Don’t Be Shy Review: Fresh Faces, Familiar Teen Musical

Don't Be Shy Amazon Prime Review

BOTTOM LINE
Fresh Faces, Familiar Teen Musical

PLATFORM
Amazon Prime Video

RUNTIME
2 H 28 Mins.

What Is the Show About?

Shy Das is used to being the popular mean girl in school. But her world turns upside down when Mayank, her boyfriend of three years, suddenly dumps her. Shy plans to get revenge on Mayank, but her plan takes an unexpected turn. Instead of fighting, she ends up becoming friends with Mayank’s new girlfriend, Tara, and starts to care for her.

Performances

Aarushi Bajaj as Shy Das and Bianca Arora as Tara bag the more substantial roles. Aarushi brings a relatable messiness to a rebellious, flawed teenager who’s yet to find her feet in life. There’s no effort to sophisticate the character, and that’s why it sticks. Bianca radiates warmth and it is easy to identify with her on-screen rapport with Aarushi.

Kunaal Roy Kapur, Anju Alva Naik and Anurag Basu dole out old-school wisdom like pals to the confused kids, doing justice to their brief roles. Ansh Duggal and Piyush Khati’s characters deserved better writing. Neha Dhupia is miscast as an influential mother trapped in her social facade.

Analysis

Not many films have quite cracked the aesthetic of a high school musical in Indian cinema. What we often get are compromised campus romances that are male fantasies, headlined by actors in their 30s or 40s passing off as cool dudes chasing their dreams, with the girls reduced to fancy props or medals waiting to be won.

Sreeti Mukherjee’s Don’t Be Shy gives the college musical a feminine verve with an accessible desi spin. A lower-middle-class girl, Shyamili aka Shy, the only child of small-time boutique owners, has the hots for Mayank Jhunjhunwala, the son of a business tycoon, at college. Her world crumbles when he dumps her during a party.

The supposedly lowest point in her life becomes a catalyst for Shy to rediscover herself, accept her flaws and unlearn everything she felt was necessary to make it big. Beyond the coming-of-age arc, it is a tale of sisterhood, of girls standing up for each other through the fun, frolic and mayhem of their teenage years, peppered with a liberal dose of music, romance and rebellion.

Like a lot of Hindi urban sagas, only two worlds exist here: the rich and the poor. The rich are ostentatious, ever-snobbish and blinded by privilege. At the other end, people live in Hindi cinema’s idea of cramped houses tucked away in narrow lanes. They are good-natured and full of self-respect despite their constraints. The binary is integral to this fantasy, and you don’t mind it much.

Competing with the rich guy for Shy’s attention is a gentle, accepting neighbour, Dhruv, who’s been friend-zoned for long. Shy’s ultimate choice is anyone’s guess, but thankfully, Sreeti Mukherjee keeps the love angle only as a subplot. Shy also has a familiar arc of an angsty, poor protagonist who moves from detesting her humble background to embracing it by the end.

What really clicks, though, is Shy finding an ally in Mayank’s new girlfriend Tara, a woman she initially wanted to detest. Shy and Tara even get a surprising DDLJ moment at a railway station as they head for an inter-college competition. Every time a man tries to pull Shy down, Tara stands up for her without a second thought, reflecting their growing bonhomie.

The men don’t get the most well-defined roles. Shy has a doting father and is surrounded by a flippant rich guy and a mature childhood sweetheart. Though both have their arcs, Mayank wants to be a singer and Dhruv needs to look past his karate career, you don’t really see them as fully evolved men. It’s a bargain you’re willing to take with a frothy, female-centric musical.

The boutique-owner subplot offers a good excuse for Shy to flaunt appealing costumes. The production design and bright colour palette, inspired by 90s Hindi romances, provide room for some nostalgia. The music blends neatly with the narrative, though it needed more of the vigour you expect from a high-energy musical.

It would have augured well to make the story more inclusive, with greater variety in its characters, a more layered take on the class divide and perhaps an acknowledgement of the LGBTQ community. Even tokenism would have worked. While the film’s feminine energy and camaraderie are refreshing, the fantasy could have felt less tone-deaf with a touch more realism and grounded writing.

Don’t Be Shy is a breezy, light-hearted college musical about two girls navigating love, friendship and career. It is equally cliched and refreshing in parts, soaked in 90s nostalgia, and steers clear of much complexity or nuance. The fresh faces and appealing aesthetic make it watchable.

Music and Other Departments?

Ram Sampath delivers a rich album with an eclectic mix of indie pop, melody and party numbers, which complements the film’s erratic, flippant and joyous vibe. You’ll appreciate it while it lasts, but one can’t be sure if the songs will have much recall value.

The production design and costumes raise a toast to the 90s, coming alive through Pratham Mehta’s peppy frames. While the treatment of the fun premise with a nostalgic touch creates an impression, the writing at times feels tone-deaf and not inclusive enough. It needed a more compact runtime, at least half an hour shorter.

Highlights?

Fresh faces and performances

The female lens and nostalgic elements

Visually appealing

Drawbacks?

Writing could have been better

The privileged, at times tone-deaf approach to execution

Reinforces a few clichés of older campus musicals

Did I Enjoy It?

Yes, quite watchable, even if it isn’t exactly out of the box.

Will You Recommend It?

If you enjoy Hollywood-style high school musicals with a desi touch and 90s nostalgia, give it a try.

Don’t Be Shy Amazon Prime Movie Reviewed by M9 News