1 Star (out of 4)
Producer Karan Johar serves up fresh talent in the stalest of offerings — the youthful romantic comedy Nadaaniyan (“Innocence“).
Sridevi’s youngest daughter Khushi Kapoor leads Nadaaniyan, her second feature film after The Archies (both Netflix Original films). Kapoor plays rich girl Pia Jaisingh, who’s in a rough spot as she starts her senior year at an elite Delhi boarding school. Her friends Sahira (Aaliyah Qureishi) and Rhea (Apoorva Makhija) are mad at her for ignoring them all summer and failing to disclose that Sahira’s crush Ayaan (Dev Agasteya) was sending flirty text messages. Pia’s solution? Invent a fake boyfriend.
Thankfully, hunky Arjun Mehta (Ibrahim Ali Khan, son of Saif Ali Khan) just transferred to the school. His dad Sanjay (Jugal Hansraj) is a doctor, and his mom Nandini (Dia Mirza) teaches at the school, making him essentially destitute, compared to his well-heeled classmates. Arjun agrees to pose as Pia’s boyfriend in exchange for money.
If this sounds like a knock-off version of Johar’s 2012 directorial Student of the Year — another star-kid launch vehicle — that’s because it mostly is. More accurately, Nadaaniyan feels cobbled together from material deemed not good enough for SOTY, left rotting on a shelf for more than a decade. For example, the school’s principal Mrs. Braganza Malhotra (Archana Puran Singh, reviving her character from 1998’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) comically misuses youthful slang, mistaking “LOL” as meaning “lots of love.” Arjun’s big plan to get rich after he spends a half-dozen years in law school and interning is to build an app.
It’s not just that the material feels dated. It feels like it was stitched together without a care for continuity or world-building. Arjun plans to get a college athletic scholarship for swimming, but we never see him compete as a swimmer. The whole plot revolves around his debate team captaincy. Does the school even have a swim team?
The only reason Arjun’s athleticism is even mentioned is as an excuse for Khan to show his abs, which is how he becomes debate team captain (no, I’m not joking). Focusing on Khan’s and Kapoor’s physiques isn’t in itself problematic, since they’re both twenty-four, but they are playing teenagers. The camera ogles both of them in swimwear in a scene that comes before Pia’s eighteenth birthday party. If they had been written as college students, it wouldn’t feel as gross.
Of course, Arjun’s fake relationship with Pia turns into something real, especially as he builds her confidence and encourages her to dream bigger than the stereotypical girl careers like fashion that her family is pushing for. Pia’s dysfunctional family includes mom Neelu (Mahima Chaudhry), dad Rajat (Suniel Shetty), and paternal grandfather Dhanraj (Barun Chanda). The Jaisingh men are salty that Neelu could never give them a son. Neelu beats herself up for it, Rajat cheats on her, and everyone makes Pia feel like nothing more than a pretty ornament. When tensions in the Jaisingh house finally boil over, it happens so explosively that it feels out of step with the frothy tone of the rest of the film.
With two films under her belt now, Kapoor still has much to learn, but she has potential. As in The Archies, she’s shown herself an attentive performer that plays well off of others. Khan’s future is less certain. He doesn’t feel fully engaged here, though director Shauna Gautam is also partially responsible for that. The weak screenplay by Riva Razdan Kapoor, Ishita Moitra, and Jehan Handa doesn’t give anyone much to work with.
The only people who come out of Nadaaniyan looking good are Mirza and Hansraj as Arjun’s parents. There’s a real tenderness in the way they deal with their angsty son and his friends. Too bad the movie wasn’t about them.
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