Bunny (Ranbir Kapoor) and Naina (Deepika Padukone) are as different as two people can be – he’s flighty and wants to soar to great heights (even if it means he has to fail sometimes), while she prefers staying grounded and needs to succeed at everything. Yet, their paths cross when Naina, on a whirlwind, joins Bunny and his two friends, Aditi and Avi (Kalki Koechlin and Aditya Roy Kapur) on their vacation. But can two people who want different things find some common ground?
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is, in essence, a mix of some tried-and-tested formulas – there’s a cool-guy-nerd-girl pairing, a fun vacation that will change their lives, a wedding setting to seal the deal. It’s everything you’ve already seen before, put together and repackaged in Ayan Mukerji style – which means that there’s more attention to detail, subtler moments, lighter dialogue and relatable (yet quirky) characters.
One wishes, then, that Ayan was a little more of himself and a little less of Karan Johar (though how much you can judge a director’s style by one film is also up for debate), because the film is most enjoyable at the parts where Ayan’s touch shows through – those simpler moments, the kind of which made us fall in love with Wake Up Sid. This time around, it’s a much filmier fare, not least because of the excess length that could have been done away with.
But honestly, at the end of the day, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is one of those films you don’t want to review, mostly because you don’t want to think too hard about it or pay too much attention to its flaws. Instead, you want to enjoy the film for what it is – and what it is is an entertaining, light-hearted film where everyone acts well and there’s a lead pair that oozes chemistry in every frame. Forget Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone as an off-screen couple – the real magic happens on-screen.
Sure, it’s formulaic, but it’s a formula that I, personally, enjoy. Between the acting, the fun moments, great music and an item number by Madhuri Dixit (who absolutely kills it), this one is worth the price of the ticket. By the end of it, I was simultaneously smiling over the magic of a sweet love story and lamenting the fact that I may not have a similar, big Bollywood romance.
Verdict:
Worth a watch!
With inputs from Amruta Khatavkar.