- Date of Release: 02 October 2025
- Genre: Romance, Comedy
- Language: Hindi
- Watch On: Theatres Only
Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari
Introduction
If the new Hindi film Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari was to be equated with a word, then that (one of the many) word (s) would be ‘pointless’. This is because the biggest spoiler lies in the title – something that tells you on how the film is going to end. There would be artificial excitement here and there, wherein the filmmakers would like you to believe that there is a twist around the corner, almost moulding the film into an Abbas Mustan-esque Rom-Com – but no, the degree of predictability is as clear as day and night. And that brought me to a conclusion – is this movie a result of a V-Lookup on an excel sheet wherein every event is inspired from another film. For instance, you are introduced to Sunny (Varun Dhawan) who is a huge fan of Bahubali, but that is just a stray reference that never circles back to the plot. His bestie (Abhinav Sharma) is a Rocky Aur Ranii Ki Prem Kahaani sidekick that is a derivative of the same character that Abhinav had essayed. There is a Mr India number somewhere, a Bijuriya remix elsewhere, and a Rom-Com that offers neither romance nor comedy, just plain frustration! And when the film ends, you wonder – was it even necessary?
Story & Screenplay
Written by Shashank Khaitan and Ishita Moitra, the problem with Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari (SSKTK) is that it heavily wishes to sell the ‘brainrot’ 90s nostalgia of many such Govinda comedies that offered unhinged entertainment. But the reality remains – there can only be one Govinda, and Varun Dhawan isn’t the ‘Chosen One’. And Janhvi Kapoor – The Tulsi Kumari here – isn’t Karishma Kapoor either. In short, the film is a recipe for a disaster right from the word go, wherein I remember telling my fellow critic that ‘We Are In Trouble Already’, minutes into the film. And much of it had to do with the tone of the comedy that was superloud – almost like listening to a comedy podcast in full speaker mode. As a result, my facial muscles refused to budge even as I stayed still paralyzed for the duration of the film.
The premise of SSKTK is a one liner – Sunny is heartbroken about his proposal-gone-wrong moment with his rich-girlfriend Ananya (Sanya Malhotra), wherein he learns that she is now marrying a rich good-looking boy Vikram (Rohit Saraf), who in turn is the ex of Tulsi Kumari (Janhvi Kapoor). There is a meta-commentary on insiders threatened with the alliance of outsiders somewhere but that is hardly bothersome for a production house like Dharma. The commentary on the class divide is hardly a talking point here – almost restricting itself to Vikram’s elder brother Param (Akshay Oberoi) casually pointing out that ‘poor’ Tulsi is a homebreaker just because her mother had left her father. There is a commentary on gender equality involving the same character who discourages his wife Rakhi (Manini Chadha) to attend a programme in France. But the film just wishes to be a frivolous entertainer – nothing wrong with that except that the gags are utterly unfunny and borderline cringe!
Circling back to the main plot, Sunny and Tulsi team up to not only attend their exes’ wedding but secretly also plan to win over their exes. There is a grand entry, some lavish clothes, some coochy cooes, a wild wedding planner who would once have been Sunny in this Sunnyverse, a standard Dharma joke on the middle class even as a character is said to earn Rs 25K as opposed to the other ‘upper class’ earning Rs 30K…to name a few. In all of it, I haf to train my mind by repeating ‘ROFL in 3…2….1’, even as I lay motionless. The proceedings almost resembled that one unfunny uncle at a wedding that would grab you to tell you a joke, in an expectation that you will burst out laughing. Luckily, I can criticize here as opposed to fake laughing myself through that wedding because there are no relatives in sight in this film.
Ironically, the softer moments in the narrative aren’t as bad in the first hour, even as you see a subdued Sunny trying to console Tulsi who feels that her dated name is the reason why Vikram left her. The reasoning is frivolous but atleast the mood is somewhat decent. And the irony doesn’t end there – some of the most unintentional bouts of humour lay in the second hour even as you see Sunny and Tulsi going on a safari in Rajasthan a day before their exes’ marriage (LOL #1), them trying to spot a leopard that is nowhere in sight but they happen to spot villagers with colourful attire taking a stroll in the middle of a forest (LOL #2).
