Review of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, directed by Ayan Mukerji

Ever since venturing out to New York and seeing Rocky aur Rani with my good friend in Times Square, I have been on such a Bollywood kick. I’ve been going on Netflix looking for new content and so far I’ve been really impressed with the amount of Hindi movies that have been on there so far.

I landed on Yeh Jawaani hai Deewani one day when I was bored during work and wanted something playing in the background, then I got pretty sucked into it if we’re going to be honest.

However, my biggest problem was that because I ended up splitting the movie into three different sittings, it really affected how I viewed the movie overall.

It was a bit more difficult to get through because of that, and I wouldn’t recommend splitting Bollywood movies up if you can. If you can sit down and commit the three hours upfront, that would be the ideal situation.

Anyways, here’s my review of the film!

A story of love and separation across a decade.

The protagonist of the movie is Naina, who is portrayed by Deepika Padukone. She’s a medical student who is just starting to realize she’s dedicated her entire life to her studies, which means she has been neglecting her social life in the meantime.

When she runs into an old classmate of hers, Aditi, at the grocery store when with her mother, she realizes that there’s a whole new world out there that she just simply has locked away all this time. She decides to go with Aditi on a hiking trip to the Himalayas, and they end up going with a group.

There, she also grows closer with some of her other former classmates, who are Bunny and Avi. Bunny is the one that Naina will grow closer to throughout this trip, and throughout the hike they end up having deep discussions about what they want from their lives.

Bunny wants to wander the world and see what it has to offer, and Naina starts having feelings for him, especially after they climb a mountain together one night. However, she’s going to realize that she might hold him back because their future goals clash.

On the other hand, Aditi has a crush on Avi, which Bunny and Naina realize but decide not to act upon. When Avi announces that Bunny got into a school in the United States for journalism, Naina gives up on her crush on Bunny, as she realizes that this isn’t going to work. She lets him go, and like Aditi, she decides not to act on her feelings.

The years pass. Naina finishes school and works for a clinic, and when she goes to the wedding of Aditi, who is now marrying an engineer, she is shocked to see Bunny has come to the wedding.

He enters with a big, grand flourish, and then it’s revealed he has been working for a travel show on a major US channel in the past few years. Avi is pissed at him though, as he thinks Bunny has been ignoring his calls.

In the meantime, Naina and Bunny continue spending more time together, then both of them start catching feelings again. At the same time, drama comes up again when Aditi’s feelings emerge for Avi, despite her saying she is now happily married and doesn’t have them.

History also comes up in these kinds of situations, and when arguments start to happen between Naina and Bunny, it forces them to grow closer. As Bunny prepares to go to France, he realizes that he can’t leave Naina behind again, and he leaves behind a golden opportunity for them to be together.

Overall Thoughts

Like I said, I had trouble focusing on the movie, but I think it was pretty decent. I liked how it split evenly between the past and the present, although I honestly thought that the two leads were lacking in chemistry at certain moments of the movie.

It’s not really complicated plotwise and is easy to understand, so I think it’s a pretty accessible Bollywood movie for those who haven’t been dipping their toes into the genre as much as I have.

The music and cinematography is also pretty good!

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