The Great Indian Family

The Great Indian Family is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language comedy drama film written and directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya and produced by Aditya Chopra under the banner of Yash Raj Films. It stars Vicky Kaushal as a religious, Hindu Pandit who is revealed to be Muslim by birth. Manushi Chhillar, Manoj Pahwa, and Kumud Mishra appear in supporting roles.

Principal photography began on 20 November 2020 and ended on 25 February 2021. It was released theatrically on 22 September 2023.

The film received negative reviews and was a box-office bomb, earning only ₹5.65 crores domestically.

Plot
The film begins with the backstory of Ved Vyas Tripathi from his school days. He has a crush on a girl in his school, called Aishwarya. She is the daughter of a famous businessman, Maalpani, who invites Ved for her birthday party. Unbeknownst to him, her father has a different plan. He has invited Ved's father, who's a Hindu priest, to sing a bhajan at Aishwarya's birthday puja. Ved surprises everyone at the party by suddenly singing a bhajan.

From that day on, Ved becomes a famous religious singer as "Bhajan Kumar". He is a bachelor, and because of his religious personality, all the girls look at him as a priest, and ask him for blessings. He follows a girl called Jasmeet into the area of the local Muslim community. He finds out that Jasmeet is a singer. He unknowingly scares off their musician Abdul, Jasmeet forces them to perform at singing event, where Ved takes the stage. Ved goes on a coffee date with Jasmeet. There is a big wedding (Aishwarya's) which is coming as competition between Siyaram Tripathi (Father of Ved) and Mishra to get the priest contract. While Tripathi goes to religious trip for 2 weeks, a person delivers a letter at home. The letter says that Ved is not Tripathi's son, and that he is a Muslim. Ved's eyes has filled with pitch-black kohl and also Ved has dressed up as a Muslim. Ved has to put on his green attire Kurta Pyjama, his Taqiyah cap and his kohl-lined eyes. While Ved's uncle tries to protect their family's respect, Mishra tries to spoil Ved's and his family's image. Before the climax, there is a story where Siyaram Tripathi discloses the truth about Ved's identity and the whole family stands together to support Ved.

During the climax scene, Ved had his blood test done but sees the discomfort of his father and confesses that he was indeed born a Muslim but his upbringing made him a Hindu. He then gives a monologue on how everyone is the same and discrimination is bad in this era. He also exposes Mishra and his son TD (Tulsidas). At the end, Ved is proud of his "The Great Indian Family".

Production
Principal photography commenced on 20 November 2020. Production wrapped on 25 February 2021.

Music
The music of the film is composed by Pritam. All the lyrics are written by Amitabh Bhattacharya. The first single titled "Kanhaiya Twitter Pe Aaja" was released on 30 August 2023.

Theatrical
The film was theatrically released on 22 September 2023.

Home media
The film premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 17 November 2023. The film premiered on Star Gold Network on 18 February 2024.

Reception
Dhaval Roy of The Times of India gave the film 2.5/5 stars stating, "The Great Indian Family has a genuine message but fall short in execution." In a review from The Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta gave the film 1.5/5 stars and critiqued, "If you want to be brave, the writing needs to match: here, even such wonderful actors like Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, Sadi Siddiqui stand no chance. Neither does the always watchable Vicky Kaushal."