By R. Paul Dhillon – Editor DESIBUZZCanada

Vadda Ghar, the new Punjabi film which released last Friday, is a great example of good intentions gone wrong with the key creative team that is not up to par and too many roles filled with subpar actors who can’t deliver believable characters. And it is not entirely the fault of the actors as much as the screenwriter’s as much of what is written is also subpar. 

Well known Punjabi song writer Jasbir Gunachoria tries hard in his first attempt at a big screen writing gig but ends up concocting a severely underwritten story with stock characters we’ve seen in hundreds of other better Punjabi films. 

Screenwriting is not an easy or simple task of writing a bunch of scenes that tell some kind of uneven story as is the case with Vadda Ghar but really examining your story fully and then filling it with well crafted scenes that serve the main story. You have to cut out the fat from the story which is too evident in Vadda Ghar. 

And the writer has to be fully aware of how the scenes will add up and how every scene sets up the following scenes that helps the audience make sense of the story. And if the scenes don’t add up like in Vadda Ghar then your story starts to fall apart in the eyes of the audience because the audience says “no that makes no sense at all.” 

An example of this is after a very slow paced set up of the story of a rural indebted family in Punjab – the grown up typical bad son Deepa(Bhinda Aujla) (he’s just bad but we don’t know why) is brought to Canada by his hardworking sister and within two scenes in Canada he wins $20 million lottery. 

If that is somehow believable, then scenes following make no sense. The hardworking sister is still poor and having to suffer the indignities of her meanie mother-in-law even though her baby brother is a millionaire. And why Deepa wouldn’t help his sister who sponsored him to Canada is never explained.\

Then even more flabbergasting is that sister’s meanie mother-in-law won’t allow her parents, played with emotion by veterans Amar Noorie and Sardar Sohi who come to Canada for Deepa’s wedding, to visit her for two days which makes no sense at all as the mother-in-law obviously knows that their son is rich and lives in a big expensive house and their visit with their daughter will be short. She can’t be that mean! 

Then even more unbelievable is that their own bad son Deepa kicks the parents out from his Vadda Ghar after he’s gone full toxic with liquor and drugs due to becoming filthy rich. But none of this is properly set up in the film and feels false and fake because it’s hard to believe that he would kick out his parents in cold winter. 

And where do such parents go – well to the same Gurdwara as characters from other similar local set Punjabi films (Yograj Singh in a locally-shot Punjabi film and Yograj again along with Mrs. as homeless couple in Downtown Eastside in Sardara And Sons). Wow that’s three films with practically same theme of parents neglect. 

You can’t manipulate audiences with these dramatic tricks when you haven’t set up the story with any credibility. As I said before – your scenes set up the story and minute your subsequent scenes make no sense you have lost the audience. 

We could only watch till Intermission and I’m sure the film eventually got the whole family – including adopted son Jasveer (Jobanpreet Singh), who rejects Canada for Punjab and while his childhood love interest (played by gugly, fatty Mandy Takhar) is going to Canada to study like all these students who have come to Canada to wrath of all Canadians. 

But it’s good to see a fatty heroine (Mandy gained a lot of weight to play another gugly heroine in the yet to be released film Motto) as we need more of them in all cinema and there’s nothing wrong with a bulky heroine as those were fashionable in South Indian and Pakistani films of the past. 

While the screenplay is shaky – the film also suffers from having two directors which doesn’t help in constructing a meaningful story. The Punjab portion of the story set up, while slow, is still flowing with some good scenes and is briskly edited by Rohit Dhiman who saves the film with whatever he has to work with in terms of raw material. 

But the India director couldn’t get a visa to Canada and they had to use a local guy and whatever we watched till intermission for the Canada portion falls apart but again it has more to do with the writing than direction. 

In the Canada portion – Kavleen Rihan as Deepa’s love interest and quickly his wife, is good and Balvir Boparai is underused as Deepa’s Sister’s husband. In just one scene before intermission, Boparai is believable as the lazy, tv-watching husband who doesn’t have a job but loves watching cricket. Boparai needs bigger roles. 

While the film may not have been my cup of tea as my tastes are lofty even though I tried to give it my full attention but you can’t manipulate the audience with the usual family-gone wrong tropes without fine dramatic writing.  

Regardless, it is very hard to make independent films which still cost a lot of money so hats off to the whole producing team for trying. 

The film may appeal to Punjabi cinema audiences who have low expectations or like watching this kind of teary-eyed false family reunification dramas. But as I wrote earlier that the producers were taking a risk to spend a lot of money releasing the film in theatres and going by the very low business of the first weekend, the film has gone the usual bust route of most Punjabi films in this low budget without some known stars. 

But to be honest – this amateur material might was never for the big screen but everyone wants a big screen release so they went that route. But this material is more suited to web series and not the big screen. 

Good effort still but next time maybe get more writers involved in the story department like Ravinder Mand, who plays Jasveer’s best friend Bhatti in the Punjab portion of the film, as he’s a writer too, along with being an actor, and now he has moved to Surrey. 

Support Punjabi cinema as without audience support – good and better films will not be made!

R. Paul Dhillon is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker who has written, directed and produced over 40 productions including two theatrically released feature films starring Gulshan Grover.