Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) was about an eight-year-old girl who sets out to unite her father with his friend from college after her mother dies. That idea didn’t age well by Johar’s own admission. Twenty-five years later comes Shouryuv’s Hi Nanna, another love story with an apple-cheeked child at its centre. It’s not exactly KKHH but has the same degree of melodrama and cinematic twists that one is occasionally able to forgive because of the very likeable cast.
Viraj (Nani) is a successful photographer and single parent to Mahi (Kiara Khanna). Mahi has a life-threatening medical condition, and the six-year-old really, really wants to know where her mother is and what happened to her. But Viraj refuses to tell her because…well, we’re not allowed to say that he’s a bad parent because the film’s whole point is that he’s a fantastic parent. So, an upset Mahi walks away from home with their dog, Pluto, and runs into Yashna (Mrunal Thakur). This super nice and truly gorgeous stranger sides with her, and convinces Viraj to embark on an episode of How I Met Your Mother.
Mrunal Thakur is dazzling in the role, and her chemistry with the charming Nani shoulders the film through its frankly unconvincing premise. The romance between the couple works even if the writing and music are underwhelming. The twist thrown into the interval block is a major revelation and is unpredictable – but the unpredictability isn’t because it’s so clever, it’s because it is eyeroll-level improbable.
In this stew of cliched plot threads, someone suffers memory loss, someone has commitment issues due to divorced parents, someone breaks off a wedding at the last minute, and just about every overblown idea that you can insert into a family drama is stuffed into the pot.
Considering the treatment the female lead receives from everyone, she might as well be the six-year-old in the film. A big secret about her life is kept from her, but everyone else in the film knows what it is. Where are her friends? Isn’t there a single gossipy relative in her family who tells her the truth? What about a nosey neighbour? Did she not post anything about all this on her social media ever? Mild spoiler – only a man could have written a story where a woman undergoes pregnancy and childbirth but does not find any evidence of it in her body.
Priyadarshi as Viraj’s friend, Justin, adds some humour to the proceedings, but Hi Nanna runs out of steam in the second half where the drama goes on and on, as beautiful as Mrunal looks through it. There’s even a fight force-fitted into the plot because the hero has to throw punches somewhere. Kiara Khanna is stuck with the kind of generic, cutesy writing that child actors get in our movies, but she plays the role with a certain innocence that makes us warm up to her instantly.
Last week’s Animal was about an absentee father, and Viraj is his opposite. He’s always present. Hi Nanna could have been a straightforward film about a father who dedicates his life to caring for his daughter when the mother isn’t around. It could have been about the difficulties of parenting a child who has serious medical issues, and the slog of doing it all alone. It could have been about the mother and why she makes certain choices. After all, such films are unusual enough without having to add so much garam masala to the mix. But for that, you have to trust your audience. Hopefully, the debut director will learn to do that in his next.
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