RakshaBandhan review: Akshay Kumar's emotional film has strong message on dowry

It's not for nothing that people say Akshay Kumar knows and understands the pulse of his audience and accordingly makes films. 

With his latest release, Raksha Bandhan, Akshay only proves that if a film has its heart in the right place, it will connect with the audiences. 

This is not the first time the actor has done a film that's relevant and has a strong social message — Raksha Bandhan touches upon the issue of dowry system in India. 

But it's the way director Aanand L Rai chooses to narrate the story, weaving together the most delicate threads to deliver a strong message, that does the trick.

Set in the lanes of Chandni Chownk in Old Delhi, the film introduces us to Lala Kedarnath (Akshay), who owns a pushtaini golgappa shop which has been there for three generations now. 

Pregnant women queue up outside the shop and believe that eating panipuri from Lala's shop will help them deliver a baby boy. 

Meanwhile, Lala had promised his mother on her deathbed that he'll settle down with a girl only after he has married off his four sisters to suitable boys. 

And that's the big task at hand for the sisters, as described by matchmaker Shanu (Seema Pahwa), are a mixed variety.

While the eldest of the four, Gayatri (Sadia Khateeb) is the ideal and sensible one, Durga (Deepika Khanna) is chubby and on the heavier side, Laxmi (Smrithi Srikanth) has dusky skin that doesn't fit the society's beauty standards, and the youngest, Saraswati (Sahejmeen Kaur) is tomboyish, who has grown up watching films like Ghatak, Ghayal and Ziddi, all starring Sunny Deol.

Amid all this chaos, Lala's childhood sweetheart Sapna (Bhumi Pednekar) is desperately waiting to get married to him but only after his sisters are taken care of.

How Akshay fulfills his promise and what hardships he faces on the way is the gist of what we see in Raksha Bandhan.