Yaaran Naal Baharaan Review

Boy sees girl. Girl sees boy. Boy falls in love and flirts. Girl enjoys but acts to ignore. Eventually boy wins girls heart. They decide to marry. Parents oppose. Boy and girl convince their parents about their love. What happens finally? A happy ending!
And guess what? Inspite of this story being seen at least 2000 times before, it still works! And that's because director Manmohan Singh handles the narration of this Punjabi movie so well that never once does the boredom set in the proceedings. There re light moments aplenty, some sensitive moments, a little bit of drama, emotions and in the end a message that goes back to K3G's tagline - "It's all about loving your parents". If you give your parents as much love as they have given you, be rest assured that they would agree to your desires, albeit it may take some time!

Navdeep [Jimmy Shergill] and his group of friends - a handsome Bhatinda dude, a body building 'hanuman-bhakt jat' and a studious 'sardar' boy - study in Punjab University - Chandigarh and roam around the city on their 'ek laakh ki bike'! Jimmy's only regret - he has a costly bike but no girl to sit behind him. Enters Harman [Juhee Babbar] along with her group of friends [that includes an Amisha Patel look-alike and a 'soni punjabi kudi'] who takes his breath away every time she passes his way.

Navdeep falls for Harman and on being coaxed by his friends starts wooing her. She too enjoys all the attention and after a college trip to Kullu [reminding very much of Europe tour in DDLJ] and a cute gift of a stuffed toy later, reciprocates his feelings. Jimmy trying to woo Juhee in classroom, canteen, CD showroom, Kullu, parking stand - just everything seems to be going so naturally that the moments just fly. Add to that some comic relief by college senior Rangeela [Gurpreet Ghughee], and smiles keep coming on, though he does tend to go overboard at number of sequences.

Next logical step for the lovebirds is to get married and both Navdeep and Harman approach their parents. Harman does it through her mom [Ketki Dave] who drops a word to her husband [Anupam Kher], a retired Colonel now living in a palatial bungalow in Chandigarh. Jimmy does it through his chirpy sister and doting mom, who try to break the news to his 'pind' settled father [Raj Babbar], a retired Major. As expected, both the men object to the relationship in the beginning as they always wanted to find a spouse for their children themselves. On some persuasion, their hearts melt and they agree to meet, but the meeting brings along with it the some unanticipated fireworks.

Colonel and Major had some old scores to settle since the time they worked together in the Army, so it was unacceptable for them to allow their children to marry. From here on, the movie takes another twist, something very similar to DDLJ. Instead of eloping, the two youngsters decide to win the hearts of their parents. But unlike DDLJ, Navdeep doesn't enter into Harman's house to do so. Instead the two stay at their own houses and by their good conduct and love attempt at making their parents understand their true love. What happens next is anyone's guess!!

As mentioned earlier, the takeaway from the movie is the message for the current generation to understand their parents' feelings better. Agreed that the world has moved on and every youngster has full rights to marry the person he/she loves most. But doing it by running away or getting married in court is not the only solution because that results in nothing but heartbreak for parents!

A feel good entertainer, it also works well due to natural performances and a simple narrative. Never once does the movie try to go overboard by becoming overtly melodramatic. Navdeep is just Navdeep and doesn't try to be a 'Raj Malhotra' or a 'Rahul'. The chemistry shared between the two