if you have already watched the Bangali movie "bela seshe or bela suru" then it is not going to be a new type of movie to you. Otherwise everything is perfect and movies like this should be made to attach our family bonding. Sometimes we may not be able to understand someones influence in our life untill he/she is gone. Getting realising something late is not a bad thing but onec the person was gone you can not undo what you have done to him/her. It might be good or bad. Those things might be small one but those memories will live inside you forver in your life. In short I can say, always give importance the people who are around you.

Happy watching.

Cannot say that the movie is flawless, but certainly watchable. As always, Amitabh and Neena Gupta are amazing and other actors have done their part well. A typical family drama with emotional angle+ few comedy scenes especially with unexpected performance of Sunil Grover. Few scenes will bring tears to your eyes if you usually get emotional during movies (I do!). The movie will definitely remind you of Irrfan's dialogue from Life of Pi : "I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye." And I don't understand such a low rating. Definitely you can give it a try.