Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai

While relationship dynamics change with time, the sight of a breathless, sweating hero fabricating a web of escalating lies is a formula that hasn’t fossilised at the box office. The narrative pivots around wedding photographer Jass (Varun), whose five-year marriage to the career-driven Bani (Mrunal Thakur) implodes over a fundamental clash in priorities.

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai (HJTIHH) stays firmly within that familiar territory, offering a colourful blend of romance, confusion and comedy that often feels like a throwback to the filmmaker’s golden era. The problem, however, is that nostalgia alone cannot compensate for a story that often struggles to land enough laughs.

On the whole, HAI JAWANI TOH ISHQ HONA HAI is a breezy, buoyant and unapologetically mainstream entertainer that plays firmly to David Dhawan’s strengths: broad humour, colourful characters, musical energy and an instinctive understanding of what makes audiences smile. Though the first half has limited humour and offers little novelty in terms of overall storytelling, the film succeeds in its primary objective to make audiences laugh.

Overall, Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai is not a groundbreaking comedy, nor does it attempt to be one. It sticks to the familiar David Dhawan playbook and delivers exactly what it promises, an entertaining theatrical experience filled with laughs, romance, confusion and nostalgia.

There’s the unique terror of a certain Friday release. It’s the inevitable, thoroughly unwanted re-emergence of a ‘90s Bollywood comedy, rehashed with zero concessions for today’s temper.

None of the new tracks possess the infectious quality associated with classic David Dhawan entertainers. Ultimately, Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai functions as a farewell letter from a filmmaker who once defined mainstream Hindi comedy. It is loud, excessive, illogical, politically incorrect in places and completely unashamed of its silliness. Some will find it exhausting, while others may appreciate its commitment to uncomplicated entertainment. As David Dhawan's swansong, it serves as a reminder of a cinematic era when laughter often came from chaos and absurdity rather than cleverness. Whether today's generation embraces this over-the-top brand of comedy the way audiences did in the 1990s remains uncertain. But there is no denying that Dhawan exits the stage staying true to the formula that made him one of Bollywood's most successful comedy directors.

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai is not a film that will change cinema or leave you with a deep message. It is a typical old-school commercial masala entertainer that works only on one condition: that you leave your brain at home before entering the theatre. Although the first half is quite weak and the film is overly long, the madness of the second half, Varun Dhawan’s strong performance, and the entertaining confusion save it from sinking. If you simply want to laugh this weekend without any logic and are a fan of David Dhawan’s style of cinema, this film will not disappoint you. 3 out of 5 stars for Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai.

Much mehnat (effort) to watch this movie, I tell you. To start with — first day, first show at my local theatre stands cancelled.

Where there is youth, there will be romance. On this optimistic note, David Dhawan rolls out a movie based on 1990s hit songs, a hero who’s pushing 40 and dated values.

No matter how contrived and conventional they might get at times, madcap comedies like Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai have a way of trundling along no matter how frequent and imposing the roadblocks in its path are. There are plenty of them here and they do get in the way of the film becoming the pure, old-fashioned laugh riot that it aspires to be.

The premise, while flimsy, could have yielded a sharp relationship comedy. Instead, the film settles for broad slapstick and increasingly contrived situations.

If there is anything sorely disappointing in the movie, it is the music. The only songs that linger are the re-creations, including the Anu Malik song that gives the film its title.

Hai Jawani Toh... proudly wears its nonsense on its sleeve. Yet, even by the standards of a David Dhawan comedy, the first half gets off to a dull start.

Amongst the current line-up of male stars, there’s hardly anyone who can play a feckless youth, recklessly planting his seed here and there, as energetically as Varun Dhawan. Jas is a wedding photographer, wooing two lovely ladies, played by Baani (Mrunal Thakur) and Preet (Pooja Hegde), respectively.

David Dhawan’s Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai has a ratio problem. The ratio of unsurprisingly unapologetic silliness and low-hanging fruit stupidity to ‘funny’ or even mildly tolerable gags and ‘jokes’ is way off.