Doctor G Review: Anubhuti Kashyap Delivers A Promising Directorial Debut

'Doctor G' deserves a mention especially with the way it deals with adult friendships between men and women. This is done quite maturely between Rakul Preet Singh and Ayushmann's character

New Delhi: 'Doctor G' is a well-rounded debut by director Anubhuti Kashyap. The film stars Ayushmann Khurrana, Rakul Preet Singh, Shefali Shah and Sheeba Chaddha. A medical campus-comedy film, 'Doctor G' delivers a perfect dose of entertainment with decent performances by its actors, a pacy screenplay, good design and a wall-balanced show-tell combination without the burden of preachiness.

Perhaps, this is a kind of social-realist brand that no one can beat Ayushmann at. However with 'Doctor G', the preachiness in a well-developed script with a social message well-balanced with comedy and drama is slightly toned down.

'Doctor G' too, like Ayushmann's other films, has that social message template, it has the right elements of comedy and drama to serve the purpose and yet has a freshness to it. Perhaps, the setting in a gynecology ( streerog) department in a government college is to answer for the freshness or the unlearning of many accepted notions about women and men.

The film begins with Ayushmann's character establishing another kind of masculine brand that is not Kabir Singh but equally toxic and suffocating in nature. Ayushmann plays the regular MBBS graduate guy who possesses all the vices of such thinking. His character has to undergo a transformation/change-of-heart until all is well at the end of the film.

Ayushmann wants a seat in the orthopedics department in his PG but has gynecology because he thinks the latter branch of medicine is 'not suited for males'. Other characters help him in the transformation of heart until he is initiated to become the 'proper liberal' man he espouses himself to be in the beginning of the film.

The syntax is the same as is the formula of applying it; sprinkling the familiar with unfamiliar elements like making sure the lead hero-heroine remains friends whatsoever, a gradual unlearning of societal stereotypes about women and men etc. is what forms the crux of 'Doctor G'.

The performances of all actors especially Sheeba Chaddha and Rakul Preet Singh are to be noted as is Shefali Shah's understated sense of authority in the film as this silent-guide/mentor figure. Ayushmann is in his usual avatar, as this messiah of social-realist cinema. As a leading star dealing with the nitty-gritties of inherent biases indoctrinated by misogyny in our society, Ayushmann deserves a special mention for bringing these out and yet managing to have a loyal fanbase who comes to see his films in theatres.

Aysuhmann Khurrana by accident or by purpose is for that matter the lesser-to-found 'responsible artist figure in art as a medium today'.

It would be necessary to mention that dealing with such subjects as the male-female friendship, why gynecology should only be a female only branch of study, why men cannot accept rejection, how men should not be lauded for being sensitive to women which should be the obvious-ideal-equal state for both sexes, these have been dealt sensitively and empathetically by Anubhuti Kashyap. Hard to not reinstate the fact, that this kind of sensitivity coming from a female director is also difficult to be found in many directors of the opposite sex.

'Doctor G' at its heart is about the female gaze. About learning to understand what it is, how and what would a woman feel like if positions were reversed. The first half of the film is engaging with a well-designated path. The second half begins with the highlight comic scene of the film ( galat jagah ghus jate hai...) and resolves all conflicts that Act 1 creats in the first half. 

The two songs of the film, one during the opening sequence and one in the interval are well-fitted into the text. The typical comedic background score suits the genre of the film.

'Doctor G' deserves a mention especially with the way it deals with adult friendships between men and women. This is done quite maturely between Rakul Preet Singh and Ayushmann's character; both of whom do these scenes really perceptively.

Besides this, 'Doctor G' has a lot going on; its screenplay is riddled with teenage pregnancy, cheating husbands, a single mother looking for a relationship on Tinder, a man trying to make his way in a woman's world etc. Yet, the film doesn't seem to lose its racy pace or smoothness. The filmmaker organically brings all of these elements to a close without letting it get one-way or monotonous. Even though the happy ending and how things turn out all seem predictable, 'Doctor G' doesn't bore you.

The film doesn't experiment with form a lot given the content is so layered with the filmmaker trying to prove so many points in the fixed 2 hour template on screen.

In all, 'Doctor G' is a well-intentioned entertainer with moments to watch out for. A light-hearted weekend watch to buzz off the sad, busy, hectic shades of life.