Review: 'Nadaaniyan' - A rom-com so bad, even Gen Z would swipe left

The Story? What Story?

The film follows Pia Jaisingh (Khushi Kapoor), a privileged, rich high-schooler (obviously) with daddy issues (obviously) who is struggling to prove herself to her patriarchal family. Enter Arjun Mehta (Ibrahim Ali Khan, making his big-screen debut), a so-called ‘intelligent’ student who, plot twist, is not as rich as the rest of the students at Falcon High. Yes, Falcon High. Because apparently, that's a totally normal name for an Indian school that looks straight out of a London catalog, complete with no uniforms, no classes, and all drama.

A misunderstanding with her friends Rhea and Sahira leads Pia to—wait for it—hire Arjun to pretend to be her boyfriend. For a whopping 25k per week. In this twisted world, money flies faster than logic, and relationships are mere transactions. What follows is a series of forced encounters, Instagram flexing, Gen-Z lingo thrown around like confetti, and a romance that has the emotional depth of a TikTok trend.

Characters? More Like Walking Stereotypes

We get it, Bollywood wants to cater to the Gen-Z crowd, but Nadaaniyan doesn't just try, it trips, falls, and crashes through every wall of common sense while doing so. The characters speak in a way that even Gen-Z themselves would cringe at, making it sound like an alien language. The dialogues are so awkwardly placed that you'd wonder if the script was written via a bad AI prompt.

And let's talk about that debate scene. Arjun wins an argument not with facts, logic, or eloquence but by lifting his shirt and flaunting his abs. That's it. That's the intellectual standard of Falcon High. Pia, impressed by this absolute display of intelligence, decides Arjun is worthy of being her fake boyfriend.

Khushi Kapoor’s Pia is your classic ‘poor little rich girl’ who is emotionally damaged because her dad (played by Suniel Shetty) is cheating on her mom (Mahima Chaudhry), who in turn is the epitome of a silent, suffering wife. Arjun, on the other hand, is the ‘good boy’ from Noida (which, in the Falcon High universe, might as well be a remote village with no access to civilization). His mother (Dia Mirza) works as a teacher at the same school, and his father (Jugal Hansraj) is a doctor because, you know, we need an educated family in the mix.

And then we have the supporting cast: Pia’s friends- Rhea played by Apoorva Mukhija and Sahira, exist purely to contribute to the film’s overall delulu energy. Their entire personalities revolve around being rich, dumb, and living in an alternate reality where problematic relationships are glorified, and self-worth is determined by Instagram followers. Archana Puran Singh, meanwhile, is given the cool principal role, spouting random abbreviations like LOL (which, according to her, means ‘lots of love’) and YOLO as if she's auditioning for a Student of the Year spoof.

A Cinematic Catastrophe

If you thought the screenplay was bad, just wait till you hear about the film's technical aspects. The dubbing is so off-sync that at times it feels like watching a badly edited soap opera from the early 2000s. The camerawork is another disaster with random zoom-ins, shaky close-ups, and unnecessary angles that add absolutely nothing to the film.

And then comes the Diwali party. A grand, over-the-top celebration with excessive glamour, glitter, and a song called Tirkit Dhoom (yes, that's a real thing). By this point, you've either mentally checked out or are laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all.

The One and a Half Good Things

The veterans, Archana Puran Singh, Suniel Shetty, Dia Mirza, Mahima Chaudhry, and Jugal Hansraj, manage to hold whatever little dignity this film has left. They aren't here to deliver groundbreaking performances; they're here for the paycheck, and honestly, we don't blame them. They do their job, say their lines, and exit with their heads held high. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the leads, who have the chemistry of two wooden planks forced to act like they're in love.

The Verdict

Watching Nadaaniyan feels like being stuck in a never-ending loop of bad decisions, poor writing, and absurd storytelling. It's not just a bad film—it's an exhausting one. The plot is paper-thin, the performances are robotic, and the dialogues sound like they were written by someone who learned about Gen-Z culture through outdated Twitter threads.

If you have two hours to spare and enjoy watching train wrecks in slow motion, then sure, give it a go. Otherwise, save yourself the headache and rewatch Mean Girls instead. At least that movie knew what it was doing.