The film needed more humour and less drama, but Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Rohit Saraf, and Sanya Malhotra make a wonderfully crazy foursome, and their good vibes carry the sometimes-shaky story through to the finish line. That was the short review. A longer analysis follows, and it may contain spoilers.
Varun Dhawan plays the first part of the title of Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari, and Janhvi Kapoor plays the last part. Sanya Malhotra and Rohit Saraf play Ananya and Vikram. The screwball plot goes like this. Sunny loves Ananya, but she says they are not in a relationship but a… situationship. Tulsi loves the super-rich Vikram, but he is pressured by his family to find someone more suited to their status. Due to various off-screen reasons, Vikram and Ananya decide to get married. The heartbroken Sunny and the even-more-heartbroken Tulsi decide to gate-crash the expensive wedding and reclaim their respective lovers. The film begins very well, but after a while the rom-com becomes a sentimental romantic drama, and then there’s some course correction and we get a big, happy-making ending that leaves you with both a silly grin and some mild annoyance at having to endure a lot of leaden stuffing between the good parts.
By leaden stuffing, I mean stretches like the one where Vikram’s sister-in-law wants to pursue her fashion-designing ambitions in Paris, but her husband and mother-in-law won’t hear of it. Shashank Khaitan has directed the film and co-written it with Ishita Moitra. I wanted to shake both of them by the shoulders and tell them that this is not Thappad 2. We all know the value of women’s stories, but this is neither the time nor the place. Look how much better the film is when it makes similar points with a lighter touch. Ananya’s mother refers to Vikram as “looks mein Kohli aur attitude mein Dravid”. The comparisons make you smile, and also (as Ananya later points out), we see that daughters are often given the best education only so that their marriage bio-data ends up looking good. The mother ends up confusing the daughter about the kind of man she should marry, and this ends up screwing with Ananya’s head.
Other bits of leaden stuffing include the song-and-dance sequences. Why don’t we get better music these days? I still end up watching ‘Dilli wali girlfriend’ whenever it pops up, but I can’t recall a single tune from Sunny Sanskari. As for the sad, sentimental songs, don’t even ask. Do we even need them in a film like this? By “a film like this”, I mean a film where Sunny dresses up like Baahubali and his best friend comments: “Ranveer Singh ki dhoti mein Prabhas ka paudha lag raha hai.” I burst out laughing, because Varun looks so wonderfully ridiculous and also because the friend (Abhinav Sharma) is hilarious. When this friend gives Sunny a bad idea, Sunny says, “Tu kisi bus ke neeche jaake mar ja.” We needed more of this very funny, very lively, very hammy bromance. Maniesh Paul is also killer as a wedding planner, organising events like a Wedding Yoga Day because… “a fit couple is a hit couple.”
When in rom-com mode, the film works like a charm. Rohit Saraf and Sanya Malhotra are well-cast. They are practically parallel leads. But Sunny Sanskari belongs to Varun Dhawan (first) and Janhvi Kapoor (next). They are excellent in their individual scenes, and they’re even better together. Janhvi puts over a character with some self-esteem issues, and a simple line like “Mujhe bahut maza aa raha hai” becomes something of a character arc. We see Tulsi blooming in Sunny’s presence. Towards the end, Tulsi says, “Sunny ke saath sirf teen din rehke main khud se pyar karne lagi,” and you agree. Being with Varun in this mode can make anyone feel joyous about life. Whether cracking an SRK joke or getting emotional about his love life, Varun is simply aces. We say things like “he is stepping out of his comfort zone” when he does a Badlapur or an October, but while smiling through Sunny Sanskari, I wanted Varun to remain in his “comfort zone” forever. No one else in Hindi cinema today can do the Salman-Govinda mix like he can. And he does it with utter sincerity. The finishing stretch is a joy, and I left the theatre on a small high. When it comes to star chemistry and laughs and tears, there hasn’t been something like this since – I guess – Rocky Aur Rani. The long wait between the two films makes you easily overlook the flaws.
