Indoo Ki Jawani Trailer: This India-Pakistan Romcom Hits The Wrong Mark With Garish Humour

The trailer for Kiara Advani-starrer Indoo Ki Jawani is out, with the film awaiting a theatrical release on December 11. This Hindi romantic-comedy, written and directed by second-time director Abir Sengupta, is set upon the premise of a dating app misadventure that entangles the lives of a Delhi woman and Pakistani man. While the plot appears seemingly daring, coming at a time when the two countries aren't diplomatically on the best of terms, one look at the trailer reveals that the film addresses the issue with nothing but hollow, ill-timed humour that the audience was better off without.

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The cast, headlined by Advani, includes Aditya Seal and comedian Mallika Dua in her first significant film role. Indoo Ki Jawani follows the life of Indoo (Advani), purportedly the "glam girl" of Ghaziabad, Delhi, who has been forever unlucky in love. Her best friend Sonal (Dua), sick of handing out dating advice to her, directs her towards a dating app that will "deliver" the perfect match to her. When Samar (Seal) lands up at her place, Indoo, who is joyous at the dating app's successful delivery, makes advances on him in a way that can only be described as wholly tasteless. Should these dated tropes of a woman biting her lips at a visibly alarmed man even find a place in cinema anymore? Because honestly, they're not even remotely funny. If that is at all the emotion they're aiming at.

Anyhow, Indoo soon discovers that Samar isn't who he is claiming to be. He is actually from Pakistan. Indoo's tensions mount when news channels begin airing the bulletin that some Pakistani terrorists have infiltrated the city, and she immediately labels Samar an "aatankvaadi". This, despite Samar trying to assure her that he isn't a terrorist. What follows is a comedy of errors, replete with police van chases, a budding romance between Samar and Indoo, and tons of tone-deaf humour that aims at evoking some cheap laughs.

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For instance, when Indoo processes in her head the possibility of Samar being a Pakistani terrorist, the scene's big punchline is Indoo saying, "Ab pata chala tumhe Kashmir Ki Kali kyun pasand hai." With only a year passed since the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, amid extremely heightened political chaos, public unrest, and hate speech, such "wit" is hard to appreciate by any measure of decent imagination. And going by the trailer's tone, one can only expect more such humour in the film. Samar's facepalm reaction to this particular jibe by Indoo can perhaps be the only apt reaction to it, and the entire trailer.

Watch the official trailer here: 

Views expressed are the author's own.