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Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari Is The Most Anti-Film Of The Year

This new Dharma film is an abysmal endeavour where all four characters have the personality of caterpillars and share deeper chemistry with their designer outfits than with each other.

Ishita+Sengupta

Oct 02, 2025

Sanya Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, Janhvi Kapoor and Rohit Shroff in the promo poster for Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari.

ONCE UPON A TIME Varun Dhawan was an interesting actor. He experimented with promise and, later, when his choices became conventional — leaning mostly on playing a man-child oblivious to the ways of the world till told otherwise by his female counterpart — the actor managed to inject intrigue in repetition. Once upon a time, his performance was a crossbreed of the 90s’ excess and modern alertness, evoking more nostalgia than awe. Today he is unable to not just diversify but even essay the same roles with conviction; this devolution, and not lack of evolution, is a thing of wonder.

On paper Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari is the kind of film curated for Dhawan’s filmography. Sunny Sanskari, his character, is goofy, oddly charming and a little bewildered. All he truly has is a beating heart. Therefore, when his girlfriend, Ananya (Sanya Malhotra), declines his Baahubali-coded proposal, he sulks a little and plans to win her over again. The cost is ruining her wedding, but this won’t be the first time he’d do so. He had done the same in Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania in 2014.

But here’s the thing: a decade has passed since then. The world has changed, and yet the actor is still in his lane, hydrated, unperturbed. The repetition freshly hurts because a lot of his portrayal is derivative. Dhawan channels Govinda a lot and grimaces like Akshay Kumar. When he is not falling back on others, he is free-styling his way through scenes.

While this might be objectively concerning, it fits well with Shashank Khaitan’s new work, which unfolds as a cautionary tale about ad-libbing. Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari, written by Ishita Moitra and Khaitan (the writers of Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani) is all shine and glamour signifying nothing.

ALSO READ | Shashank Khaitan reviews Homebound amid Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari release: 'Taught me about a different worldview'

When Sunny lies heartbroken, his best friend, Bantu (the genius Abhinav Sharma), gathers news that the boy Ananya is about to marry, Vikram (Rohit Saraf, always watchable), has also broken up with his long-time girlfriend. When they track the girl down, it turns out that the reason for parting in both cases was the same: family pressure. Both Vikram and Ananya are more well off, and Sunny’s diamond business and Tulsi's (a really grating Jahnavi Kapoor) job in a school don’t cut it. Therefore, Sunny and Tulsi decide to do the most obvious thing: go to their exes’ wedding and splice them up.

Although the narrative detours of a film like this can be seen from a mile, Khaitan takes us by surprise by refusing to make a film. What Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari does instead is compile one music video after another and stitch them together with words resembling dialogues. And the remaining gaps are filled with hat tips. There is a homage to the ring moment from Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1994), Vikram is introduced to running down from a helicopter like Shah Rukh Khan in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), and references from old Dharma films fly in thick and fast. This keeps going on, only to solidify the reputation of Khaitan’s recent outing as the most anti-film from the production house, and IMDB knows the list is long.

It is either this or that the cut released in theatres was the discarded one because nothing adds up. I will start with the basic query: how did Tulsi revamp in a moment from a docile to an annoying girl whose refrain is, “bohot mazaa aa raha hain” (I am having lots of fun)? What are these cardboard family members whose presence makes less sense than studying algebra in high school? Why is every joke a tired rehash of an existing one? Why is Sanya Malhotra cast when all that she is reduced to is an onlooker? Why weren’t we shown a leopard when promised so? Why are we sitting and watching a film in 2025 made with less effort than one puts into making reels?

There are no answers to these, except that Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari is an abysmal endeavour where all four characters have the personality of caterpillars and share deeper chemistry with their designer outfits than with each other. Midway, I was convinced that this is perhaps what AI filmmaking will look like in the future, and we, unsuspecting film critics, were the guinea pigs on which its effectiveness was measured. When did we sign up for this?

This brings me to the last question: why was such a film made? If Dharma was raking in profits, I would have reasoned that their recent production was meant to park black money. But turns out, that isn’t the case. In the last couple of months, there has been enough discourse about Karan Johar selling 50% stakes of his business to businessman Adar Poonawalla. And yet, they have made something that is wrapped in designer clothes, breaks into well-produced songs every ten minutes, and has been released theatrically. To quote a character from the film, “it’s crazy”

Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari Is The Most Anti-Film Of The Year

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