Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai movie review: David Dhawan’s 90s-style comedy is plain cringe

With BFF Maniesh Paul in tow, Jas is kept busy shuttling between India and the UK, beaches and castles, lawns and hospitals, as both women celebrate their bumps, and the prospective-daddy-o jumps through hoops to keep them separate, and unaware of each other.

Other characters keep popping up to deliver their lines and disappear: as befits the supporting cast in a Dhawan film, their job is to not ask why. Jimmy Sheirgill, as Preet’s strict brother, gushing over a dancer (Mouni Roy) who is pulled out of nowhere, keeps a straight face while delivering the most inane lines. Bit parts are divided between old partner-in-crime Chunky Panday, the newly-resurgent Rakesh Bedi, and the omnipresent Johnny Lever, and others, and it’s all same-old.

Keeping in mind Dhawan Sr’s trajectory, we don’t really mind that the plot is wafer-thin. Who cares about a meaty storyline when all you need is for your cast to be careering around streets in lime-green cars, when not donning scanty beach-wear, and playing musical beds? What emerges, all too soon, is a slew of distinctly creaky, dated situations, which worked well enough in the 90s, and which should have been buried deep soon after.

Also Read – Gullak Season 5 review: Smiles come laced with impatience as show leaves middling impact

What worked for a flagrantly politically incorrect time when the team of David Dhawan- Govinda-Kader Khan-Shakti Kapoor skilfully skated through the thin ice of vulgarity and hilarity comes off as plain cringe now: what do you say of a ‘hero’ who turns his twice-impending fatherhood into a ‘Who’s Your Daddy’ joke, giving himself a clean pass, while setting himself up for a third go round?

Just like the plot, the laughs are wafer-thin.

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai movie cast: Varun Dhawan, Mrunal Thakur, Pooja Hegde, Maniesh Paul, Jimmy Sheirgill, Mouni Roy, Chunky Panday, Rakesh Bedi, Ayesha Raza Mirza
Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai movie director: David Dhawan
Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai movie rating: One and a half stars