"Thank You For Coming" Review: How Good Is Bhumi-Shehnaaz Gill Sex Comedy? (image: instagram/bhumipednekar)
It was after five years of Veere Di Wedding, Ektaa Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor joined hands for Thank You For Coming. The sex comedy is helmed by Karan Boolani, and written by Radhika Anand and Prashasti Singh. The movie features Bhumi Pednekar in lead role, while Shehnaaz Gill, Dolly Singh, Shibani Bedi, Kusha Kapila, Pradhuman Singh, and Sushant Digvikar in significant roles.
The story revolves around Kanika (Bhumi Pednekar), who is in her 30s and has never had an orgasm. Though she is raised by a single mother (Natasha Rastogi), she is looking for the one, “Veer Pratap” of her life. She experiences her first-ever orgasm on her engagement day, but due to alcohol intoxicated black out she could not recollect who gave it to her.
The movie receives applause for giving prominence to sexual pleasure and satisfaction as the theme, but mostly it was reduced to curiosity about orgasm alone. The female friendships are celebrated, they shares their life, receives advices, and hold on to each other is a delightful to watch. The women in the movie is not falling in to the usual pattern of good girls; they are enjoying their life, expressing desires, and living the life by partying hard.
The movie scores high in depicting the female solidarity in due weightage. However, as the movie progresses the conversations falls to silliness, at times triviality. This extends to the characterisation as well; characters are flat, one-dimensional, and predictable as does some scenes. Though women are represented with flaws, the mean girl trope also followed the set pattern.
Ms Pednekar excels in portraying Kanika with all chaos, carried it mix of vulnerability and strength. Her dynamic with female besties is terrific. Also, she shares wonderful chemistry with Shehnaaz Gill. Another severe flaw in the movie is treating alcohol induced black out lightly; using it as a narrative device for a feminist sex comedy was all the more disempowering. Overall, there are good laughs, funny punchlines did serve the purpose. Even though not crafted well, movie makes an interesting attempt at “smashing patriarchy.”
