Vicky Donor Review

I loved this comedy. Kudos to John Abraham for making this slightly taboo for India comedy.

I loved Ayushmann Khurrana as Vicky, which I gather was his debut film role after a long career in TV. A fertility doctor spots Vicky on the street and has a sixth sense that he would be a successful sperm donor, evidently a very difficult thing to find in India due to societal taboos. The doctor researches Vicky's background and finds out his grandfather sired 19 children. He finally wears down Vicky's resistance in several funny scenes and since Vicky needs the money he agrees. Vicky keeps his career as a sperm donor secret from his family, and from his new girlfriend.

This film has a very sweet romance within a situation comedy. I loved the way Vicky wooed Aishima, wearing down her resistance in a mirror to the way the doctor had to woo him. Even once they marry Vicky keeps his career as a donor secret until Aishima finds out she cannot have children. The doctor is so distressed at how Vicky's life falls apart once the secret is revealed that he goes to extreme lengths to show Aishima the good that Vicky has done.

I googled the film after watching and was very interested in what was termed the "Vicky Donor Effect". Evidently, this film led to a real change in the taboo in India about sperm donation, and many men went to clinics to become donors.

What puzzled me about the film is that Vicky's wife, Aishima has tubal blockage and cannot have children, but invitro fertilization is never even mentioned as a pERossibility. Is this because such a procedure is only for the very wealthy in India and not for the middle class? Maybe there were more aspects of her fertility problems that lay on the cutting room floor, but I would have thought that the fertility doctor would have offered to help them in a medical way, and not just in the way he ultimately solves their problem.

I'm looking forward to catching Ayushmann Khurrana's other films. This guy has that x factor and real talent.