Updated On: 31 January, 2020 07:04 AM IST | Mumbai | Vinamra Mathur
Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, and Alaya F's Jawaani Jaaneman is both cliched and charming, and some lively and inspired moments save the day!

Saif Ali Khan and Alaya F in a still from Jawaani Jaaneman movie trailer
When the first time I heard about Jawaani Jaaneman, I thought this would be a love story of an ageing man and a young girl, and a lady of his age would be the third bead in the rosary. But the trailer was the big surprise. This isn't a love triangle, this is the tale of a father who's unaware of his daughter and a mother who has been lost in her own world ever since the couple had Sambhog, as they say in the film.
Nitin Kakkar is one of the most underrated and unfairly overlooked filmmakers currently. His films, barring the terrific Filmistaan, may serve the same template we have seen in Hindi Cinema before, he has his own voice and style of communicating the same things differently. And Jawaani Jaaneman is no less! It has Saif Ali Khan do everything he did in Cocktail, it focuses on the carelessness and callousness of a father, something we saw in Shaadi Ke Side Effects, and a child who's longing for her father's reciprocal, ala Salman Khan in Yeh Hai Jalwa and Aditya Narayan in Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai.