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Published : 10 Mar 2025, 06:50 PM
Dharma Productions’ umpteenth high school romcom “Nadaaniyan” premiered on Netflix on Mar 7.
The film marks the debut of Saif Ali Khan’s son Ibrahim Ali Khan, alongside Sri Devi’s daughter Khushi Kapoor, living up to the production house's industry label as the “flag bearer of nepotism”.
While many up-and-comers have struggled to shake off the stigma associated with the seemingly "undeserved" opportunities handed to children of Bollywood stars, recent hits like "Maharaj" show that audiences are overlook the nepotism allegations when an actor is truly dedicated to their craft.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for “Nadaaniyan”, the watered down version of Dharma’s 2012 blockbuster, “Student of the Year”.
The movie's plot is the same old wine in a new bottle -- so predictable that even the phrase to describe it feels like a cliché.
Khushi plays the role of Piya Jaisingh, a rich girl from South Delhi, who calls herself “a poster princess of privilege and entitlement”.
Ibrahim, on the other hand, is the outsider Arjun Mehta, who is lucky to be breathing the same air as the rest of his hoity-toity classmates.
Both of them study in a posh high school where the entry requirements focus more on financial status than academic abilities, except for a few exceptionally gifted students like Arjun. Piya hires Arjun to pose as her boyfriend on the internet in exchange of 25,000 rupees.
The couple end up falling in love but struggle to navigate their confusing emotions, hurting each other in the process, only to get back together for their happily-ever-after in the last 15 minutes.
The plot is predictable, but even simple plots can often pass as a good watch, thanks to the acting or visuals.
That is not the case for “Nadaaniyan”, where the acting is as stiff as Ibrahim’s well-tones abs.
Ibrahim, a hand-me-down version of his father Saif, was the main attraction in this movie.
Ibrahim frequently took to TikTok during the COVID lockdowns, sharing humorous videos that highlighted his acting skills.
His body language while portraying two men arguing over whose lost wife to find first was a delightful nod to his father’s comedic style from the 2010s.
So, his monotonous deliveries in Nadaaniyan disappointed many budding fans.
His dubbed voice was also noticeable, partly due to the low-effort post-production edits but also due to the audience’s familiarity with his voice, which closely resembles his father’s.
But this decision to dub the actor’s dialogues may have come from a place of insecurity, as multiple videos of Ibrahim interacting with the paparazzi and his sister have shown him to have a slight speech impediment.
Khushi’s performance was consistent with her last three films — in the sense that there wasn’t much of it on screen.
Her expressions were lacklustre, to the point where it doesn’t leave much to criticise.
She struggled to portray the “poor rich girl" trope, which should have come a lot easier to her, considering her social background.
At this rate, she is well on her way to wrest the title of Bollywood’s most hated nepo-baby from Ananya Panday, who at least has finally come into her own in her TV show, “Call Me Bae”.
A stellar supporting cast, featuring veteran actors like Suniel Shetty, Dia Mirza, Mahima Chaudhry, and Jugal Hansraj, were all in their element, but it did little to redeem the corny flick. However, Jaaved Jaferi’s son, Meezan Jafri, stole the show as Kunwar Rudra Pratap Singh. His cameo in the Tirkit Dhoom dance sequence drew comparisons to Shah Rukh Khan’s iconic appearance in "Mast Kalandar" from “Heyy Babyy”.
The movie was riddled with previously successful Dharma movie references, so much so that they did a rehash of Archana Puran Singh’s role as Ms Briganza from “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”.
It also has an overload of Gen Z terms in a futile attempt to make the movie more palatable to younger audiences.
The trend is noticeably prevalent in recent Bollywood romances and was one of the main points of criticism for Khushi Kapoor’s previous movie, “Loveyapa”.
In the end, “Nadaaniyan” remains a hodgepodge of everything and nothing.
The out-of-sync dubbing got Ibrahim more flak than a few minutes of his stammering would have.
Khushi’s focus on fashion and her figure has made the audience turn away from her as an artist. The movie even attempted to redeem its mindless plot by throwing in a few dialogues about toxic masculinity, but that was not enough to satisfy its “woke” audience.
The only silver lining of “Nadaaniyan” is that it makes audiences appreciate “Student of the Year” as an artistic masterpiece.
The Karan Johar directorial faced similar criticism for its overly glamorous and unrealistic portrayal of high school romance.
However, compared with the films Dharma has churned out over the past decade, “Student of the Year” now feels like an intellectual, thought-provoking cinematic feat.
