23 May,2026 07:27 AM IST | Mumbai | Mayank Shekhar
Ananya Panday and Lakshya in ‘Chand Mera Dil’. Pic/Instagram
Lakshya = luck? I don't refer here to the meaning of the said name. Which is aim/ambition, alright.
But just how the lead actor of this film, Lakshya, has had an immensely lucky streak with three back-to-back pieces of content, so separate in genre, while wholly defining each.
As in: Kill (action, 2024), The Ba'''ds of Bollywood (satire/comedy-drama, 2025), and, indeed, Chand Mera Dil (CMD). Which is as gooey, old-soul a young romance as you're likely to get in 2026.
Ananya Panday plays Chand for Chandni, opposite Lakshya. She's obviously been around in the movies for longer - having seen off several leading men, including Vijay Deverakonda (Liger, 2022).
In fact, watching the promo of CMD, whenever I first did - cut in the way that it was - I felt, maybe, it was merely a version of Vijay's iconic Arjun Reddy (2017) to suit the subsequent template of poisonous machismo that audiences supposedly prefer for their cinematic tastes.
Thought I'd need CBD to sit through CMD. Couldn't be further from the trailer/truth. It's an inherently soft, feminist film, about a young couple, who take the unlikely/extra step of having a child, getting married, while still in college; that is, at an engineering school in Hyderabad.
The feel of the setting, both the city, and the campus, is fairly complete. The drama is staged/shot with care. The script itself reads, in your head, like some kinda lived experience, yet written like a saga of sorts.
And both the lead actors, on whose chemistry the story is naturally hinged, look primed for their part; emotionally present, viscerally connected (somewhat).
The only possible peeve is how untested faces give such roles/stories fresher wings to fly. Think Saiyaara (2025), super-hit from the same genre.
That said, I'd assume, there are enough boxes ticked to personally recommend an experience - the box-office is a separate barometer, altogether.
CMD starts off with what seems like the end of the film's story. It's not. Unlike Lakshya - this time, I refer to the 2004 film, by the same name!
The lead couple aren't together anymore. What follows is a patiently reconstructed romance between two students (Lakshya, Ananya), travelling with baggage in excess of the usual burdens of youth.
The picture seemed to me more about the moments than the plot per se. And that's why the long, extended passages of confusion, testing patience, didn't bother me so much.
Consider how the filmmakers deliver the âdelivery scene' in a maternity ward - making it so sensitively about life itself. Or the intense drama of domestic discord, within the confines of a home, with vibes of Marriage Story (2019), or Scenes from a Marriage (2021), no less.
You're seamlessly moved as you somehow move along. That's what good movies attempt to do.
CMD is written-directed by Vivek Soni, who debuted with Meenakshi Sundareshwar (2021, Netflix) - a pretty quirky, corny/cutesy, underrated romantic flick in Hindi, so lovingly set in the unlikely Madurai! The world looked charming, beyond the usual North Indian small-town grime. Certain moments stayed with you.
Aap Jaisa Koi (2025, Netflix) felt a li'l fake, in comparison. CMD is Vivek's first theatrical release - and suitably so, with passions slightly more heightened, even if the conclusion could be a cliché.
And yet, you wonder - what's it about being in your roaring 20s that separates it from every decade after? Sure, when you're young, it's so much easier to move on - legendary love stories inevitably belong to those who don't!
There's so much chatter about the fickleness of being Gen Z. But why would this generation, raised online, be different from any other?
There's hardly anything on the Internet that makes us less expressive, even as the choices are infinite. That rush of young blood remains as true to love as war.
Be that as it may, in any relationship, it's always one person (of the two), who actually switches off, checks out, and breaks up - egos being fragile with both.
I'm thinking these thoughts, stepping out of the press show of CMD, produced by Karan Johar's Dharma - that's also terribly dished out romantic duds, lately (Nadaaniyan, Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri).
It's a rare preview screening for a film produced by Dharma, ever since they publicly chose against hosting them. The last one, perhaps, was for Homebound (2025). CMD's equally sorted in its own right/genre; even if not world-class.
'YUCK ''WHATEVER '''GOOD ''''SUPER '''''AWESOME
