Film Review | Vicky Donor

Donor is a safe deposit

The hero of Vicky Donor might be debutant Ayushmann Khurrana, but the real star is the writing. The script and dialogues by Juhi Chaturvedi keep the sensitive subject of sperm donation within relatable and respectable confines, lacing the entire issue with humour. Chaturvedi and director Shoojit Sircar have captured the nuances of Punjabi and Bengali Delhi life faultlessly. The flip side is that for those, like myself, not well-acquainted with Delhi life and Punjabi idioms, a great deal is lost without translation.

Annu Kapoor is impressive as Dr Chaddha, the proprietor of an infertility clinic who needs that one high-success-rate sperm to provide his patients with a satisfactory result. He identifies Vicky as the ideal donor, and manages to persuade him that sperm donation can become lucrative employment for the unemployed, only son of a widowed mother. When his powers of persuasion appear to be failing, Chaddha resorts to the age-old trick—instigating Vicky’s Punjabi ego and challenging his machismo.

Vicky lives in Lajpat Nagar with his mother (Dolly Ahluwalia, perfectly cast), who runs a beauty parlour, and his feisty paternal grandmother (Kamlesh Gill), who covets a 42-inch flat-screen TV and dreams of wearing a Ritu Kumar outfit to Vicky’s wedding. The love-hate relationship between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law is shown superbly when the two older women share a few pegs at night.

References to “C-block mentality”, local boys looking at a Pomeranian and arguing whether it is a “Labradog” or “Doberman”, the Malayali nurse in the doctor’s clinic and Chaddha’s habit of always wiggling his first two fingers as if they were swimming when he uses the word “sperm”, are all examples of the fun that underscores the story.

Many dates end in slaps when Vicky tells the girls that he is a sperm donor, before he finally makes headway with a banker (the money kind). When Ashima Roy (Yami Gautam) asks him what he does, Vicky vaguely replies, “Export, trading, handi-crafts” (pun intended).

While the love story is often awkward and clumsy, one of the funniest scenes is when Ashima’s Bengali family and Vicky’s Punjabi family debate the idiosyncrasies of the other community.

Khurrana is good as the bratty, spoilt, only child, but in the more complex relationship scenes, both he and Gautam demonstrate their inexperience. A less intrusive musical score, some subtitles and a tauter second half, without such a cheesy ending, would have elevated the film.

As it is, Vicky Donor is a safe investment.