Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai Review: Led by Varun Dhawan and featuring Mrunal Thakur and Pooja Hegde, this is a bright and crazy entertainer, demanding the audience to not think too much about it and just accept the ride. Everything that has been David Dhawan’s hallmark is present; bungled identity, romantic flummox, slick production look, catchy songs and too-jumbo comedy moments. On the surface, it offers a ton of laughs, particularly given the central theme of a crumbling marriage, competing life aspirations and an ever-complicated love triangle. Sadly, the cast embraces the madness with great enthusiasm, but the film’s attempts to deliver continuously entertaining comedy don’t quite succeed. Although it’s vibrant in performance and presentation, the jokes are stale, the emotional motivation isn’t particularly developed and fun is never quite as intense as it should be.
The movie starts with the protagonists of the film, Varun Dhawan and Mrunal Thakur, being already married, but on the verge of separation. It’s now gotten to the courtroom because they want very different things for life. Varun’s character is very much desiring a child, whereas Mrunal’s character is the ambitious CEO who is not interested at this age to become a mother. Interesting set up that could have been a case of emotional conflict, relationship drama, even comedy.
Rather, the film takes a fast turnaround. Pooja Hegde’s character also comes into the picture, which gives an opportunity to Varun’s character and he flies with great speed. But soon it becomes total chaos. Neither of the women is told the full truth, and both becomes pregnant, and the man caught in the middle abstains from telling the truth. After that, the film takes the bulk of its runtime to examine the complications brought by this increasingly ridiculous scenario.
The concept of a man having two romances is nothing new in Hindi films. I have spotted this recipe in movies starring Govinda, Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar. The issue does not lie with the familiarity. Problem is that the screenplay doesn’t always come up with a new or really funny angle. The film keeps veering towards the extreme comedic moments, but not many do make it.
There isn’t really any such thing as a universally funny film, but one thing that I just found myself laughing at for the entirety of the movie. Out of all the jokes, the one that actually fit me was when there was a character who said, “The only person that was this young was Shah Rukh Khan in Jawan”. I was surprised at that line, got a big laugh out of it. On top of that, I was waiting for most of the time for the next comic highlight that never came.
The thing I found unfortunate was the fact that it seems Varun Dhawan has poured his heart out into the film. He takes the job with a passion, enthusiasm and commitment. His charm hasn’t left him, and there were a few scenes where I thought, ‘Yeah, I think I’m going to have a good time watching this…’ I really appreciate your hard work. But when the content doesn’t gel, it doesn’t matter how committed a performer is, it just won’t work.
Secondly, I felt that both Mrunal Thakur and Pooja Hegde were not given enough meaningful content. Both actresses are confident and glamorous, but their characters are sometimes like passengers in a vehicle which has no driver except a plot based on misunderstandings. The story always recedes at the moment it looks as if it is about to deal with the emotional implications of the story’s central conflict. Any serious moment is teased before it can take root and grow.
The film definitely knows how to impress in the visuals department. Production design is crisp, locations are lavish, costumes are stylish and overall it’s big-budget entertainment. No one who seeks for glam will be disappointed. The songs are also fairly listenable on screen, aided by some pretty cinematography and plentiful movement.
The music in general, however did not go with me. Remixed and reused tracks are heavily used in the film to add humour and excitement to scenes. These musical selections more often than not seemed like an imposition on the comedy. I didn’t think the score did much to enhance the film, but some of the songs were nice to listen to while watching.
In another interesting role is actor Rakesh Bedi, who plays a supporting role. He’s an incredibly gifted actor and his presence will be a reminder that bad writing can’t be saved by good actors. The screenplay fails to give some of these strong performances enough to make them stick with several scenes just not being memorable.
Engagement was my main challenge. Following the interval pause I started to wonder. The story never really gained any momentum, repeating the same comic beats. I was one of those times when I was more interested in checking my phone watching what was happening on the screen, a bad sign for a comedy meant to get the audience’s attention.
I do feel that there’s an audience for this film though. But I’m sure family viewers will relate to it more than I did, because it’s so colourful and uncomplicated. The movie’s mission is simple: give you 2 hours and 16 minutes of fun without having to think too hard about it. I get that intention, all right. Just didn’t get me the result I wanted.
Attractive stars, glossy visuals and an energetic performance by Varun Dhawan as the lead makes Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai an attractive film. Sadly, the weak gags were hard to stomach, the repetitive gags were hard to get through and the lack of emotional depth was hard to stomach. I wanted to laugh more, care more, and connect more but the film didn’t provide me with enough reason to do any of those things.
Rating: 2/5
