Daadi Ki Shaadi Review: The Kind Of Film Your Parents Might Like More Than You

Daadi Ki Shaadi

In theaters now

Cast: Neetu Kapoor, Kapil Sharma, Sadia Khateeb, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, Deepak Dutta, Jitender Hooda, Aditi Mittal, R. Sarathkumar & more

Directed by: Ashish R. Mohan

Rating - *** (3/5)

The very idea that there are people out there who genuinely believe this kind of cinema still commands an audience is, in itself, a rather remarkable thought experiment. One would probably have no great difficulty being proven wrong, and if an audience does exist for it, it is almost certainly a minuscule, niche congregation of devoted believers. But even then, the sheer fact that filmmakers pause to wonder whether such an audience persists out there somewhere, is rather wondrous to contemplate.

Daadi Ki Shaadi has an enormous number of ambitions layered across its runtime. It strains to be a beguiling cocktail of 1970s family drama, 1990s masala warmth and even carries a distinctly Baghban-esque undercurrent running through its veins. All of these things could have worked beautifully and harmoniously had there been a genuine, palpable heart poured into the making of this film, a cohesive and intelligent script with jokes that actually land, and performances sturdy enough to carry the weight of all those lofty aspirations.

A Plot That Starts Simply Enough

The premise of Daadi Ki Shaadi unfolds with a certain breezy simplicity. We are introduced to the Ahuja family and the Kalra family almost simultaneously. Kapil Sharma plays Tony Kalra, the youngest son of a sprawling, boisterous joint family that has been rather desperately trying to get him married for the past three years.

They finally manage to arrange his union with Kanu from the Ahuja family, who turns out to be the very same girl Tony had been nursing a completely one-sided school romance for. Tony is predictably, instantly overjoyed and everyone agrees to proceed with a Roka ceremony.

When Facebook/Facelook Ruins Everything

It is precisely at this Roka ceremony, at the singular, ceremonial moment when Kanu is about to place the ring on Tony's finger, that absolute pandemonium erupts. A small child comes barrelling in with the announcement that the family's beloved matriarch, Daadi Vimla Ahuja, played with effortless grace by Neetu Kapoor, has announced on Facebook that she is engaged and thoroughly delighted about it.

The Kalras promptly call off the Roka on the spot. Tony is doing everything in his power to prevent this collapse. The Ahujas are collectively bewildered and scandalized, scrambling to travel to Shimla where Daadi resides, desperately trying to understand what on earth is actually happening.

The Ensemble, Sorted

This forms the foundational premise of the film, after which several twists, turns, comedy sequences and attempts at emotional resonance follow. The cast assembled here is genuinely sizeable. Jitender Hooda and Deepak Dutta play the elder sons of the family and by extension Neetu Kapoor's on-screen sons. Riddhima Kapoor Sahani makes her acting debut here as the on-screen daughter and sister to the aforementioned brothers, and she happens to be Neetu Kapoor's real-life daughter as well.

Tejaswini Kolhapure plays Deepak Dutta's on-screen wife. Aditi Mittal appears in a rather surprising casting choice as Jitender Hooda's on-screen wife. Sadia Khateeb plays Kapil Sharma's love interest. Nikhat Khan, Aamir Khan's real-life sister, turns up as Neetu Kapoor's on-screen best friend. R Sarath Kumar rounds things off with a character that radiates warmth and is genuinely heartwarming to witness.

The Hits, Misses and Manufactured Chemistry

There are scattered instances throughout Daadi Ki Shaadi where a genuine effort to inject heart and emotional sincerity does become momentarily visible. The comedy, especially given that Kapil Sharma is a lead, carries obvious and understandable expectations and there are moments where it delivers. But unfortunately, there are considerably more misses than hits in that department, and that particular imbalance is rather difficult to ignore or forgive.

The ensemble tries admirably but the chemistry between them, in most scenes, feels manufactured and rehearsed rather than lived-in and organically real. Confrontational scenes have a certain energy and conviction to them, suggesting the actors knew how to access something real when the material demanded it. But the warmer scenes, the comedy beats and the moments of tenderness frequently feel like they were staged and assembled rather than felt.

The Weakest and Strongest Links

Jitender Hooda and Deepak Dutta, both seasoned and capable actors in other contexts, are unfortunately the weakest links here. They are unable to fully persuade the audience, which is a particular shame given how pivotal their characters are to the emotional architecture of the film. Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, debuting here, does surprisingly decently.

There are obvious moments of rawness and visible inexperience but she is nowhere near bad, and in certain scenes she is genuinely competent and watchable. Sadia Khateeb suffers the cruellest fate of all because she is an undeniably accomplished actress who is reduced here to doing precious little of consequence, which is an enormous and baffling waste of her talent.

The Real Problem: A Film Out of Time

The most fundamental problem plaguing Daadi Ki Shaadi, however, is not its cast or even its scattered script. It is the film's absolute and unapologetic indifference to the year in which it is being released. In its frantic attempt to simultaneously be a Baghban-type film, a Hrishikesh Mukherjee-styled family drama, a 1970s slice of nostalgia and a 1990s emotional roller coaster, it appears to have entirely forgotten that it is making all of this for an audience living in 2026.

The disconnect is conspicuous and constant. It is not about age, demographics or generational preferences. It is simply about the sheer evolutionary gap between the sensibilities those films were shaped by and the sensibilities that audiences carry today. The film feels dated, and not in the charming, wistful manner one might desire, but in the kind of way that makes one feel slightly removed from everything happening on screen.

The Neetu Kapoor, Kapil Sharma Factor

And then there is Neetu Kapoor, who is unequivocally and undeniably the film's greatest and most irreplaceable asset. Even after all these years and with a return to more active screen appearances, she continues to possess that rare and magnetic screen presence that audiences have always adored her for. She is also simply a very fine actress and when the script is weak, when the dialogue veers into cliché and trope, Neetu Kapoor infuses her own warmth, love and presence into every scene, ensuring that the film does not entirely resemble a derailed train wreck.

Kapil Sharma, for his part, looks arguably the finest he has ever looked on screen physically and does perform admirably in select scenes. But the weight of comedic expectation attached to his very name makes the underwhelming stretches feel disproportionately disappointing.

Shimla Almost Makes It Worth It

There is, admittedly, one quite magnificent and unimpeachable reason to sit through Daadi Ki Shaadi and that is the cinematography of Shimla. The camera captures it with such warmth, texture and lingering beauty that you will find yourself genuinely, almost involuntarily, wanting to book a trip there before the film is even over.

There are also a handful of scenes that elicit a chuckle and a handful of moments that do manage to briefly draw you into an emotional pocket of investment, fleeting as they both are. In the end, Daadi Ki Shaadi is a mishmash of too many ideas, a dated and redundant exercise in nostalgic filmmaking that never quite coheres into something the sum of its parts deserved. And yet, if it finds an audience, it will likely be comprised of viewers north of 30 to 35 years of age, and for that particular congregation it may offer something marginally more satisfying.