Jai Mummy Di movie review: A pointless enterprise, this Sunny Singh-Sonnalli Seygall film is best avoided

Jai Mummy Di
Cast: Sunny Singh, Sonnalli Seygall, Poonam Dhillon, Supriya Pathak
Director: Navjot Gulati

Jai Mummy Di should come as a lesson to producer Luv Ranjan. The director, who has given us films such as Pyaar Ka Punchnama films and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, needs to accept that there is this much of a certain kind of cinema that audience can take. His latest production Jai Mummy Di, written and directed by debutant Navjot Gulati, is a classic case of being there, done that.

The film, starring Sunny Singh, Sonnalli Seygall, Poonam Dhillon and Supriya Pathak, tests your patience without bothering to offer you anything substantial or novel in terms of story or the characters. Jai Mummy Di is pointless – the result of abysmal direction, half-baked characters and wasted efforts of a talented cast.

Watch the trailer for Jai Mummy Di:

Jai Mummy Di, a modern rom-com, or mom-com if you will, has two neighbours Khannas and Bhallas in a constant state of strife due to the warring moms -- (Poonam Dhillon aka Gabbar and Supriya Pathak aka Mogambo). However, their children Puneet aka Punnu (Sunny Singh) and Saanjh (Sonnalli Seygall) are high school sweethearts who can’t keep their hands off each other. Afraid of their moms, they pretend to be enemies over the weekends. Then there are helpless fathers, irritating relatives and a whole lot of Punjabi weddings.

The story essentially revolves around the young couple trying to figure out what went wrong between their mothers who were best friends in their teens. With that interesting plot, Jai Mummy Di could have been a fun ride. Instead, what you get is a snooze fest that goes downhill in the first half itself as you interminably wait for the reason behind the bad blood. The big reveal, when it comes, is so underwhelming that you can’t help but fret over the two hours of your life you will never get back.

Singh might have graduated from being ‘hero ka dost’ to the man himself but either the right scripts aren’t coming his way or he is not making good choices. After last year’s Ujda Chaman and now Jai Mummy Di, it’s evident that he can carry a film solely on his shoulders. As Puneet, he delivers an earnest performance and has a strong grip over his character; now only if he would lose that wooden expression.

Seygall, on the other hand, isn’t a good fit as Saanjh. She’s too posh to play the carefree, confident and loud character. Even their onscreen chemistry has nothing real about it – they look good on screen but that spark is clearly missing.

Even more heartbreaking is to see two seasoned actors — Dhillon and Pathak — not having much to do onscreen. Considering the film is called Jai Mummy Di, you expect more of the mummies but the whole story is narrated from the point of view of this couple wanting to get married. While Pathak does give some genuine moments of laughter and looks quite natural as Lalli, Dhillon is trying too hard and ends up overacting as Pinky.

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One thing that the film gets right is Delhi’s clichés. Loud Punjabis, flashy clothes and even flashier jewellery, gorging on daal makhani and butter chicken and the constant effort to be better than their neighbours make you laugh at certain places.

Talking of tropes, the makers should have known better than to include a demeaning and distasteful reference to ‘converting’ a gay man to ‘normal’.

I think the only thing that works in the favour of Jai Mummy Di is its length. At 107 minutes, it stays snippy. Its songs (though there are quite a few of them) like Mummy Nu Pasanad, Dariyaganj, Jai Mummy Di title track and, of course, the glam reboot of Lamborghini, definitely make you groove.

To sum up, Jai Mummy Di is completely forgettable, not for the performances that honestly aren’t too bad, but for an insipid story and sheer lack of good storytelling.

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