'Doctor G' review: Formulaic under the garb of uniqueness

Doctor G

Hindi (Theatres)

Director: Anubhuti Kashyap

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Rakul Preet Singh, Shefali Shah, Sheeba Chaddha

Rating: 2.5/5

In a decade, an Ayushmann Khurrana film has gone from exciting to uninspiring.

In 'Doctor G', Bollywood's favourite problem-solving, boy-next-door plays a gynaecologist. Yes, as expected, this is Khurrana's latest attempt at spurring a discussion on an unusual subject. But director Anubhuti Kashyap offers a cutesy treatment to an interesting idea, thus turning 'Doctor G' into formulaic under the garb of uniqueness.

Uday Gupta (Khurrana) dreams of becoming an orthopedic but circumstances force him to take up gynaecology in Bhopal. He claims himself to be progressive but does everything opposite of it. This leads to a break up and constant disagreements with his widowed mother (Sheeba Chaddha), who is happy leading a young-at-heart, care-free life in her second innings.

Uday's HoD Dr Nandini Srivastava (Shefali Shah in a measured performance) schools him about how gynaecology isn't a woman's world anymore. But our hero isn't convinced and he feels terribly awkward to be the only male student in his class.

The film tries to explore the conservative attitude of men while dealing with women's diseases, especially that involving their reproductive organs. The story is refreshingly told from the point of view of the female gaze.

But for the viewers, the film soon becomes an exercise of picking the bright spots amidst a host of shortcomings.

It absolutely lacks rhythm as a wobbly screenplay (by Sumit Saxena) tries to fit in a terribly-written male-female friendship and a mother's quest to regain her lost youth. The latter sub-plot, though endearing thanks to Chaddha's moving performance, doesn't add much weight to the film's central theme. In the former conflict, Rakul Preet Singh, also playing a doctor, emerges a surprise winner. The actor, mostly seen in inconsequential roles in Telugu 'masala' films, reveals her acting abilities to make the feeble writing somewhat bearable.

As the film digresses from its main subject, Anubhuti's direction suffers from poor staging of scenes. Two momentous scenes on paper --- one right before the interval and the other in the climax --- are written to convince Uday that he isn't a misfit in his field and normalise the thought of a male gynaecologist. But on screen, they come across as mere melodrama and inorganic with no lasting impact on us.

The film lacks the earthy humour of Khuranna's films. The uninventive writing even fetches a comedy dialogue from the now tried and tested Rajinikanth jokes.

As a doctor trying to lose his male touch while handling pregnancy cases, Khuranna is natural. But overall, he looks jaded, giving the obvious indication of an actor in need of an image makeover.