Amidst Boring Script and Failed Humour, ‘Jai Mummy Di’ Falls Flat

What’s the worst a film can be? Boring. That’s right and this is the cardinal mistake Jai Mummy Di makes. It’s a big bore that never really takes off. The story is no great shakes. Set in Lajpat Nagar, it gives the makers reason enough to peddle every possible stereotype that Bollywood has inspired them to regurgitate.

So we have the Khannas’s and Bhalla’s - loud next-door neighbours who can’t see eye to eye because of the respective mummyji’s. Mrs Khanna (Supriya Pathak) and Mrs Bhalla (Poonam Dhillon) are quite cantankerous around each other. Their kids though Puneet (Sunny Singh) and Saanjh (Sonnalli Seygall) are childhood sweethearts. We understand quite early that the only possible and acceptable outcome of this endeavour is that the two get married irrespective of who says “ye shaadi nahi ho sakti!”

We also realise equally early that there is precious little in the wafer-thin plot to hold our attention.

Writer director Navjot Gulati gives us a done to death plot and for this alleged rom-com, there is neither sizzle nor giggle. Please pardon my desperate attempt to rhyme but I waited for 105 minutes for one decent joke but there was nothing to sample. Much is made out of the rivalry between the mummys and even when the ultimate revelation happens, it’s more of an anti-climax and another example of how dim-witted the writing is. From the Pyaar Ka Punchnaama universe, barring Karthik Aryan, producer Luv Ranjan has even roped in Nushrat Bharucha and Ishita Raj for a cameo. Nothing helps still.

Everything and everyone is single tone here - the mothers’ fight, the fathers trying to catch up and the kids confused. While Sunny is decent, his chemistry with Sonnalli is almost non-existent.

This is a couple that doesn’t interest us, we don’t root for them and yet they insist on making us a part of their story. Supriya Pathak and Poonam Dhillon seem as uncomfortable on screen as we do trying to stay awake through this snooze fest. Totally avoidable.