There are confusions on who has feelings for who – in an UNO Reverse moment – wherein Ananya fishes for Sunny who fishes for Tulsi who is confused on whether to fish for Vikram or Sunny or both. I bet that someone like a Nolan would never be able to conceive this concept while in a parallel world, this story could have been called Race 4 with the title ‘Race Saason Ki’ aka ‘Mother-In-Laws’ Race’, but then I have stopped making sense now, just like the film. And when the derivative of a derivative of a derivative times infinity makes its presence felt in a derivative climax wherein a character’s wedding is (almost) called off twice, you just know how lame the humour and the writing is. If only Katappa could have bumped off this ‘Bahubali’ at the start of the film….
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are ultra-loud wherein even a speck of comedy doesn’t land, even as the characters repeatedly tried punching me in the stomach to make me laugh. Guess what – my stomach did hurt but NOT with laughter. The music and the BGM are either derivative hits of the yesteryear numbers or just so unmemorable, that not one song did stick in my psyche. And the songs appear out of nowhere, even as the characters are made to crawl as an aftereffects of them – just like how I felt after the film. The cinematography adds to the grandeur of the film, with some beautiful wide-shots that capture the serenity of the location and the aesthetics of the interiors rather well.
The editing is probably the low-hanging fruit of the already low hanging tree – just being a collection of shots put together while treating each sequence in isolation. Director Shashank Khaitan fairs marginally better than his previous dud Govinda Naam Mera, but that really doesn’t say much does it? He just doesn’t account for the tone of the drama that goes from high to low to high in a matter of a few scenes. But the joke is really on me for looking for logic and asking for more in terms of the entertainment quotient. Neither are the characters memorable nor are their antics or their one-liners or their romance or their humour…..I could go on and on but the direction here is truly directionless!
Performances
The performances are absolutely off colour wherein the only levels of subtlety you get is from the brand integrations – atleast they remain silent in the film which is a marketing win! The only actors who manage to leave a mark are Maniesh Paul as Kuku, Dharna Durga as Dharna and Abhinav Sharma as Bantu, simply because they did understand the pitch of the film and ways to extract humour around it. Manini Chadha as Rakhi (and her subplot) is hardly there wherein she is heavily underutilized. Akshay Oberoi as Param is decent but again woefully underwritten as a character. Rohit Saraf as Vikram is such a miscast here given how his dialogue delivery tapered the humour all the more, even though he did outshine Varun Dhawan in dancing. I also feel sorry for someone like Sanya Malhotra (and her character Ananya), given how she tries but the written material just doesn’t exude any confidence with the proceedings. As a result, I was left unsure whether to sympathize with her or ridicule her or just be confused about her stand.
Janhvi Kapoor after a brilliant outing last week in the form of Homebound, is back to square one. Her expressions are on point but her nasal dialogue delivery is woefully off, and subsides every iota of humour from the scene. In fact, I was wondering on how was she cast as a Delhi girl here – a ‘Mismatch’ as criminal as her casting in Param Sundari. She was quite aweful here, and she needs to really reflect on the choices of roles going forward. Work with better directors like Ghaywan, Janhvi…that is your best bet at the moment!
Varun Dhawan remains a curious case here – showing admirable promise with films like October and Badlapur, but never quite knowing where to draw the line in commercial entertainers – be it in acting or even dancing. The issue remains his imitation of Govinda with his brand of humour, almost making me believe that he is in a David Dhawan film. As a result, the humour just doesn’t land, leaving you more frustrated by the minute. When he chooses to act, the emotions land in softer moments but the idea to go overboard is just not the brand of humour that would work in 2025 (or so I think).
Conclusion
Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari is a meme equivalent of ‘Are You Comedy Me?’. This is because the drama is cringe-worthy and just so unfunny that I had a facial paralysis for the entire duration of the film. If only Katappa could have bumped off this ‘Bahubali’ at the start of the film….Available in a theatre near you.