Don't Be Shy

Ever so often, Bollywood wants to speak the language of the youth. However, in an attempt to address their issues and growing pains, the industry often ends up stereotyping Gen Z and making them look superfluous. In Don’t Be Shy, director Sriti Mukerji attempts to tell a Gen Z story, but sets it in the early 2000s and delivers a very run-of-the-mill, coming-of-age campus tale. While it begins on a promising note, the film eventually becomes predictable and rather silly by the end. Produced by Alia Bhatt and Shaheen Bhatt, Don’t Be Shy introduces fresh faces to the film industry. The cast delivers credible performances, but does that salvage the film? Only in parts.

1998 में जब करण जौहर ‘कुछ कुछ होता है’ लेकर आए थे तो दर्शक सोचते थे कि अपने देश में कहां पर होते हैं ऐसे कॉलेज जिनमें इतनी रंगीनी हो, इतनी चमक-दमक हो, जहां पढ़ाई के अलावा सब कुछ होता हो…? लेकिन वह फिल्म सुहानी हवा के झोंके की तरह आई थी। आर्चीज़ कॉमिक्स से निकली कहानी, कसी हुई स्क्रिप्ट, सधा हुआ निर्देशन, बड़े सितारे, शानदार म्यूज़िक और… फिल्म सुपरहिट। इसके 14 बरस बाद एक बार फिर करण जौहर ‘स्टूडैंट ऑफ द ईयर’ लेकर आए तो हम दर्शक फिर हैरान हुए कि यार, कहां होते हैं ऐसे स्कूल-कॉलेज जिनमें इस तरह की भौंडी हरकतें होती हों, इस तरह के चमकीले जीव ‘पढ़ाई’ के नाम पर फूहड़ता करते हों। लेकिन यह फिल्म भी अपनी चमक-दमक और रसीले एंटरटेनमैंट के चलते युवा दर्शकों को ही सही, पसंद आ गई थी।

Prime Video’s new Hindi original film centres on Shyamili ‘Shy’ Das (Aarushi Bajaj), a college student who has her entire life mapped out. Shy has absorbed the rules of The Perfect Woman, a book that promises to show women how to get life right. Plan A revolves around Shy’s future with boyfriend Mayank (Piyush Khati), the heir to a business empire, and an imagined version of herself that bears little resemblance to her actual existence. Shy has no Plan B.

Don’t Be Shy is a misleading title. There’s no holding back the central character of writer-director Sreeti Mukerji’s college romp and her manipulative drama queen ways as she flits between lies and last-minute guilty conscience to suit her agenda. Like 90% protagonists of a young adult story, Shyamali ‘Shy’ Das (Aarushi Bajaj) has her life all figured out. And if you have watched even 20% of fluff the genre churns out, you have its tropes down pat even before its spunky college going heroine wakes from her precious, overachiever dream in a room full of pink, to-do slogans and a pet turtle called Bulby.

Shyamili Das aka Shy (Aarushi Bajaj) is perpetually angry and ashamed of not being rich. She resents her parents for happily accepting their middle-class fate and believes she deserves pretty privilege. Confident that her wealthy boyfriend Mayank (Piyush Khati) is her ticket to a better life, she is thrown when he dumps her, forcing her to rethink her carefully mapped-out future. Set in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Sreeti Mukerji’s formulaic romcom wears the persona of the Hollywood campus capers of that era, albeit with a desi twist. But unlike the usual underdog stories, you don’t necessarily root for the not-so-likeable central character here. Instead, it’s her nicer rich friends, feminist archrival and quintessential girl’s girl Tara (Bianca Arora), cute love interests and warm parents who win you over.

Don’t Be Shy revolves around 20-year-old Shyamili “Shy” Das: that fourth-wall-breaking and self-involved student with a foolproof life plan, a rich boyfriend she needs, a hunky childhood friend she disowns, a trendy college she attends, a first name she’s ashamed of, a middle-class Bengali upbringing she hides, and a family shop she resents. Shy (Aarushi Bajaj) parents her fun-loving parents at home and plays the popular-cool-mean girl on campus. She’d be an influencer in most worlds, but her folks are apparently too poor to buy her a BlackBerry, so social media is ruled out. You know she’s going to be humbled and come of age, learn the value of authenticity, and get all her missteps settled with the neatness of shiny wrapping paper and a bow on top. But the question a movie like Don’t Be Shy unwittingly leaves you with is: Why are kids so annoying?