Nadaaniyan review: A convoluted mess where Ibrahim Ali Khan’s abs out-act the script and Khushi's pearly whites sparkle

Dubai: Just when you thought Meghan Markle’s lifestyle show With Love, Meghan was peak cringe and inauthentic, along comes Netflix’s romantic Bollywood comedy Nadaaniyan, starring nepo babies Ibrahim Ali Khan and Khushi Kapoor, making Meghan’s show seem almost forgivable in comparison.

The plot? A wealthy, privileged girl with daddy issues, Pia Jaisingh, (Khushi) hires Arjun Mehta, a scholarship student with washboard abs (Ibrahim), as her pretend boyfriend to convince her toxic bestie that her smarmy, philandering boyfriend isn’t actually hitting on her.

If that sentence felt convoluted, consider it a warm-up for the film’s needlessly complicated storyline—one that serves little to no purpose. It's perched as Bollywood royalty and real-life prince Saif Ali Khan's strapping son's acting debut, but his sculpted abs display more nuanced emotions than his face. The way his face contorts impossibly during the film’s so-called emotionally charged scenes makes you want to sit him down and ask him if he should look solely at runway modeling as a career option. And where do I begin with Khushi Kapoor, the daughter of late actress Sridevi and prolific producer Boney Kapoor? She delivers her lines like she’s got a mouth full of marbles—stiff, lifeless, and completely devoid of emotion. Her blindingly white teeth, factory-perfect nose, and glossy curls scream 'manufactured perfection' do very little to elevate this insipid movie. It looks like the makers, director Shauna Gautam and producers Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta and Somen Mishra, aimed for candy-flossed version of Gossip Girl but landed on Grating Girl instead.

The writing (Ishita Moitra, Riva Razdan Kapoor, and Jehan Handas) is equally painful, with gems like “You are so hot that you might be the reason for global warming” and “I feel a lot of things, Arjun. I am not an AI robot, you know.” It makes you wonder who green-lit this project and what were these three thinking when coming up with such cheese shtick.

Of course, even the worst lines can be salvaged with strong performances, but Naadaniyan proves that bad writing combined with weak acting results in cinematic disaster. Somewhere, we felt this film could have been a sharp, stylish take on class wars, elitism, and the snobbery of posh schools, but instead, it unravels like a juvenile school project—half-baked and lacking depth.

It's one of those rare films where the older actors playing parents—Jugal Hansraj, Suniel Shetty, Dia Mirza, and Mahima Chaudhry—end up looking like Oscar-worthy performers by comparison, with their scenes of flawed parents doling out life lessons on love and life serving as the film’s only slim redeeming factor. At some point, I even said a silent prayer of apology to Student of the Year 2 actors Tiger Shroff, Ananya Panday, and Tara Sutaria for being tough on them—because Ibrahim Ali Khan and Khushi Kapoor have now shown us just how low the bar can be set.

All these players in this film exist in some delusional posh bubble where winning a high school debate competition is your golden ticket to an Ivy League college. What kind of cuckoo fantasy is this? Scratch that—it’s not just the kids who are cuckoo, but the entire world and system propping them up.

And just when you think it can't get more absurd, Ibrahim Ali Khan—fresh off his debate triumph—lifts his T-shirt to flash his sculpted abs. Because even he seems to know that his six-pack is the only argument he can actually win. In the end, this film isn’t just a vanity project -- it’s a star-kid-sponsored fever dream masquerading as cinema. Let’s just say these kids didn’t graduate with honors.

Where's it streaming on?

Film: Nadaaniyan
Cast: Ibrahim Ali Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Jugal Hansraj, Mahima Chaudhary, Dia Mirza, and Suniel Shetty
Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Streaming on: Netflix