Pooja Meri Jaan review: Mrunal Thakur starrer asks difficult questions about consent, but offers convenient answers
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
Consent on screen has come a long way. From “tu haan kar ya na kar, tu hai meri Kiran” to having two films in the same week, Prem Keetanu and Pooja Meri Jaan , where the woman’s decision is final and binding... Bollywood seems to be finally getting the memo.
Adding to this, Pooja Meri Jaan review: Mrunal Thakur plays the lead role. Pooja Meri Jaan story Pooja Meri Jaan must have sounded intriguing on paper. The story revolves around Pooja ( Mrunal Thakur ), an star who plays Juliet in a theatre production of Romeo and Juliet. Her on-stage Romeo, Aniket (Vikram Singh Chauhan), proposes to her after a performance. Too shocked to respond, she rejects him after the show, and, in a fit of rage, tells him he can “go and die” for all she cares. He ends up taking his own life, leaving Pooja accused of abetting his suicide. Did her rejection and those angry words really push him to take such a drastic step? That question forms the crux.
Meanwhile, One hears that the movie’s rollout was stuck for nearly four years before this Navjot Gulati directorial finally saw the light of day. Yet, given how relevant its themes remain today, the delay has done little to date the subject. The movie starts on a promising note, venturing into the tricky, often misunderstood territory of how consent can be fluid and, most importantly, how it must be respected at every stage. A woman may choose to be in a relationship with someone one day and change her mind the next, and that decision deserves to be accepted without question. The movie also touches upon the complicated issue of leading someone on, among several other facets of relationships and rejection.
Notably, The problem is that, as complex as this entire discussion is, the movie itself never quite arrives at a satisfying understanding of it.
As per the latest buzz, Niren Bhatt’s screenplay does have a promising arc. What may appear to the outside world as an innocuous crush can, from the woman’s perspective, quickly take on an unsettling, even sinister, dimension. The screenplay also brings the alpha male mentality into the conversation, examining the sense of entitlement that can turn attraction into obsession. But the movie ultimately takes the most convenient route out of this morally murky territory. In its eagerness to establish Pooja’s innocence, it ties up the ambiguity far too neatly.
In further updates, Performance-wise, Mrunal Thakur plays her part well as Pooja. Huma Qureshi as Sana Mahfooz, who plays Pooja's lawyer, delivers. Vishal Singh Chauhan, as Aniket, comes off as slightly irritating, and that's a win because that's the character's demand.
On top of that, Overall, Pooja Meri Jaan deserves credit for attempting to engage with a conversation that Hindi cinema has, till now, approached rather simplistically. It understands that consent is not a one-time contract, and attraction does not create entitlement. More importantly, rejection, however hurtful, cannot be treated as an offence. There are moments when the movie gets close to the grey areas of modern relationships, where intentions can be misread. Unfortunately, it lacks the courage to stay in that grey zone for long. Instead, it eventually opts for a convenient resolution, diluting some of the complexity it so carefully built up.
Rishabh Suri is an Assistant Editor, movie critic, and professional overthinker of plot points. He writes for HT City, keeping pace with an industry where news cycles expire long before the popcorn gets cold. He completed his graduation in English Honours from Kirori Mal College, followed by a Master’s degree in English Literature-effectively training his brain to over-analyse classic texts before applying those exact same skills to 3-hour Bollywood blockbusters. He got into the profession when he had barely graduated from college and has been at HT ever since. At HT, Rishabh reviews films with a simple rule: skip the dense academic jargon and get straight to the point. Beyond reviews, as Assistant Editor, he helps navigate the broader circus of showbiz, tracking everything from OTT shifts to sudden ticket-window panics. In a beat driven by loud PR machinery and carefully scripted answers, Rishabh prefers cutting through the noise to focus on how stories get made and why trends shift. When he isn’t writing against a deadline, he is usually sitting in a dark theater, compulsively memorising dialogues. For Rishabh, analysing movies isn't just a day job- it’s a habit he couldn't turn off even if he tried. Read More
Source: Hindustan Times