Cast: Ibrahim Ali Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Mahima Chaudhry, Jugal Hansraj, Archana Puran Singh, Dia Mirza, Suniel Shetty 

Crew: 

Written by Riva Razdan Kapoor, Ishita Moitra, Jehan Handa
Music by Sachin-Jigar, Tushar Lall
Cinematography by Anuj Samtani
Edited by Vaishnavi Bhate, Sidhanth Seth
Directed by Shauna Gautam
Produced by Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta, Somen Mishra

Runtime: 119 Minutes
Language: Hindi 
Genre: Romance
Release Date: 07th March, 2025
Available on OTT Platform: Netflix

Saif Ali Khan's son Ibrahim Ali Khan has debuted as an actor with the college romance, Nadaaniyan. Sridevi's second daughter Khushi Kapoor played leading lady role in the film. Suniel Shetty, Mahima Chaudhry, Jugal Hansraj, Dia Mirza and Archana Puran Singh are cast in the supporting roles in this candyfloss new-age romantic entertainer. Karan Johar produced the movie on Dharmatic Entertainment production house, the OTT wing of Dharma Productions. The movie released on 7th March and let's discuss about the film in detail. 

Plot: 

Arjun Mehta (Ibrahim Ali Khan) hails from a middle class family from Greater Noida. He aspires to be a successful lawyer. Whereas Pia Jaisingh (Khushi Kapoor) hails from a rich family from South Delhi. She is a social media influencer and sees herself as ‘a poster princess of privilege and entitlement'. As she faces peer pressure in her Falcon High School, she decides to hire Arjun as her fake boyfriend for Rs.25,000/- per month salary. He agrees for this arrangement as it helps him buy better clothes and books. 

Arjun Mehta's parents are both working professionals while Pia Jaisingh's parents' relationship is under distress with her father (Suniel Shetty) having an affair and her mother (Mahima Chaudhry) is more pre-occupied with her parties. This class difference becomes an hindrance in both Pia and Arjun's mentalities and assessment of relationships. How these two fall in "real" love after starting a "fake" romance is the story. 

Analysis: 

Ibrahim Ali Khan looked uncomfortable and highly misplaced in the character. His performance is not impressive while his looks are dashing. He needs more work to brush up his skills or find those roles like his father Saif Ali Khan that he is comfortable with. Khushi Kapoor gives apt expressions yet her dialogue delivery is once again unimpressive. Both the young actors need loads of work to be done before they can pull off such characters. 

Senior actors make the scenes work while writing for them is also just poor. A film that wants to showcase Gen-Z emotions and their dilemma needs a better premise and this story is too convoluted to start with. The class differences that the film wants to address along with Gen-Z understanding of emotions looks too outlandish. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai worked because of the emotional connect it provided glossing over the over-the-top portrayal of college life. 

Even Student of the Year had strong core but this one lacks in such compelling emotion. Yes, love dramas and romances are necessary to be made but if there are no conflicts that filmmakers can think of then they should not be made. This kind of premise and such writing is a glaring wastage of time and nothing more than that. To soft launch kids of popular stars this kind of films won't be working. This is just a forgettable film other than few scenes where senior actors take over. 

 

In Conclusion: 

Nepotism done wrong trying to follow Student of The Year and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai formulae.

Rating: 2.0/5