Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai Review: David Dhawan’s Greatest Act of Parenting Might Be Sabotaging His Son’s Career

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️

I walked into Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai expecting a comedy. What I didn’t expect was to witness what felt like a real-life Animal story about how much a father can possibly hate his own son.

After seeing Border 2 give Varun Dhawan’s career a faint pulse, David Dhawan apparently looked at the situation and said, “Not on my watch.”

The moment I heard the title — Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai — I knew exactly what had happened.

I’m convinced David Dhawan walked into Karan Johar’s office and said:

“Listen Karan, you’re the one who launched Varun. At least tell me what I should name his next film.”

And Karan, fresh off titles like Tu Meri Main Tera, Main Tera Tu Meri and Chand Mera Dil, probably decided that modern Bollywood titles must be unnecessarily long and preferably stolen from a song lyric. Mix both ideas together and you get Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai.

But after watching the film, you’ll only have one thing to say:

“If there’s a father, then there must be a flop.”

Since we’re already discussing Karan Johar, let me tell you one of the film’s jokes. Try not to rupture a kidney laughing.

At one point, Varun Dhawan says:

“Are you trying to find an auspicious date for the baby’s naming ceremony? Why don’t we just name the baby Karan?”

Get it?

Naam-Karan.

Please laugh. The movie desperately needs the support.

David Dhawan clearly spent years preparing this script.

Then again, it would take years to collect this many WhatsApp forward jokes.

At some point he must have thought:

“Kids these days have become too arrogant. They mute family groups. They don’t respond with laughing emojis when I send jokes. Fine. I’ll drag them into a theatre and force them to listen.”

Uncle, there’s a reason we don’t find these jokes funny.

The film is packed with classics like:

“Delhi is for people with big hearts, and London is…”

A masterpiece left unfinished.

Varun tells a fat man:

“Stay away from everything that makes you fat. Like weighing scales.”

Then there’s:

“You don’t need makeup. You look cute even in your Aadhaar card photo.”

And my personal favorite:

“Was this attitude inbuilt, or did you order it from Amazon?”

What a comeback! If a girl ever gives you attitude, just use this line and your problems will magically disappear.

At least that’s what David Dhawan seems to believe.

By now you’re probably wondering why I haven’t discussed the story.

That’s because talking about this film’s story reminds me of that famous line:

“Story? Hahaha… Story?”

The plot is simple.

Varun Dhawan is married to Mrunal Thakur. He wants children; she doesn’t. She files for divorce.

The judge grants them a six-month cooling-off period.

But during those six months, Varun meets Pooja Hegde and falls in love with her.

The movie is basically about how he tries to manage both situations simultaneously.

To be fair, fathers eventually fulfil their children’s wishes.

Back during Dilwale, Varun famously said the film was like Inception.

Well, Dilwale definitely wasn’t Inception.

But somehow this one is.

Within the first fifteen minutes, the film jumps between timelines so aggressively that you’ll need a flowchart.

Present day.

Five years earlier.

Back to present day.

Six months later.

Then two months before those six months.

I swear Inception, Dark, and Interstellar combined didn’t scramble my brain as much as this movie did.

As for the performances, everyone is mostly okay.

Varun Dhawan, however, is an overachiever.

So naturally, he delivers extra acting.

Maniesh Paul is also in the film playing Varun’s best friend.

Why?

Nobody knows.

Traditionally, the hero’s friend exists either to provide comedy or to die.

Here, Varun handles the comedy while the audience handles the dying.

So the friend serves absolutely no purpose.

David Dhawan was so confident in his comedy that he packed the cast with comedians: Ali Asgar, Manoj Pahwa, Rajpal Yadav, Rajat Bedi and even Rakesh Bedi.

Unfortunately, if the jokes are straight out of a 2012 WhatsApp group, it doesn’t matter whether they’re delivered by Samay Raina or Abhishek Upmanyu.

The result remains exactly what I witnessed in the theatre:

Silence.

Complete silence.

Give it a few weeks and Varun will probably be standing in front of his father with that trademark tilted expression saying:

“Dad, another one flopped.”

The film is painfully cringe, bizarre, illogical and completely directionless.

Important things happen simply because the script says they should. The movie rarely bothers explaining how or why.

So no, you absolutely do not need to watch this film.

Unless you’re a die-hard Varun Dhawan fan.

In that case, you probably don’t need to watch this review either.