Movie Review - Dil Juunglee – by Suhel Johar

Dil Juunglee Is A Romantic Fiasco

Aren’t we really done with the boring love stories where the hero and the heroine lived happily ever after? Dil Juunglee is an age-old story, told with a hundred stereotypes, none of which helps it. Revolving around the beaten to death formula, everything about the film is so clichéd and predictable.

Koroli aka Koro (Taapsee Pannu), an avid reader of love stories wishes to have one of her own, straight from the novels. She is the sole child of a London based business tycoon, settles in Delhi to fulfill her ‘pursuit of happiness’. Much to her dad’s disappointment, she has no interest in upgrading herself as an entrepreneur and wants to settle down with a man and be a mother to her future kids. She teaches English at the British Council in New Delhi which makes her feel content and satisfied in her own way.

Sumit (Saqib Saleem), a typical Lajpat Nagar ‘launda’, wants to make it big as an actor in Bollywood. He works as the star trainer at a local gym and has clearly worked on his aesthetics and physique. But unfortunately for him he is stuck with struggling advertisement projects given by his manager to make a few grands.

He joins Koroli’s English class at the Language School. Initially meeting one another as a teacher and student, their proximity escalades when they meet each other in a nightclub. This creates the path for attraction and the radically opposite duo gets close to one another. But the sooner they fall in love, the sooner they get out of it, when they decide to runaway together and end up on an adventurous trek. Both of them realize that they want different things from life and end up separating.

Seven years later, koroli, who is now a successful businesswoman, falls in love with a real-estate manager. In unnatural circumstances, Sumit comes back in her life, and the duo ends up falling in love all over again together.

Director Aleya Sen, an ad film director who marks her feature film debut, who has also written the film tries every trick in the book to make Dil Juunglee relatable to the young audience. Sadly, Sen has also included every cliché and stereotype available in Hindi cinema — rich father hates his daughter because she is interested in literature and not ‘numbers’ and MBA, is only one of them. If some characters are allowed to go over the top, there are some situations in the film that are absolutely juvenile. The talented lead duo Tapsee Pannu and Saquib Saleem try hard to infuse some life into it but they suffer on account of inconsistent characterisations and all their efforts fall flat and the movie just doesn’t work. 

Direction by Aleya Sen is unimaginative, lazy and lifeless due to some very weak writing.  If the film’s story written by Akeya is archaic, the screenplay by Tonoya Sen Sharma and Shiv Singh is banal and ineffectual. Cinematography by Amol Rathod is not good. Editing by Dev Jadhav is below average. Music by Guru Randhawa and Rajat Nagpals is just about okay.

Performancewise, Taapsee Pannu and Saqib Saleem do their best but their best is not enough to infuse any life in the film. Nidhi Singh, Abhilash Thapiyal, Srishti Shrivastava and the rest of the cast pass muster.

On the whole, though Dil Juunglee is supposed to be a rom-com but the film has neither romance nor comedy to keep you attracted.