Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari review: An acquired taste of entertainment that tries too hard to impress!

Starring Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor, this rom-com is one you’ll find utterly senseless and hard to watch unless you’re in it for the brainrot content it offers.

You know those senseless Bollywood rom-coms where nothing really makes sense - where they are coming from, what they are saying, and all decisions defy logic yet you buy into it because the heart of it somehow makes sense? That kind of cinema, I’ll still defend in a heartbeat. Especially now, when everything has become so sharply defined and overexplained that expressing feelings out loud feels like rebellion. After all, lovers running across fields to confess their love may never happen in real life, but that’s exactly the kind of magic such cinema is supposed to give us. Which is why when Bollywood decides to play with this very idea of blending Bollywood tropes into real life and vice versa, the result can be deliciously meta. Recently, The Ba***ds of Bollywood proved how sharp such storytelling can be. Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumariattempts something similar, parodying Bollywood and our wedding obsession influenced by it at the same time. It’s an intriguing idea, but the film ends up as a confusing running joke, fun only if you shut your brain off, otherwise exhausting to sit through.

The story isn’t a mystery as the trailer already told you what you needed to know. Sunny Sanskari (Varun Dhawan), our over-the-top “adarshvaadi” hero, gets dumped by the very modern Ananya (Sanya Malhotra) after proposing to her in fullBaahubalistyle, only for her to choose Vikram Singh (Rohit Saraf), the dream boy who ticks all the right boxes. But when Sunny finds out that Vikram also has an ex, Tulsi Kumari (JanhviKapoor), our very boring but “adarshvaadi” heroine, he decides to team up with her. The plan is simple - make Vikram and Ananya jealous, sabotage their wedding, and win back their exes. You can already guess where this is going as the title suggests it all - in the process of playing at love, Sunny and Tulsi actually fall for each other. Every cliché from the Bollywood romance handbook is dusted off and used here, from revenge dressing to acting in love but the film devises it as something intentionally done. And that’s the real hook! 

Also Read: A letter to Bollywood with love from an ardent Bollywood fan!

Shashank Khaitan, the director frames the film as a parody where Vikram and Ananya’s lavish Udaipur wedding is treated less as a wedding and more as a Bollywood set. From yoga mornings and holi-themed parties for pre-wedding festivities to jungle safaris searching for a leopard and even a Karan Johar cameo in the engagement ceremony. All of it reminded me of the Ambani wedding and our obsession with it as the film leans into the absurd spectacle of our modern wedding culture, which is heavily borrowed from cinema. It’s clever because it mirrors how weddings have stopped being private ceremonies and have turned into performances inspired by onscreen fantasies. But instead of a sharp satire, the film delivers it as a tired checklist of excesses. Honestly it took me a long time to get to see what the film was trying to do as I saw the familiarity but the punches didn’t land. So it's fair to say that it is less like a parody and more like a collage of references strung together.

And that’s the central issue, the film is confused about what it wants to be. Sometimes it’s a goofy parody rom-com that is very much in on the joke. Other times, it suddenly shifts into a serious “message film” dropping monologues about women choosing themselves even after marriage or randomly adding toxic brothers into the mix for drama. The tonal switches are jarring and it feels like the makers weren’t sure whether to laugh with the audience or preach to them, so they tried to do both, and neither sticks. Add in an endless lineup of larger than life song-and-dance sequences and exaggerated wedding sabotage attempts, and the film leaves little space for actual budding romance or even the exes’ jealousy to play out meaningfully.

Performances follow the same pattern. Varun Dhawan plays his now-familiar brand of rom-com hero which is part Govinda, part SRK, all loud energy. Janhvi Kapoor holds her ground and looks gorgeous but feels uneven, constantly swinging without finding a rhythm. Together, they have chemistry but it feels like they’re playing a caricature of themselves more than actual people. Sanya Malhotra and Rohit Saraf, are mostly props treated as ornamental figures in the wedding spectacle, just like the Bijuriyasong suggests. Ironically, it’s Abhinav Sharma, as Sunny’s best friend Bantu, who delivers the most consistent performance, fully leaning into the film’s vibe without hesitation.

The irony of the film is hard to ignore as a movie meant to critique Bollywood clichés as well as enjoy it largely ends up suffocating under the weight of it. You can spot fragments from every Dharma, YRF, Barjatya, or Bollywood romantic film, ranging from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai to Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, even Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniaor Mr. & Mrs. Mahi. But instead of weaving them into a sharp meta-commentary, the film feels like it’s made from 50 Bollywood prompts stitched into one story. Which is disappointing because, at its core, the idea of a parody on how Bollywood shapes our weddings and lives is refreshing. After all, Chak De India’s70-minute speech is our motivational mantra,ZNMD defines soul connections, and dumb charades is still the ultimate compatibility test. But the film’s spoon feeding and mismatched metaness kills the thrill of the concept, zapping the fun right out of it. By neither leaning fully into the madness nor moving beyond the tomfoolery, it plays it safe like an eco-friendly film trying to do everything for everyone, but forgetting to be itself.

And yet, buried under all this confusion, the film occasionally shows us what it could have been. In small moments, it reminds us that confusions of the heart are timeless across eras and classes as people still stumble, miscommunicate, and run toward each other at the last moment! And that giddy, heart-thumping sincerity is where Bollywood rom-coms live. It’s there in this film too but it doesn’t trust it enough making you wonder if Bollywood has forgotten how to craft a simple, original rom-com or if it sacrifices too much to impress the current generation, turning every emotion into a meme aesthetic. Really, how many times can you break up someone’s wedding day before the tragedy of heartbreak starts to feel like a joke? By the time the film wraps up, you’re left craving the simpler joys of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, or even Badrinath Ki Dulhania. Those films, for all their flaws, at least had an original heart beating underneath. 

Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari is currently running at theatres near you!

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