A still from the trailer of Dum Laga Ke Haisha
You could have knocked us down with a feather when Shah Rukh Khan played a 40-year-old Rahul in 2013's Chennai Express. A long overdue reality check for an industry peddling dreams. What next, we wondered then. This is next - Dum Laga Ke Haisha, starring Ayushmann Khurrana and a heroine the opposite of size zero. It's now the film we most want to watch. (Also read - Outsiders Getting Fair Chance in Bollywood: Ayushmann Khurrana)
Former Yash Raj Films staffer Bhumi Pednekar, making her debut in first-time director Sharat Katariya's film, is no reed-like Bollywood waif. Instead, she's important - a signpost for a new, improved film industry that's dragging itself kicking and screaming out of an abyss where the only prerequisites of being an actress were beauty and a talent for dance.
Dum Laga Ke Haisha stars Ayushmann as Prem, vernacular-accented and rough around the edges, somewhat like Ayushmann's star-making role in Vicky Donor. He finds himself married to the plus-sized Sandhya, and is initially repulsed.
Love comes in all sizes, says the tagline in the just-released trailer - or at least, it comes in all sizes once size has ceased to matter. It comes to Prem and Sandhya and best of all, there is no makeover involved - no shedding of kilos, no extreme wardrobe change. Anjali from
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Sanjana from
Main Hoon Na would be jealous.
Actress Parineeti Chopra, who has a closer connection to Bhumi than we do, is at least as excited as we are:
She tweeted a link to the trailer later, as did actor Arjun Kapoor. Singer Kumar Sanu both sings for and makes a cameo appearance in the film. Dum Laga Ke Haisha releases on February 27.
Watch the trailer here: