Ayan Mukherji's Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (It's a Young Man) is a 2013 Bollywood romantic comedy, and perhaps one of the first Bollywood romantic comedies to begin playing with the tropes associated with the genre.
Naina (Deepika Padukone) is a shy and nerdy medical student, smart but with few friends. A chance encounter with her old classmate Aditi (Kalki Koechlin) causes her to impulsively join a trip with her to Shimla, along with her friends Kabir 'Bunny' Thapar (Ranbir Kapoor) and Avi (Aditya Roy Kapoor). Naina falls for the funny and exciting Bunny, but finds that they want very different things from life. The memories of that trip live with her forever, but they mostly go their separate ways after. Eight years later, however, Aditi is about to get married, and Bunny is nowhere to be found.
YJHD was one of the most critically acclaimed Bollywood movies of 2013, with a rather clever subversion of a number of established Bollywood tropes.
This film contains examples of:
- Beta Couple: Aditi and Avi, at least from her end; generally expected as well, being played by the biggest names in the cast who are not the lead couple. Subverted in the end, though, as Aditi gets over Avi later, and marries Taran, the man generally expected to be the Romantic False Lead.
- The Casanova: Bunny, in Shimla as well as during his job abroad as a videographer. The man is pretty open in the fact that he isn't looking for love or marriage, until he falls for Naina anyway.
- Everyone Can See It: Near the end, Bunny reveals how noticeable Aditi's feelings for Avi were to all but...Avi. And that's apparently a surprise to her.
- Fanservice: While the main cast is quite attractive (just look at the poster!), the epitome of this trope in the movie is Lara, played by Evelyn Sharma. Her only role in the movie is to be attractive, to be flirted with by the guys, and to make a cameo as Taran's cousin at the wedding.
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: Bunny finally recognises his feelings for Naina when he sees her talking to the wedding photographer and mistakenly assumes that he is her boyfriend.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Gender inversion, as it's the outspoken and exciting Bunny who teaches Naina how to laugh and how to love. Kind of a Deconstruction, though, as his independent goals of travelling and seeing the world are what prevent them from getting together until the end.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Bunny. It's rare for him to be called Kabir by anyone, to the extent that, right at the beginning of the movie, when sending out invitations for Aditi's wedding, the person penning the name on the invitations (probably Aditi herself) actually begins writing 'Bu' before discarding the envelope and writing his actual name instead.
- Romantic False Lead: Somewhat surprisingly, subverted with Taran, Aditi's fiancé. While Aditi was smitten with Avi in the Shimla trip, Taran is a much more boring and plain-looking character than the passionate and attractive Avi, and we hear the couple fight a few times, Aditi does decide that the kinda-boring but genuinely sweet Taran is a much better man than the alcoholic, occasionally insensitive Avi and marries the former happily. It is implied in her explanation to Bunny that she had gotten over Avi a long time ago.
- Shout-Out: A few typically Bollywood shoutouts.
- A Shrinking Violet with glasses named Naina meets a Manic Pixie Dream Guy, learns from him how to live and love, and falls in love with him? In a movie produced by Karan Johar? Where have we seen that before?
- A handsome, charismatic, drinking and rough-yet-bighearted male lead with a Cool Dad pulls the quite, disciplined and teetolater heroine with conservative parents into a train leaving for an epic trip as it is leaving, causing them to gradually fall head-over-heels for each other? And the film is directed by Karan Johar? Hmm...
