Oh, how I miss the times when some films were solely meant to entertain. A cheesy, easy-breezy romantic comedy that made us feel hopeful about love and life, with some light-hearted comedy, and a story that was far from being realistic. Promised to give us a similar kind of experience, a new film titled Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari released in theatres this week. Directed by Shashank Khaitan, the film stars Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor, Sanya Malhotra and Rohit Saraf. One might think that it gave away a lot in the trailer, but that’s not true. Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari keeps the suspense of who wins over whom till the very end, but during this ride, it tests our patience and how!
Plot
As the trailer explained, the film revolves around Sunny Sanskari (Varun Dhawan) and Tulsi Kumari’s (Janhvi Kapoor) plan of crashing the exes, Ananya (Sanya Malhotra) and Vikram Singh’s (Rohit Saraf) wedding only to win them back. They pretend to be a hot couple, madly in love with each other with hopes that the act would made their exes jealous. To some extent their plan does work, but, this journey only becomes complicated as feelings change, realisations happen, and each character begins to understand the meaning of true love. Ahh filmy enough?
Although, I would still not break the suspense of who ends up together in the end. In the supporting characters, we see Maniesh Paul as the wedding planner, Abhinav Sharma as Bantu (Sunny’s best friend), Akshay Oberoi as Param (Vikram’s brother) and Dharnaa (Tulsi’s Best Friend).
Performances
Varun Dhawan’s Sunny Sanskari is no different than Badri and Humty Sharma. Rather a mix of both! The actor is at ease in this character, and while some of his jokes land, most of them doesn’t.
Janhvi Kapoor as Tulsi Kumar is a character that as a woman, I tried hard to relate with, but alas, I couldn’t. The actor delivers what’s expected of her but the superficial nature of this character makes it less likeable.
Sanya Malhotra and Rohit Saraf are mostly the spectators throughout and I would’ve loved to see some light shed on their characters too. Their stories felt undercooked and rushed.
Maniesh Paul was handed a list of one-liner jokes as dialogues with expectations that some would definitely evoke laughs. And a few did! But in the end, it was more about the quantity than the quality! Also for a wedding planner, he was too involved in the wedding TBH!
Writing
Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari has a plot that is not even a brainrot, let alone entertaining. The film is problematic and outdated on various levels despite preaching about modernity, women’s rights in marriage and career, and of course, the comments on patriarchy. The plot keeps contradicting itself. And the simple justification to back this point becomes the fact that Tulsi tries to rekindle with her ex Vikram Singh by changing her entire personality, the usual transformation from Parvati To Poo!
It shows bromance between Sunny and Vikram, but the dynamic between Tulsi and Ananya boils down to only catfights, jealousy, and body insecurities. The parallels were so evident in a few scenes that it’s difficult not to point it out!
Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari tries to be more than just a twisted love story of four individuals. It does so by touching upon themes like- unrealistic expectations set for daughters in marriage, the control over a woman’s life and career by in-laws, the hypocrisy of rich families with regressive mindset, and the idea of a girl being “boring” just because she dresses a certain. But the film miserably fails to put across any of the above-mentioned points with conviction and seriousness.
In an attempt to overexplain and over-dramatise, Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumar ends up becoming a dragged rom-com, that’s hollow and emotionally disconnected. To top it all, there are a number of songs randomly placed in between the non-existent plot in the backdrop of an extravaganza wedding in Udaipur, and all this for an outcome that feels predictable since the beginning.
Verdict
Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari is all show and no substance. The film’s story is weak, forced, and lacks any kind of depth. It was hard to feel invested in the film because at any point, it makes you feel so. In 2025, a love story of this sort is not just hard to buy, but also lowkey feels unacceptable even as entertainment. While there were a few jokes and hearty moments that made me smile, but it’s too little to mention. The performances are forgettable and so is the film. It’s currently running in the theatre.