Vikramaditya Motwane to back Radhika Apte's directorial debut

RADHIKA APTE is set to make her directorial debut with the action-fantasy film Kotya. It will be produced by Vikramaditya Motwane.

- EXPRESS FEATURES

IN NADAANIYAN, Ibrahim Ali Khan Pataudi and Khushi Kapoor ask a chatbot, "What do people do in love?" Ibrahim's Arjun Mehta points out the irony: "Now, a robot is going to teach us what 'real' people do in love?" Such a scene in a Dharma film is like a warning bell. Even those who once-upon-a-time presented love in all its mushy glory have run out of ideas.

Both love and storytelling seem AI-generated in this Netflix rom-com. The plot feels like a first draft of any American teen show. Every character seems like a prototype without any nuance or depth. The actors seem to state the dialogues rather than emoting them. Its visuals, to quote a YouTube comment, feel like "a Close-Up ad." The problem is that Nadaaniyan isn't even trying to present an original story, to offer some romantic charm, or to be anything more than a star-kid launch vehicle.

Pia Jaisingh (Khushi) is a student at the Joharesque Falcon High. It is filled with Delhi's rich brats whose therapy bills—we are told in a voiceover—"might be more than the school fees." The school's principal is Ms Briganza (Archana Puran Singh), a modern, unimaginative take on the iconic character from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998). The new Miss Briganza is obsessed with learning Gen Z lingo (for her, FU is 'fauran utho' (quickly get up)), and this quirk of hers is played for comedic effect. It invokes as much laughter as you expect from a person typing ROFL.