Rating: 3/5

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Rakul Preet, Shefali Shah, Sheeba Chadda

Watch on: Netflix

If you think Doctor G is yet another Ayushmann Khurrana trope, you may not be entirely wrong. Like most of his movies which try to dig into a lesser-explored social subject, Doctor G is a middling drama with a scattered first half that picks its pace in the second half.

Dr.Uday Gupta (Ayushmann Khurrana) is an orthopedic PG aspirant who gets a seat in gynecology instead. For the narrow-minded, shallow, and unaware Indian male he is, he believes that gynecology is a profession only suited for women. He could have easily looked up the internet to find out that this in fact is not true. A man in a woman’s world is indeed a new background for a film. But Anubhuti Kashyap’s (Yes she is Anurah Kashyap’s sister) directorial debut Doctor G is a mix of highs and lows and that gives us a rush of emotions in some instances while leaving us confused in others. Let’s understand better, what the film gets right and what it could have done better.

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What the Doctor G does get right

The social subject the movie picks up is refreshing and worth applause. To a certain extent, the film is able to create the proper conversation on male-female dynamics. When Uday is celebrated for his first delivery, Nandini wards it off saying that “he just did his job” which hits the right chord and stresses how we often celebrate men for doing their basic job. Through Uday, the film is also able to give us a glimpse of the entitled Indian men who are so unaware of their privilege and make no attempt in understanding women. There is a scene where Uday calls up his ex-girlfriend and blames her for “sucking up his medical rank”.

The chaos of labor is something that the movie captured well. The humor turns out just fine. While the male character remains half-baked and unsure, all the women written in the film have depth and are well-defined in their own ways. May it be Shefali Shah’s Nandini or Uday’s mother, all the ladies are well written. These women lend a lot of strength to the script. Though the first half may seem a little scattered, the film picks up the pieces in the second half and sets the film free. It’s an emotional rush and the success of the entire film can be credited mainly to this part. As a film that addresses so many social issues all at once, Doctor G does not even for a second feel preachy and does not go overboard at any point.

Where Doctor G could have been better

Uday is a little unclear character. The part where he is clueless about his entitlement as a male may have been put across well but there is no depth to how his character is written later on. There is no proper “realization” phase for Uday that happens in Doctor G. He delivers a baby in the corridor, but the excitement or the tension is not captured well. In the end, as Nandini says, “It was his fault that the woman had to deliver on the corridor”!

We see Uday getting along with his gynecologist role but it still lacked a sense of commitment. “You do not get women”, a hundred women have told him already. And by the film’s end, I still do not truly believe that he understood women. A lot of the film could have gotten better if Uday’s character was more enhanced and fleshed out. While the second half of the film changed the entire tonality of Doctor G, the climax seemed a little out of place.

Performances worth mentioning!

Ayushmann is as good as he has ever gotten. It might be time for him to start experimenting with his characters.  Shefali Shah is on a career-high. She lives and breathes Nandini in Doctor G. Rakul Preet is an excellent actor and it is high time she gets to do performances she is worthy of. Rakul as Fatima has very little to offer but in that brief role, she covers her scope well. There are many supporting characters in the first half who are hardly seen in the second half.

In Conclusion

Doctor G is a satisfying attempt that, to a certain extent, successfully tackles the subject it has taken. The middling first half is compensated with a dynamic second half. Though it has its own share of inconsistencies, Doctor G is a film that one might definitely enjoy.

Image Courtesy: Youtube