Why Varun Dhawan's comedy 'Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai' feels drab, dated

Varun Dhawan has made a decent living playing the man who refuses to grow up. Once again, his father David Dhawan, in what’s billed as his last directorial venture, gives the son a character that requires Varun to be in ‘Energiser Bunny’ mode throughout.

Pause and thairaav are negligible words in the Dhawan universe of comedies that has delighted at least two generations of viewers. But the impact of those tried-and-tested funny games is fading. That’s best evident in Hai Jawaani Toh Ishq Hona Hai’s hero, who takes the cake in his ability to believe he’s beyond wrongdoing and in the sympathy he feels entitled to.

Jass’s (Varun) marriage, in its fifth year, is in doldrums because he wants to make love to his wife (Mrunal Thakur) “all the time” in the hope that she gets pregnant soon and they start a family. She, who apparently is a CEO of a company that shall never be spoken of through the course of two-odd hours, isn’t too keen to have a child now, so as to priortise a career.

Their marital acrimony ends up in court where a judge, who acts more like a relationship counsellor, lectures them and gives them six months to make things work. Theirs is a happy parting and one involving some heavy drinking.

Jass is ‘gifted’ in more ways than one—a roving eye and a propensity to fall in love. When a young woman (Pooja Hegde), on a friend’s dare, kisses him on the streets of London to thank him for saving her life back in India, he instantly rebounds into a new relationship. Hedge’s Bani has a domineering brother (Jimmy Sheirgill) who isn’t too thrilled with his sister’s choice but puts little resistance.

Dhawan’s films thrive seeing the hero land in hot mess; in this case, it sees Jass discover that both his soon-to-be ex-wife and his current girlfriend are pregnant. Over an hour is set aside to show how he ensures that either woman doesn’t come to know of his relationship with the other and to avoid a scenario where they all are in the same vicinity. That’s not only easier said than done but an overused tool to garner laughs. One gag sees Jass wear a helmet to hide his face and another sees him shuttling from one woman and room to another.

Because this is 1990s’ big daddy of comedy David Dhawan’s last film, it has a cameo by each and every yesteryear comedy stalwart—from Rakesh Bedi and Chunky Pandey to Johnny Lever and Rajpal Yadav. It’s a pity that none of them can create the joie de vivre that came to them easily back in the day.

Hai Jawaani Toh Ishq Hona Hai has this constant feeling of been-there-done-that throughout the film, with troubles, situations and jokes all seeming familiar and dated. In its core idea of caught between two women, the film is reminiscent of Dhawan’s Biwi No 1, which explains the re-imagined and not-as-good take of “Chunari Chunari”.

The so-called humourous antics here come from fat-shaming and being gay, and playing on slapstick content. But what has been funny two decades back feels archaic and occasionally distasteful now. Women exist here to fall in love with the hero or to be fetishised, as is the case with Mouni Roy in a role that’s not just cringe but also unfunny.

The bubble gum palette, which includes Jass’s primary attire of neon-coloured tiny boxer shorts, is also an overkill. If there’s one redeeming feature, it’s the clever use of Tips Music catalogue to exaggerate the situation.

“Tum kitna baat karte ho,” says Bani to Jass at one point, asking him to relax. Old habits die hard and, of course, Jass has to have the final say. By the end, with Jass now a daddy albeit still a manchild, one lives in the hope that jawaani, after all, is not permanent and ishq isn’t eternal too.

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