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The global icon, Amitabh Bachchan is one of the biggest superstars of Bollywood movies. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, the actor became a rage in Indian cinema during the 1970’s & 80’s with his “angry young man” image & still continues to dominate the showbiz with his exceptional star power. The “Shehenshah” of Bollywood is best known for his movies like Deewar (1975), Sholay (1975), Zanjeer (1973), Agneepath (1990), Silsila (1981), Sarkaar (2005), Paa (2009) & Pink (2016). He made his Hollywood debut in 2013 with The Great Gatsby.

Amitabh Bachchan

Rashmika Mandanna is an Indian actress and model who works predominantly in Telugu and Kannada language films. She is a recipient of the Filmfare Award South and the SIIMA Award. She is known for her roles in Kirik Party and Geetha Govindam.

Rashmika Mandanna

Neena Gupta is a National Award-winning actress and director. An alumnus of the prestigious National School of Drama, New Delhi, Gupta has garnered both critical and commercial success in Indian and international cinema. Some of her best known films include Gandhi, Cotton Mary, In Custody, Woh Chokri and Hello Zindagi. She gained widespread popularity with her work on Indian TV shows including Saans, Shyam Benegal's Bharat Ek Khoj, Buniyaad and Yatra among others.

Neena Gupta

Shivin Narang is an Indian actor who works in Hindi television. He made his acting debut with Suvreen Guggal – Topper of The Year playing Yuvraj Singh in 2012. Narang is best known for his portrayal of Rudra Roy in Sony TV's romantic-thriller Beyhadh 2.

Shivin Narang

Pavail Gulati is an Indian film and television actor. He appeared in the Amitabh Bachchan starrer TV series, Yudh (2014), in which he played the character of Rishikesh Sikarwar. Family, Girlfriend & Caste.

Pavail Gulati

Sunil Grover is an actor and standup comedian. He rose to fame with comedy shows like Comedy Nights with Kapil and The Kapil Sharma Show. He as also made special appearances in films like Ghajini and Gabbar is Back.

Sunil Grover

Elli AvrRam

Ashish Vidyarthi is a National Film Award winning actor who has worked in films and on TV alike. Some of his best known films include Athanokkade, Drohkaal, Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin and Minugurulu.

Ashish Vidyarthi

Goodbye (2022)

Goodbye is an Indian Hindi-language family comedy-drama film written and directed by Vikas Bahl. Produced by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor and co-produced by Bahl and Viraj Savant, the film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Rashmika Mandanna.

Times of India

India Today

Rediff

“I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.” These heart-aching lines from ‘Life of Pi’ lie at the crux of ‘Goodbye’. We never know when’s the last time we get to see or talk to our parents & loved ones. Do you allow life to pass you by or make the most of it? Should you harbour that sentiment of fear and uncertainty of the future or get on with your lives, living each moment to its fullest?
A funeral drama, tragicomedy, satire on death, conflict between old and new values and closure…Vikas Bahl’s film tries to juggle genres and time. His coping with grief tale with a comic twist has a poignant premise, something it shares with films like Paglet and Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi. Unlike the other two, characters here seem a tad one-dimensional though.
Goodbye is not an easy watch if you have lost a parent or are dealing with an ailing one. The thought is universal and moves you to tears but the execution struggles to establish a tone. The film shuttles between moods and past-present with multiple characters thrown in and stringing it all together feels episodic and scrambled. The story oscillates between some heart-warming moments and then something random. The conflict between the family members is more Baghban than Piku, though it tries to lean towards the latter. The story also feels stagnant beyond a point.
What works for the film despite the occasional distractions is its quiet observation of people and society at large when tragedy strikes. The story speaks volumes when silence is allowed to enter the chaos. The process of the family progressing to conversing with each other from simply talking, is impactful. Huge credit goes to actor Sunil Grover who becomes the face of that change in the story. The actor infuses life into the proceedings and gets a clever and compassionate character to portray.
While you wish there was more of Neena Gupta in the film, she makes the most of her endearing part. This territory isn’t new to Amitabh Bachchan, but in his 80th year, he once again reinforces the fact that a good actor can elevate a script. Despite his massive aura and stardom, he never forgets that this is essentially an ensemble film, giving enough room for others to flourish. His portrayal of sorrow and loneliness is heart-breaking. Rashmika Mandanna in her debut Hindi film struggles with the accent as she sounds too south for a Punjabi role but gets the essence of her character right. Pavail Gulati, Ashish Vidyarthi and Elli AvrRam have their moments as well.
Goodbye is a story of a family coping with grief and laughing through their pain. Keep the tissues handy before watching this one.

