It’s important to not take Nanu Ki Jaanu lightly. This isn’t your regular mediocre affair. This isn’t even so bad that in becomes an unintended comedy and therefore innocuous fun.
Faraz Haider’s Nanu Ki Jaanu is an unadulterated atrocity left unguarded without a single redeemable feature.
For one, it’s a film that doesn’t know what space it wants to occupy. Comedy? Romcom? Fantasy film? A whodunnit? Horror? Public service announcement?
Yes, the last one too! Through the 132-minute run time, it ventures into all the aforementioned territories and manages to make a complete mess of everything.
Abhay Deol aka Nanu and his onscreen best buddy Manu Sharma are part of a group of gangsters who inhabit Noida and go about blackmailing unsuspecting householders into selling their property to them.
One fine day, Nanu sees an accident victim lying in a pool of her own blood in the middle of the road. The bad guy with a good heart rushes her to the hospital, but it’s too late. Nanu is sad, weepy and emotionally scarred. Some scenes about a baddie gone all softy can bring about a couple of chuckles, but that’s about it.
Now the film decides to bring in the supernatural and has the girl’s ghost (Patralekha) inhabit the chimney in Nanu’s kitchen. All said and done, the ghost is a sanskari one. She doesn’t let Nanu enjoy his staple beer. Flashbacks reveal to us she was all sanskari in life too when she wouldn’t let daddy (Rajesh Sharma) smoke his cigarette.
There are elaborate scenes where Nanu is having a conversation with the chimney, giving it dhamkis like “main khud ko goli maar lunga aur upar aaker tumse badla lunga”. I must mention here that the chimney has more scenes than Patralekha herself.
Slowly, Nanu warms up to the ghost . He goes on coffee dates with the said apparition and a song plays. This was when yours truly cursed the occupational hazards her profession exposes her to!
Finally, the ghost, who then takes Patralekha’s form, also talks about how wearing a helmet is necessary and Yamraj was actually planning to take someone else but since his wife at that moment was praying in the mandir for his long life, she eventually was taken along.
Suffice to say it’s the kind of film that Tripura CM would enjoy along with his theory of internet in Mahabharata Era.
Half a Quint out of 5! Someone save Abhay Deol’s career please!
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