Goodbye Review - Amitabh Bachchan & Rashmika Mandanna's Funeral Drama Lets You Sleep Peacefully

Vikas Bahl, who supposedly said Goodbye to filmmaking (you too must have read the reasons in the news) is back with the great Amitabh Bachchan and national crush Rashmika Mandanna. The amount of effort taken by Vikas Bahl to get an ensemble cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Neena Gupta, Rashmika Mandanna, Pavail Gulati, Sunil Grover and Elli AvrRam must have been higher than the amount of effort taken to write Goodbye and direct it. The funeral drama has been a trend-setter in Indian cinema, whether in Bollywood, Mollywood, or even Sandalwood, with some excellent films produced in this genre. Vikas Bahl's attempt on this subject is not just late but quite lame too.Goodbye tells a story of a torn family who gathers together again for the funeral of the lady of the house, Gayathri (Neena Gupta). The man of the house (Amitabh Bachchan) has literally broken all emotional strings with the daughter, Tara (Rashmika Mandanna), and three sons. During the funeral ceremony, they fight and argue with others and recall many past events that have now become their very dear memories. Gayathri was the one who kept their lives going smoothly, and now after her farewell, they had to deal with their problems by themselves. What new memories and bonds they create are what form the crux of the second half of the story.Goodbye's writing is based only on two small words: "Mother" and "Family." Six letters in each word that define the entire world for you, but Bahl's mind just couldn't crack the big meaning behind these two small words. The screenplay is full of flaws, right from the first scene to the last one. Bahl has made excessive use of comedy, which crosses a sensitive boundary line between emotions and human nature. The overuse of satirical taunts actually kills the basic fun of it. For instance, we have all seen how irresponsibly people behave at someone's funeral. Like the mobiles and chatting and all, but here you see them going one level up as the chatterbox and attention-seeking ladies create a WhatsApp group in the name of the late Gayathri and take a 'smiling selfie' to keep it as a DP.On the other hand, you see the father constantly fighting with his daughter and sons on every small thing, right from what they eat, what they wear, what they do in bed and bloody hell, what not. I mean, who gets to that extent while crafting a sensitive subject like a funeral? The first half bores you to death (interestingly, with a death), and then suddenly Sunil Grover enters the show and makes it funny (just to wake you up from sleep). And after a while, even he starts irritating you with some philosophical bullshit. What does it explore? Nothing. Why the same superstition versus logic debate again? Why does the battle between traditions and modernity have to start in a family drama when we have already broken many such concepts in Indian cinema? Didn't we have films like Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi (Bollywood), Dhudgus (Marathi) and Ee. Ma. Yau (Mollywood) to see unique and rich stories being used for a sensitive topic like funeral and the consequences that family members have to face? Why go back to the first step again just to learn the same old lessons that we have already passed?Talking about acting, Amitabh Bachchan still has some sides to explore and he tries everything to learn something new, even at this age and after so many years. He does fine, and that fine of his is much bigger than others' bests. Dear Rashmika Mandanna, will you please work on your South accent while working on an outright Hindi movie? How irritating does that typical South Indian accent sound with Hindi dialogues? It's like spicy chicken mixed with milk. We love chicken and milk, both separately. But together.. Yukk. That was my instant reaction to her delivery of her dialogue. Never mind, she still has a long way to go and hopefully she will only get stronger from hereon. Neena Gupta is such a wonderful actor, but why does she have to get so little screen time? Bahl had better write a new script rather than answer this question. Elli AvrRam has a few English expectedly, while Pavail Gulati has got cuter looks than her, unexpectedly. Abhishek Khan, Sahil Mehta, Shivin Narang, Ashish Vidyarthi and Arun Bali come in between and take you sightseeing. Sunil Grover walks in, entertains you, and walks away even before you understand his character.Goodbye could've had a better music album, but my first question is why does it have so many useless songs? In the first 10 minutes, you hear two songs and hardly pay any attention to them. You'd better be happy to find more comfortable seats in the dark room. Again, if you are settled, you'll ask for a pillow to have a good nap, and suddenly, BOOM! Some background score with a one-liner song will destroy your good sleep. After that, there are a couple more songs that appear in the middle of the show just to stretch your boredom to the next level. What's wrong with the dialogues? Nothing. Because there's nothing in them. Its modernism is quite fascinating sometimes, though. Big B's monologue seemed intentional, but come on man, he deserved it for his high standards.Vikas Bahl started his Party with Chillar's' movie, and then made a Queen-size film, followed by a Shaandaar disaster. His first biographical had a Super run for 30 days at the box office, but now it's time to say Goodbye to that Good director. Shaandaar has got a Jordaar competition now. Instead of Vikas (improvement), Bahl has 'Collapsed'. Believe me, these last four lines by me had much more quality content than what this film has for 130 minutes. Such a good cast had to go without any blast. Not done yaar. A wannabe family comedy turned into a gobbling satire is a tiresome experience for your health. Better attend some funeral (if any), see your closed one for the last time and say Goodbye to the gone soul, rather than attending the last show of Goodbye.