Bala is probably the most globally resonant movie made. Afterall, racism has many shades. But the fact that the we are the catalysts of the bias we become victims of is not realized as much as it should.

Whether it is in the streets of Kanpur or the high rises of Manhattan; we define ourselves and other people by how they look, how they dress, what they project themselves and their social media profiles. But we forget that we are all humans and the limitations we think we have to be socially acceptable are nothing if they mean nothing to us.

Bala is the journey of a young man portrayed by Ayushmann Khuranna with a receding hairline, who obsesses so much over the lack of his hair being congruent to the loss of his identity that it just becomes so. On the other hand, his friend Latika, portrayed beautifully by Bhumi Pednekar who has been traumatized over the dark color of her skin ayushmann has evolved a personality where she embraces the social ordeal and makes it a part of her character by accepting the fact that she is the person she is and will not let the social pressures to look a certain way define her. In his pursuit to be perfect, Bala wears a wig to woo the girl from TikTok, whose entire identity is about how she looks and behaves on social media, in a riveting performance by Yami Gautam

Living in the United States, we are all aware of the racism accompanying color of skin. We live with the consequences of being second grade citizens in a society that was built on the foundation of discrimination and racism.

Can we take the message of Bala and use it to redefine our own status in the American society. We definitely can. We must,

Bala is an essential see. See it for the realistic characterizations of common people, the social pressures of being a certain way to be acceptable, the limitations we set upon ourselves in changing ourselves to conform to a social standard and the evolution of rising above all of this to ultimately loving and accepting ourselves the way we are.