Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani: Coming-of-Age, Bollywood Style

Every once in a while, Bollywood gets something right and I post about it on this blog. Last night I went to see Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and was thoroughly entertained for two and a half hours. Here's a movie that knows how to hit all the right notes and keep you satisfied.

The movie is written and directed by Ayan Mukerji but it is patently obvious that it is produced by Karan Johar. The setup is very Joharian (if I may coin such a term), with the pre-intermission events consisting of a flashback to a glorious hiking trip that the characters took one summer in college, and the post-intermission story focusing on what kind of adults these people have become and their assorted triumphs and failures. And of course, their love stories. Because where would we be in Indian cinema without unrequited love?

Ranbir Kapoor plays Bunny (real name Kabir), your typical free spirit who wants to flirt and flit across the globe. Deepika Padukone is the bespectacled Naina, the swotty medical student who has never had any fun. When she runs into her old schoolmate Aditi (played by one of the best actresses around these days, Kalki Koechlin) she decides on a whim to drop her books and join Aditi, Bunny, and their friend Avi (Aditya Roy Kapur) on a hiking trip. Over the course of the trip we discover that Aditi is carrying a torch for Avi, Naina is falling in love with Bunny, and of course the boys are clueless and messing around with their fellow hikers, including a nitwit named Lara (played by Evelyn Sharma, who can barely speak Hindi and was only there to prance around in some shorts and waste the audience's time). 

Anyway, everyone's feelings stay marvelously repressed over the course of the entire trip and at intermission, Bunny has flown off to Chicago on a journalism scholarship and seemingly achieved his dreams. After intermission though, we flash forward eight years when he returns to India for Aditi's wedding. And that's when we fill in the blanks about what everyone has been up to and where they might end up.

Bollywood is always churning out coming-of-age stories but this one truly brims with insight and good humor. While Ranbir and Deepika are supposed to be the main couple, Kalki Koechlin steals the show and brings a lot of joy to every scene she's in. It's not Deepika's fault that she's overshadowed - she's playing the introverted character, so it makes sense that she is mostly forgotten amidst the hi-jinx exhibited by Kalki and Ranbir. All of the main actors do a fantastic job, and Ayan Mukerji has written a wonderful story that never gets bogged down in sentiment. Every heavy moment is quickly lightened with a joke and no one is allowed to wallow for long. 

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is an excellent template for future Bollywood romcoms, given its emphasis on well-developed characters that don't take themselves too seriously. It has the usual problems of some pointless characters that detract from the story and one too many musical numbers (though the soundtrack is foot-tappingly good), but these are minor faults in the execution of a splendid movie. Watching with a raucous Indian crowd in a packed theater is probably the best way to see this film, so find your local Indian cinema and spend some quality time with the best that Bollywood has to offer.