Daadi Ki Shaadi Review: Neetu Kapoor Delivers the Film of Her Life

Daadi Ki Shaadi does not deserve Neetu Kapoor. That is the blunt truth sitting under Ashish R Mohan's family dramedy, which released in theatres on 8 May 2026. Kapoor plays 72 year old Vimla Ahuja, a Shimla widow whose Facebook post about a relative's wedding gets autocorrected into an announcement of her own remarriage.

Arre, the premise alone should have been enough to carry a sharper film than this.

Her children panic. Her prospective almost son in law Tony (Kapil Sharma) tags along for the ride, and what should have been a sharp comedy about ageing and loneliness keeps softening into something safer with every reel. Kapoor, though, never once plays it safe.

Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, Neetu's real life daughter, makes her acting debut here as Sunaina. It is a nervy, likeable first outing, even when the script does not know what to do with her beyond the family reaction shots. Sadia Khateeb plays Kannu, the granddaughter whose own engagement gets buried under the family's panic, and R. Sarathkumar shows up as Theeran Devarajan, carrying a Southern family clash subplot the film barely has room for.

Yaar, that is at least three separate movies fighting for the same 150 minutes.

Critics were not kind, and the numbers back them up. Shubhra Gupta at The Indian Express gave the film 2 stars and called it a creaky melodrama. Sana Farzeen at India Today was just as unconvinced, writing that it cannot decide what it truly wants to say.

Against a 20 crore budget, Daadi Ki Shaadi has managed only 8.58 crore at the box office. That gap says plenty about audience patience for two and a half hours of a joke that runs out of steam by the interval.

Why Neetu Kapoor Is the Real Reason to Watch Daadi Ki Shaadi

Kapoor plays Vimla with a stillness the rest of the film rarely earns. She lets a raised eyebrow do what three lines of clunky dialogue are trying to do elsewhere, and her silences carry more ache than the film's louder, sitcom-y stretches ever manage.

Bas itna kaafi hai to remind you why she has been doing this for five decades.

Kapil Sharma, cast against type as the earnest almost groom Tony, drops the comic timing he built a career on and plays it straight for most of the runtime. It mostly works.

When he finally gets his one big emotional scene, the switch from Kapil the comedian to Kapil the actor lands harder than a trailer sold as pure comedy has any right to.

It is not a laugh riot.

Not everyone piled on. Archika Khurana at The Times of India gave the film 3 stars for its sincerity, and Filmfare landed on the same score for its emotional honesty. Sach kahen toh, the split says less about consensus and more about how differently critics weighed style against substance.

The soundtrack leans into that same tension. Sajda and Senti, composed with Payal Dev on production, do some of the film's quiet emotional lifting between the bigger dramatic beats, even when the screenplay is not.

Where Daadi Ki Shaadi Loses the Plot

The second half is where the goodwill drains out fast. A subplot about Kannu's own engagement gets sidelined for long stretches, and the Theeran Devarajan track feels bolted on for a Southern market push that the story never earns.

Dekha jaye toh, the theme deserved a tighter, 110 minute cut instead of 150.

At that length, the film repeats its own message about loneliness and dignity three or four times more than it needed to. Sarkar ban jaye ya na ban jaye, the point was made an hour earlier.

It is a familiar problem this month. Raja Shivaji proved a regional hit can out earn a starry Mumbai release, and Citadel Season 2 showed Indian audiences will forgive a shaky script if the lead performance is strong enough to hold the frame.

Daadi Ki Shaadi is betting on that same forgiveness, and largely getting it, because of Kapoor and not because of the writing built around her.

Should you watch Daadi Ki Shaadi for Kapil Sharma's dramatic pivot, or for Riddhima Kapoor Sahni's first scene in a real film? Maybe.

Should you watch it for Neetu Kapoor doing some of the quietly devastating work of her career in a script that barely deserves her? Bilkul. Just do not expect the joyful rebellion the trailers promised.

Four stars for her. Two for the film built around her. Kya aapne dekhi, and would you have cut that entire second half?