Can anyone predict life? We will never know when's the last time we will see or talk to our parents. There's a line in Life of Pi where Irrfan says, “I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.” This profound thought forms the crux of Goodbye.
When Gayatri (Neena Gupta) dies suddenly, her husband Harish (Amitabh Bachchan) and her four adult children react in different ways. What follows later is the inchoate, aching and often rage-filled feelings each member of the family undergoes. Along with them, director Vikas Bahl manages to make you feel those heartbreaking moments too, that will definitely leave you in tears. Goodbye will not be an easy watch if you have lost a parent or a loved one or are dealing with an ailing family member or friend.

Goodbye starts with Tara (Rashmika Mandanna) partying at a club as she celebrates her first career milestone with friends. She gets a call from her mom in between, but she disconnects that. She even ignores her texts. How often have we all been guilty of it too? In between this, Tara misses her father Harish’s phone calls. Her world falls apart when she wakes up to discover that those calls were made to inform her of her mother Gayatri’s (Neena Gupta) death. What follows later forms the whole story.
Vikas Bahl's Goodbye is a satire on death. It questions the old and new beliefs. 'Just follow what is being told,' says Big B in the film, while Tara lashes out at the funeral ceremonies, describing them as meaningless and obscurantist. When Gayatri dies, the pandit of the house makes her body shuffle several times so that her head is facing the north side. He also declares that her soul has entered a crow, and blatantly mentions thousands of 'riti riwaz'. This conflict between religion and science is well established here. There are also several funny moments - for example, the ladies in the house fake-crying while trying to think of a name for their new WhatsApp group (Lonely Harish is what they come up with). But the motive is to make you cry, and dare you hold back those tears.

We have watched several Bollywood films that deal with the loss of loved ones. However, Vikas Bahl's film brings something new to the table. Three cheers to his writing and direction. Even as you start questioning some of his ideas in the film, he will hit you with the ultimate emotions. He perfectly portrays this borderline dysfunctional family who are dealing with the loss of that one person who held them all together. Goodbye has a tsunami of emotions and nostalgia that can't be described, but will hit you hard. A particular scene shows one of Gayatri's sons calling out 'mama, mama' because he forgets she is no more. Goodbye doesn't just focus on Gayatri's death, but how life will continue for the grieving family.

Goodbye has its share of flaws, but that can be overlooked. At times, the execution struggles to establish a tone. The film shuttles between moods and throws in multiple characters that can sometimes look like scrambled. It oscillates between heart-warming moments and something totally random.
The star of the film is Amitabh Bachchan, of course. Even at 80, the megastar proves why he is one of the biggest superstars of Indian cinema. From preparing for the funeral with no space to grieve his wife's death to finally getting a moment to talk to her ashes, his role transforms, and your heart will break in both these moments. Big B has once again shown why you can't take him for granted. Rashmika Mandanna struggles with the accent as she sounds too south for a Punjabi role. However, she gets her character right. Even though we hardly see Neena Gupta, she fills the screen space with her presence. She has a certain warmth around her. Everyone else, including Pavail Gulati, Sahil Mehta, Elli Avram, Ashish Vidyarthi, Abhishekh Khan played their parts well. Sunil Grover's cameo as a pandit is also worth mentioning.
Our verdict? Goodbye is filled with heartwarming and heartbreaking moments. The unfiltered emotions in the film touch the right chord and even bring you closer to your loved ones. If you have lost someone dear recently, be prepared to shed some tears. Take a quick loo break if you feel emotions deeply and can't cry in public. You would understand why we use the word 'emotions' so many times when you watch Goodbye. Vikas Bahl will leave you with many questions as you exit the theatres.

Film-makers love to see the excruciating beauty in human grief.

Using the backdrop of a sombre occasion like a funeral as a framing device to explore the family dynamics is perhaps developing into a sub-genre of its own in the Hindi film industry.

Earlier last year, we saw two strikingly similar films in a quick succession, Seema Pahwa's Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi and Umesh Bisht's Pagglait.

Both sublime.

While the nature of the tragedy was different, these films provided an insight on various ways loss is processed.

We have certainly seen variations of the characters in such coming-of-age narratives with an event like a family funeral taking the centrestage. Somehow, though, in writer-director Vikas Bahl's Goodbye, the formulaic premise surprisingly works. Yet again.
Goodbye sets out a framework for family dramedy as the dysfunctional Bhalla clan gets together for mourning after the family matriarch (Neena Gupta)'s sudden demise.

The old man of the house, Harish Bhalla (Amitabh Bachchan), struggles to send word to his scattered family, while coming to terms with the untimely passing of his beloved wife.

The estranged siblings, who seemingly had little contact with each other prior to their mother's death, land at their Chandigarh home for the mourning.

We meet Tara (Rashmika Mandanna), a Mumbai-based lawyer whose Muslim live-in boyfriend is tut-tutted over by her father; Karan (Pavail Gulati), whose life is entangled in incessant work meetings and deadlines, arrives from the US with his guileless wife (Elli AvrRam); turban-clad Angad (Sahil Mehta), who is an adopted son to the family, make it just in time for the sombre occasion.
As they all come together under one roof, bottled up emotions and uncomfortable conversations unearth.

