Shashank Khaitan revisits the energetic spirit of the Dulhania franchise, trading melodrama for modern ‘situationships.’ This Varun Dhawan-Janhvi Kapoor starrer is an imperfect, unruly, but ultimately sincere celebration of love and heartbreak.
October 2, 2025: When you walk into the theater for Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari, it feels like you’re walking into a ballroom you know well, where the chandeliers have just been polished and the band is tuning up. You already know how to waltz because director Shashank Khaitan created this dance almost ten years ago for Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and Badrinath Ki Dulhania. Those movies made a new language for modern romcoms for millennials, with chart-topping music, bubbly characters, and screenplays that sparkled with humor and ease. And here we are again, years later, seeing Khaitan try to pass the same heritage charm on to a Gen-Z audience. The good news is? The shine hasn’t faded.
The movie is funny, loud, romantic, and discreetly aware of the cultural changes of its day. The music has a modern beat that will have you tapping your foot, but the feeling of nostalgia is strong, like the smell of old jasmine. It feels like the old syntax of Bollywood romance is being softly remixed for a time where people flick through reels, swipe for validation, and use words like “situationships” to describe feelings that used to be holy.
The Setup: Big Moves and the Pain of “Situationship”
The plot starts with a big, almost ridiculous scene: Varun Dhawan’s Sunny Sanskari, dressed as Baahubali, getting ready to propose to his beloved Ananya (Sanya Malhotra) in a show of filmi devotion. The picture is funny and revealing right away: love is a show, love is an exaggeration. But the happiness balloon pops on the following beat. Ananya says that her parents have already picked Vikram (Rohit Saraf) for her, and even worse, she says that Sunny is just a “situationship.” The word hurts both Sunny and the others watching.
That rejection is the first sign of sadness, but Khaitan is smart enough not to get too dramatic. Instead, he turns to comedy and brings in Janhvi Kapoor’s Tulsi Kumari, Vikram’s ex-girlfriend. Tulsi is a humble schoolteacher who is the opposite of Sunny, who is very flashy and openly shows her pain. Their chemistry doesn’t come from being quiet; it comes from being open about their weaknesses and the turbulence of two damaged hearts meeting in loud, messy honesty.
The Carnival of Confusion
When Sunny asks Tulsi to help him with a crazy plan to appear to be lovers, crash the big wedding of Vikram and Ananya, and maybe get back what they lost, the movie turns into a carnival of crazy events. What happens next is sabotage that looks like sincerity and dancing sequences that are so crazy they may have sprung straight from a Dharma fever dream. Khaitan puts on this show with his usual flair. The settings are dripping with luxury, the soundtrack is full of excitement, and even the cameos (like Karan Johar and Prajakta Koli) feel like fun winks.
The movie uses every cliché of a Dharma romcom, such slow-motion entrances, over-the-top scenes, and wedding splendor, and somehow turns them into both parody and celebration at the same time. Khaitan seems to know the clichés by heart and chooses to make them bigger and more interesting till they are both commentary and amusement. The conversations are full of self-aware humor, notably Sunny’s terrible but strangely charming poems. He defends them by saying, “Meri kavita Rahman ke gaane ki tarah hai, dheere dheere hit karti hai.”
The pacing is good in the first half, which is full of energy and new ideas. In the second half, though, it gets a little shaky and often falls under the weight of its own excess. Some emotional arcs are tied up too quickly, and some subplots feel rushed, but the comedy and warmth keep the story going.
Varun shines in his role, and Sanya is interesting
The group is doing well. Varun Dhawan is at his best when he mixes his comedic talent with an emotional undertone that makes Sunny Sanskari both funny and relatable. He easily goes from being funny and over-the-top to being somber and wistful. As Tulsi Kumari, Janhvi Kapoor shines. She easily captures both innocence and sadness. Her performance is delightfully uninhibited; she doesn’t hold back her feelings and stays bright in every frame.
Sanya Malhotra, on the other hand, is one of the most interesting characters in the movie. Ananya could have been a superficial plot device, but Sanya gives her part more substance, which makes things more complicated. She goes back and forth between glamour and uncertainty, between desire and duty, showing a lady who is tormented by the heavy weight of her decisions. Sanya has always been known for her realistic acting, but in this movie she finally gets to play a more commercial, glossy part without sacrificing her skill.
Rohit Saraf gives Vikram a softer side, and Maniesh Paul steals moments as the weird wedding planner, adding a much-needed touch of craziness.
The Decision
Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari is, in the end, a lively echo of a movie tradition. It understands its clichés, makes fun of them, and its music nevertheless makes your heart race. It is not perfect, a touch wild, and sometimes hasty, but it is also happy, honest, and surprisingly deep. It is a movie that doesn’t try to hide its movie-ness, and maybe that’s its best quality: an open celebration of love, heartbreak, and the chaos in between. It reminds us that romcoms, like classic tunes, will always be in style.