A gossamer-thin romantic comedy that comes across as Karan Johar’s latest home assignment for star kids to pass the Bollywood entrance test, Nadaaniyan doesn’t pass muster. Reflecting the armchair sensibility of the Bandra school of filmmaking, the love story strains credibility and tests patience. Its nebulous ideas on education are irritating, and the cultural context of Delhi-NCR is deeply annoying. Moreover, when a dated plot is ploughed by stock characters, it invariably yields meagre returns.
Led by debutant director Shauna Gautam, a troika of writers promises to provide insights into adulting. Set in an elite school, the film follows Pia Jaisingh (Khushi Kapoor) as she hires a middle-class student, Arjun Mehta (Ibrahim Ali Khan), as her boyfriend to secure the trust of her BFFs. As they come close, the pretense gives way to a predictable relationship, leading to cosmetic complexities that weigh a few Instagram-worthy reels.
While Pia gets caught between the acrimonious relationship of her parents, played by Mahima Chaudhry and Suniel Shetty, Arjun finds his folks (Dia Mirza and Jugal Hansraj) intruding on his life choices.
As the tension mounts and insecurities surface, the screenplay turns into a paragraph-writing exercise on parenting and the emotional turbulence that teenagers face on the cusp of adulthood. The commentary on patriarchal mores in affluent families remains superficial, and the references to Ivy colleges are repeatedly dropped without doing basic research. The wisecracks don’t land. Even Archana Puran Singh, reprising Miss Braganza’s role of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, fails to energise the proceedings. As for finding true love, the distractions are written in such a lopsided manner that the outcome of a love story is never in doubt.
Nadaaniyan is Khushi’s third film in a short span, and one can see an incremental growth in her performance. Her voice quality is strikingly similar to Janhvi’s, and like her sister, Khushi might not be able to make a weak character shine, but she remains honest to the part.
It goes without saying that Ibrahim is a true copy of his father, Saif Ali Khan. An aquiline nose, a firm jawline, and innocence in his eyes are all there to notice, but the boy has yet to befriend the camera and seems to be reading his lines instead of rendering them. The writers and the technical team have done their bit to hide the limitations behind the abs and Manish Malhotra’s outfits, but it doesn’t work. There is an X factor hiding somewhere in this celebration of fopperies, but, for now, it is not legible.
Nadaaniyan is currently streaming on Netflix
Published – March 07, 2025 01:48 pm IST