The premise instantly reminded me of a British dark comedy Death at A Funeral(2007) and also the Shawn Levy-directorial This Is Where I Leave You (2014).

The stereotypical series of events that follow at occasions like this has a tendency to bring the idiosyncrasies of human nature at the forefront.

It holds especially true in the Indian context, and this is perhaps a reason for Bollywood's continued fascination with the subject.

Goodbye starts light, introducing the characters.

It starts building the storyline, and gradually, the ironical humour in the situation and the camaraderie between the characters become more fluent.

The script packs a lot of authentic emotions while rendering a narrative of loss, grief and broken relationships that also paints a riveting portrait of the frayed father-daughter equation.

In two separate instances, both Harish and Tara are seen pontificating about 'mastery in argument'.

When the two get at loggerheads on the simplest family matters, you know there is no winning here.

While it is interesting to watch how every family member has their own unique traits, none of their characters, other than that of Bachchan, has a fully-realised arc.

For example, it is not quite clear why Tara distanced herself from the family after moving to Mumbai, especially from her mother, who was so supportive towards her.

The bonding of the siblings also plays out at a very superficial, sanitised level, giving us a very vague idea of their equation with each other.

Somewhere in its two hour-24 minutes runtime, Goodbye gradually transforms into well-considered, emotionally resonant fare that Bahl crafts with tenderness and empathy.

The film-maker, whose most compelling work was in Queen nine years ao, struggled to spin the same magic with his last outing, the middling 2019 release, Super 30.

As a screwball comedy, while Queen was immensely warm and winsome, Super 30 was a bloated, insipid, biography of a mathematician, marred by dramatic overkill.

Here, Bahl is focused on the steady development of the story and characters with no indulgence into unnecessary frills.

He mostly succeeds at establishing this unwonted cinematic style that is engrossing to say the least. Sometimes sappy and sometimes amusing, but never over the top, the film becomes as heartwarming as it is heartbreaking.

In a nicely staged animated flashback sequence, we see the genesis of Harish and Gayatri's courtship as he harks back to the flippant days in the past.

Gayatri, as he describes her, was a heartthrob of all of Chandigarh and way 'out of his league' only to woo her ultimately.

It's the sum of their banter with each other and a sense of a well-lived history between them that provide the necessary weight to the drama.

In a particularly poignant scene, Harish weepingly talks to Gayatri's ash-urn at the Ganga ghat while his kids look fixedly at him. It's been years since Bachchan was seen this vulnerable on screen. In this very moment, his Harish is achingly sad and unfeigned, riven with grief and emotion.

Marking her Bollywood debut, Rashmika gets into the skin of her character with effortless charm.

Her slightly hammy Hindi aside, she delivers a cogent performance as non-conformist kooky.

Watch her expression in a scene when she is first hit with the news of the tragedy. The shock, the sorrow, the regret -- everything is well-encapsulated in a terrific emotional outburst.

Her Tara might be an ordinary middle-class girl, but she has a sense of identity and dreams of her own.

As she navigates her way through baffling paradoxes of cremation rituals, Tara is schooled by her elder brother to 'just follow what's been told' only to turn around at him to ask 'Why?'

Rashmika plays this character with great zeal with a right amount of restraint whenever it's required.

The film makes ordinary places, ordinary people and ordinary events become interesting.

It is mainly due to the way Bahl cleverly and carefully blends everything.

While the bitter truths about life and family relations are portrayed with empathetic lens, the film also reflects the morbid nature of death from a surprisingly wise standpoint.

In the film's best moments, we have Sunil Grover as an enigmatic panditji, who helps the family learn about the funeral rituals. He brings warmth as well as a certain comic snappiness to the goings-on.

The other actors, rounding off the supporting cast, are equally adept.

While the material might have been a little trite, the film skates by on the likability of its cast that renders stirring performances all around.

The ease with which Neena Gupta depicts her freewheeling character, is a treat to watch.

Short length notwithstanding, her joyous Gayatri is felt throughout the film.

Ashish Vidyarthi's delicious portrayal of an uppity uncle at the family gathering is as hilarious as it is repulsive.

Both Pavail Gulati and Sahil Mehta get their moments to shine.

The cast elevates whatever weaknesses there are in the material.

The music is what you can expect from an Amit Trivedi album.

The score enhances in the background instead of arguing with the dialogue.

The songs, especially Chann Pardesi and Maaye, are melodious and distinctive with introspective lyrics.

Another song Jaikal Mahakal, which plays out as the film reaches its denouement, is splendid.

Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti (of Sairat fame) lends an unostentatious camerawork that enlivens the proceedings with deftly composed frames.

Goodbye is embedded with solid emotional moments, a few chuckles and some nice ponderings upon life, love and everything inbetween.