Balmukund Shukla (Ayushmann Khurrana) prided himself on his luxurious hair while in school. Growing up, he was the SRK of his mohalla in Kanpur. Sadly for him, he suffers from male pattern baldness while still in his 20s. His confidence goes for a toss. His career takes a beating and so does his love life.

It's funny how being hirsute is equated with manliness: a prematurely balding man often becomes the object of juvenile derision; worse, he becomes less than optimum in the sexual attraction-bedmate stakes. Ayushmann Khurrana's playing of the once- plentiful-now-scarce-sar-ki-kheti Balmukund Shukla is so spot-on that you forget the man ever had any hair on his head.

Balmukund (Ayushmann Khurrana), a highty-and-mighty lover of his hair, gets the shock of his life when he starts loses them as he grows up. Friends with Latika (Bhumi Pedenkar), who's not 'society's level' fair, Bala ignores her because he's attracted to beauty. Once he's an adult, with very few hairs left, he tries to hide it with a cap or half-covered mirror. After 210 solutions in 2 years, Bala settles with a wig and meets Pari (Yami Gautam).

To start with, you know there's a great script playing out on the screen before you (credited to the hit TV show Taarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashma writer, Niren Bhatt) when, as an audience, you find yourself strangely developing empathy, even for the lead female character (Yami Gautam, in such fine form) in the film, who is so vain and fame-hungry as a small-town Tik Tok star that for her, looks, selfies, likes and followers matter more than love, marriage, real life, or real relationship.

Director Amar Kaushik is wise enough to allow an actor like Ayushmann Khurrana to go hog wild in displaying his talent for comedy. Khurrana, who also recently showed his talent for comedy in 'Dream Girl', allow himself to go as ridiculous as he wants in 'Bala'. Interestingly, while doing so, he still manages to derive a ton of laughs with mere facial expressions and delivery of one-liners.

Bala, Stree director Amar Kaushik's new movie about the travails of a prematurely balding young man, makes all the right noises about society's obsession with mere appearances. As Bala (Ayushmann Khurrana) moves from embarrassment over his dwindling hair to despair before finally achieving acceptance, the movie makes the not-exactly-new argument that looks don't matter.

Just last week, in the listless Ujda Chaman, we were witness to the sad spectacle of a misguided man grappling with premature balding and tying himself up in knots. In Bala, directed by Amar Kaushik and written by Niren Bhatt, a similar (yet intrinsically different) story-line yields a far more salutary result - a film that, give and take a few minor wobbles along the way, strikes at the root of the societal and mental blocks that prevent people from reconciling themselves with their looks and facing the world with confidence.

BALA is the story of accepting oneself despite imperfections. The year is 2005. Balmukund Shukla aka Bala (Sachin Chaudhary) is a child in Kanpur who is proud of his looks and hair. He is very popular in his school and has lot of female admirers.

One of the pleasures of watching Bala comes from its use of language. The characters in this film speak Kanpuriya Hindi which is a delight in and of itself. Better still, they hardly ever substitute words in their mother tongue with English equivalents. On the rare occasions when they do opt for a spot of English, they are hilarious without the narrative taking a condescending tone towards them or getting cliched.

Balmukund Shukla urf Bala (Ayushmann Khurrana) as a child had smooth silky and long hair but unfortunately the growth and of his hair fails to reciprocate with his growing age. Bala - the man from Kanpur is suffering from alopecia and all his attempts to win back his pride (hair) fails miserably.

Balmukund Shukla aka Bala (Ayushmann Khurrana) tries all sorts of hacks to grow back his silky smooth hair, but to no avail. Finally, he finds a fix, but will that bring him permanent happiness?

A bald man takes off his wig before a dark-skinned audience gathered to hear him promote a fairness cream. He's confronting his hypocrisy and addressing their insecurity. Still the crowd bursts into laughter. Is it a nervous laugh or nasty? It's just ha ha, really. Some people laugh even if they themselves are subject to ridicule and prejudice. Some laugh because it's funny.

There is more to a good comedy film than dropping a few clever jokes. Director Amar Kaushik understands the mechanics well - something he displayed earlier in Stree, and Bala takes it a notch higher. The film starring Ayushmann Khurrana as a prematurely balding man is outrageously hilarious and empathetic at the same time.

That patriarchy is severely under question at least in Hindi films (storywise) is quite evident from the spate of films that have showcased gender-based constructs and double standards. Bala, a story about the travails of a young man Balmukund Shukla who walks around hiding a bald pate when selling fairness creams and other beauty products to women is an addition to that list.

Have you heard of the story of King Midas, who could turn everything he touched into gold? Ayushmann Khurrana is that modern-day Midas who has been blessed with a special gift, his acting talent, which makes every script he touches a sure-shot entertainer. And after Bala, it should not be contested. Period.