T-Series’ Junooniyat is a love story. Army captain Jahan Bakshi (Pulkit Samrat) and college-going Suhani (Yami Gautam) fall in love with one another when they meet while the latter is on a picnic with friends. However, Suhani’s father (Ravi Kemmu) is against the idea of her marrying an armyman as three of his family members – two brothers and a son – have laid down their lives working for the Indian army. Suhani’s widowed sister-in-law, Mishti (Hrishitaa Bhatt), lives with them.
Seeing that Suhani is adamant, her father agrees to the alliance if and only if Jahan would quit the army. Jahan rejects the army-quitting proposal, put forth to him by Suhani, and instead asks her to marry him and forget her family. Suhani, torn as she is between her family and Jahan Bakshi, realises that she would have to sacrifice her love.
Time passes by but the two lovers are unable to forget each other. Unaware of what’s going on in Jahan’s mind, Suhani leaves home to try one last time to see if she and Jahan can unite in matrimony. But before she can meet Jahan, she becomes a vicÂtim of a misunderstanding and returns home.
Some time later, Suhani is scheduled to get married to Yash (Gulshan Devaiah). As luck would have it, Jahan comes with the to-be-groom’s side to attend the destination wedding, clueless about who the bride is. Both, Jahan and Suhani, are shocked to meet one another under such circumstances.
What happens then? Do old sparks reignite? Does Yash get to know of Suhani’s past with Jahan? What was the misunderstanding which had made Suhani leave in a hurry, without even meeting Jahan Bakshi one last time? Is Jahan already married when he comes to attend Yash’s wedding? Does Suhani marry Yash?
Priti Singh and Vivek Agnihotri have written a story which is hackneyed – boy meets girl, the two fall in love, father of the girl objects, the two lovers sacrifice their love, meet after some time etc. What is, perhaps, worse than penning a story which belongs to an era gone by is the fact that the love is so artificial that the audience is not even saddened by the breakup of the lovers. The duo’s screenplay belongs to an era gone by. The two writers seem to believe that in today’s age of cellphones and the Internet, two young people would romance exactly in the same way as couples used to romance in the 1980s. They seem to have a heavy hangover of Yash Chopra’s cinema but except for the Punjab fields and flying leaves, there is nothing to match the late veteran’s classic cinema. The screenplay is as predictable as night following day and even the misunderstandings are borrowed from cinema of the 1980s.
If the romance is not heart-warming, the separation of the two lovers is not heart-wrenching. Their meeting again, after a long gap, hardly brings a smile on the viewers’ faces. Also, the writers have, quite needlessly, chosen to concentrate only on Suhani and her state of mind after the breakup, almost completely ignoring Jahan Bakshi once he leaves Suhani’s city.
Vivek Agnihotri’s dialogues are weak. Not much thought seems to have gone into writing the dialogues. Vivek Agnihotri has also written a lot of poetry to enhance the romantic flavour. However, the poetry has no such effect.
Pulkit Samrat does an ordinary job. He seems to be suffering from a heavy Salman Khan hangover which does him no good. And what’s it about always turning to face the camera? Yami Gautam is quite good but her I-care-a-damn-and-I’ll-have-my-way attitude doesn’t make her any more enÂdearing to the audience, which seems to be the intention. Gulshan Devaiah is average in a special appearance. Hrishitaa Bhatt hardly has anything worthwhile to do in a special appearance. Ravi Kemmu is dull in the role of Suhani’s father. Madhuri D. Bandiwadekar (as Suhani’s mother), Anoop Kamal Singh (as Suhani’s grandfather) and Jacqueline Garewal (as Suhani’s grandmother) lend poor support. S. Poonam Kaur (as Kamya) is adequate. Aneesha Joshi (as Rangoli), Harry Tangri (as DMK), Khushboo Upadhyay (as Preet), Sanjay Mehandiratta (as Jahan’s senior, Col. Bhatti), Charu Rohatgi (as Mrs. Bhatti), Shakeel Khan (as Harinder), Manoj Bakshi (as Yash’s father), Gurpreet Kaur (as Yash’s mother), Rakesh Thareja (as Yash’s elder brother), Harjeet Kaur (as Yash’s sister-in-law), Mannan Dania (as Honey), Garvil Bhatia (as Prince) and the rest pass muster.
Vivek Agnihotri’s direction, like the script, lacks novelty and is more functional than anything else. Music (Jeet Ganguli, Meet Bros.-Anjjan and Ankit Tiwari) is the real plus point of the film. All the songs are tuneful and melodious. Lyrics (Kumaar, Rashmi Virag and Manoj Muntashir) are effective. Picturisation of the songs (choreographed by Vijay Ganguly-Dimple Ganguly and Shampa Gopikrishna) are good but could’ve been more imaginative and eye-filling. Raju Singh’s background music is commonplace. Attar Singh Saini’s camerawork is of a fine standard. Vikram Dahiya’s action and stunt scenes are routine. Saini S. Johray’s production designing is fairly good. Antara Lahiri’s editing ought to have been sharper.
On the whole, Junooniyat is a poor fare, devoid of novelty. The music is the only real plus point in an otherwise insipid film. The film will, therefore, not be able to make a mark at the ticket windows.