Thank You For Coming Review: Bhumi Pednekar and her girl-gang shine in this sex-comedy drama

Thank You For Coming Review: In recent years, Bollywood has grown a lot. After decades of predominantly male-centric movies, we finally had the ladies single-handedly leading the cast, with the heroes also getting their fair share of screen time. I still remember the very viral scene from Veere Di Wedding of Swara Bhaskar masturbating using a vibrator. It was in 2018 (not very long ago though), but still, the movie and the scene, which was a new concept for the audience, faced backlash.

Exploring topics like female sexuality and pleasure, Veere Di Wedding with a female lead was a new thing for many. While the Kareena Kapoor Khan starrer was more of an urban class story, Lipstick Under My Burkha gave us an inside look into the lives of small-town, middle-class Indian women, their pleasure, sexual desire regardless of age, and other things.

Today, seven years down we have Thank You For Coming. While watching the film, I got the feeling of repetitive stuff served on a new plate. Nonetheless, the best part was that there was a sense of normalcy in the film, whether it was the talk around female pleasure, sex, female bonding, or women's empowerment, and that's when we say Bollywood has progressed well.

Karan Boolani's Thank You for Coming is backed by Anil Kapoor's production house and her daughter Rhea Kapoor. It is a film on new-age women, who are confused, stuck between stereotypes, trying to find their true selves, and much more.

What's Thank You for Coming all about?

The comedy movie starts off with Bhumi Pednekar's character, Kanika Kapoor. The 32-year-old successful food influencer was born and raised by an open-minded single mother, Ms Kapoor, played by Natasha Rastogi, who decided to have and raise a child on her own without marrying Kanika's biological father. Her mother may have fought with society and its stereotypes by standing tall, but it was not at all easy for Kanika, who, as a result of all the bullying, decides not to walk in her mother's path and to find a prince charming who fulfils all her desires. From her teens to entering her 30s, Kanika is on a mission to find Mr. Perfect, who ticks all the boxes. But, to date, despite several casual sexual encounters and love affairs, she has never experienced orgasm.

Kanika has two best friends Pallavi (Dolly Singh), who is happily married, and Tina (Shibani Bedi), who is the single mother of a Gen-Z daughter played by Saloni Daini. Both her girlfriends continue to be Kanika's right and left hands, but eventually, everything falls on Kanika's shoulders, who is 24 x 7 focused on finding her frog, or prince charming, and the orgasm that she's craving. As all things fall apart and with a fear that she will end up like her mother, Kanika decides to get married to simple and sweet Jeevan (Pradhuman Singh Mall). Kanika's life finally takes a turn on the very night of her Roka ceremony when she finally has an orgasm. But with whom? In her quest to find the mystery man, Kanika learns what her gynaecologist mom has been teaching her for a very long time.

What works and what doesn't?

Women tell women's stories best, and writers Radhika Anand and Prashasti Singh prove this. With a dash of humour, the film navigates so many core issues, like female pleasure, feminism, stereotypes, and stigmas that women still face in everyday life. The script of the film deserves praise, however, the writers lacked when it came to putting the story on the plate. While the first half of the film was understandable, the second part was rushed. 

As I said before, the film felt like an old script served with a new garnish. In recent years, we have seen quite a few female-centric stories in Bollywood that threw light on the lives of girls and women, in which topics like female desire, relationships, sex and pleasure were explored. So, the film kind of felt repetitive. Also, since the film tries to explore several topics in just two hours, the entire thing gets dampened.

The movie doesn't have much to offer, but it still gives a very strong message about self-exploration and self-love. All the characters dress impeccably and exude pure south-Delhi vibes in every frame. The witty dialogues and one-liners will make you crackle. The music in the movie is good and sets the vibe of the film in the perfect way.

Cast performances

Performances in the film are top-notch. From Bhumi Pednekar, Dolly Singh, and Shibani Bedi as the leading ladies, to Shehnaaz Gill, Dolly Singh, Pradhuman Singh Mall, Natasha Rastogi, Sushant Divgikar, Saloni Daini, Dolly Ahluwalia, the performance of the cast was commendable. Anil Kapoor, as the professor, deserves a special mention. His expressions in the movie are enough to make you crackle. Bhumi is the star of the movie. She has again proven her acting prowess and brings out different layers of her character. Dolly Singh and Shibani Bedi are perfect in their roles and have done decent jobs in their limited screen time.

Final verdict

All in all, the cast, dialogues, and comic timing of the movie might be almost perfect, but the film tries to give so many social messages which kind of feel unnecessary. Some scenes in the film are overdramatic and exaggerated, especially the climax of the movie, which is hurried and fails to make the impact that it was supposed to. 

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