Nadaaniyan Movie Cast/Actors: Ibrahim Ali Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Mahima Chaudhry, Dia Mirza, Jugal Hansraj, Archana Puran Singh & Others
Nadaaniyan Movie Director: Shauna Gautam
Nadaaniyan Movie Production House: Dharmatic Entertainment
Nadaaniyan Movie Release Date: 7th March, 2025
Nadaaniyan Movie Available On: Netflix OTT Platform
Nadaaniyan Movie Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
Nadaaniyan Movie Runtime: 1h 59m
Nadaaniyan Movie Critic Review:
The Principal’s dying to be cool. The acronym-loving kind of cool that says YOLO, You Only Live Once. That’s a hat tip from debut-making director Shauna Gautam to mentor Karan Johar in whose debut film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Archana Puran Singh had played the same ditzy role. The rest of the film too, continues to be Johar territory, revisited, recycled.
I’m going to cut some slack for the freshers behind and on screen. This is a new start for the director and for new hero Ibrahim Ali Khan (playing ‘Noyyda’ boy Arjun) while it’s a third attempt for Khushi Kapoor (Pia Jaisingh).
Shauna brings with her the fragrance of youth, the flavour is of Archie comics and K3G-Student of the Year brand of breeziness and cheekiness.
But it’s also too familiar a campus for either storywriter Riva Razdan Kapoor or her screenplay colleagues Ishita Moitra and Jehan Handa to take a bow. ‘Adulting’ requires telling a new story or setting out new equations.
Falcon High, a school for the elite, is the same one we’ve been seeing in movies like Farrey in which Alizeh Agnihotri made her debut in 2023. In fact, a bit of the same premise too, the rich snobs looking down on the scholarship student. Refer to Class, the 2023 web series which was based on the Spanish show Elite. They’ve all got the same snob vs scholarship divide.
The difference is that rich girl Pia Jaisingh (Khushi Kapoor), stomping over a miscommunication with her besties, hires scholarship kid Arjun (Ibrahim) to be her pretend-boyfriend. It’s a twist to the 70s’ theme of Dulhan Wohi Jo Piya Man Bhaye where a pretend-girlfriend is brought into a wealthy house. Which itself was a throwback to a 50s’ Dev Anand-Meena Kumari starrer called Tamasha which in turn was a copy of the Hollywood film It Started With Eve. Phew. So many cinematic versions of the ‘love interest on hire’.
Rich boys chasing Pia are jerks. Arjun from ‘Noyyda’ (read as downmarket) is confident, conscientious, classy in his own way. Self-respecting and proud too, of his professional parents, a doctor dad (Jugal Hansraj) and a teacher mom (Dia Mirza). In short, tailormade, oops, bespoke tailored.
I’m not sure why the writers have rich lawyers like Pia’s dad (Suniel Shetty) and her mom (Mahima Chaudhry) looking down on doctors and teachers as “not our class of people”.
It also follows a pattern that rich parents must have problems in their marriage, the dad must have ‘outside interests’, Pia must be a rich little joyless girl. But the ‘downmarket’ doctor and teacher are Arjun’s best friends. Throw in some patriarchy, a dialogue on guys discussing ‘fiscal deficit’ but not girls, and long, stretched scenes. Top it off with one gyaan-sharing monologue for each of the main players.
Now that you’ve got the picture, watch Pia-Arjun go through a spark-less friendship that must culminate in love but can be expressed only when time’s up, it’s time to wind up.
Relationship movies have a predictable goal and don’t generally deviate from a set route to get there. BG songs accompany several montages, a tired tool in storytelling.
Dialogues strive to be cool, the ‘You’re so hot, you’re responsible for the global warming’ kind of cheesy lines.
Ibrahim who bears such a strong resemblance to dad Saif Ali Khan, needs a little more time to grow on you. It’s Khushi Kapoor’s third time. She needs to buck up.
Nadaaniyan – Watch Or Not?: To use their own line, kulfi without falooda. But if you can relish Emily In Paris, maybe you can spend a bit of time to at least watch a couple of fresh faces and cool clothes.
Nadaaniyan Review Score Rating: 2 out of 5 (i.e. 2/5)
Nadaaniyan Movie Official Trailer:
Credits: Netflix
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