Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai Review:
After reviewing innumerable Hindi films over the years, one develops a certain kind of thick skin. You can start believing that nothing can really shake your brain-matter. Then comes a film like Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai and you get a reality check. If you find yourself watching this film in the theatre and witness somebody laughing hysterically long after the punchline has passed, please excuse them. They are questioning their choices. If there can be tears of joy, there also can be guffaws of sorrow.
If it wasn’t evident till now, let me state it directly — HJTIHH is a nonsense, no-brainer of a film which can’t even be enjoyed as brainrot. It believes in freestyle storytelling where anything can happen and it does. A lot of times, it felt like the film hasn’t been written but is actually a product of on-set improvisation, that too of the unfunny kind. For his final film, it seems like director David Dhawan has reheated an outdated 90s plot and presented it to the viewers. With one man, one wife, one girlfriend and two babies enroute, the film itself seems like an illegitimate child of Biwi No. 1 (1999) and Bad Newz (2024).
Director: David Dhawan
Writers: Yunus Sajawal and Fahad Samji
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Mrunal Thakur, Pooja Hegde, Jimmy Shergill, Chunky Panday and Rakesh Bedi
The man is Jas (Varun Dhawan), a Punjabi ‘munda’ (man) who probably thinks cute looks and six pack abs make up for a personality. He is married to Bani (Mrunal Thakur) for five years but she is seeking a separation from him. The reason? He wants to make love to her without protection all the time. Jas, however, clarifies it’s not because he is a sex-addict, it is actually because he wants a baby. Both a condom brand and a pregnancy test brand — products with customer bases which can cancel out each other—are being advertised in the film.
A family court judge, who unnecessarily doubles up as a comedic, moral science lecturer, advises Jas and Bani to live separately for six months after which the divorce will be finalised. For Jas it’s a licence to cheat. He goes to London where he meets Preet and impregnates her by the second meeting. Meanwhile, Bani also flies down to give him another good (bad?) news. Now Jas has to juggle between two women in a Garam Masala (2005) like conundrum which gets as ludicrous as it progresses.
Infidelity comedy is a dated genre now but in the 90s and the mid-2000s, these films worked because people didn’t have anything better to laugh at. But it wasn’t just that — there was an honest attempt at situational comedy. You can watch those films today and call them cringe or maybe like them for pure nostalgia but you can’t deny that there was some attempt at devising genuinely funny situations. The most sincere attempt in HJTIHH comes from Varun Dhawan, trying his best to sell the silliness of it all. No word is left without play in the film. Every line of dialogue can be a setup for a punchline. The humour is at times so juvenile that you might feel like pulling your hair out. There are body-shaming quips (An elephant trumpets in the BGM whenever an overweight guy comes up on screen) and queer stereotyping and even Maniesh Paul’s otherwise funny shenanigans can’t save this film.
HJTIHH wishes to be like a leave-your-brain-at-home rip-roaring fun fest but it actually becomes a relentless hurt-your-head mishmash of random chaos and broken humour. For some reason, Jas keeps remembering the teachings of his school teachers whenever he finds himself in a fix. These flashback sequences have cameos from seasoned comedy actors like Rajpal Yadav and Johnny Lever, performers who are adept in selling the most absurdist of situations. There was a time in Hindi cinema where films in the genre of HJTIHH were considered a good time at the movies. They were wrong and problematic but for viewers, ignorance was bliss. I am sure those David Dhawan comedies, often featuring either Salman Khan or Govinda, are better in memory than in experience. The audience has grown up and moved on. It's time the makers do too.
