Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari (2025) is not a close adaptation of the Hollywood movie French Kiss, but there are strong similarities. Sunny has the same basic premise, this time with two people pretending to be a couple in order to win back their respective exes, but it does ask another question: What if they were jerks?
"Jerks" may be a bit strong. Sunny (Varun Dhawan) is kind of immature, but he is genuinely heartbroken when his girlfriend Ananya (Sanya Malhotra) turns down his Bahubali-themed proposal because she doesn't feel ready for marriage, and he's even more heartbroken when he learns that she's now engaged to the immensely rich and handsome Vikram (Rohit Saraf). He mopes for a while, then does some digging and learns that Vikram has also recently broken up with his girlfriend of twelve years, Tulsi (Janhvi Kapoor).
Tulsi is a schoolteacher who always considered herself plain and boring, and Vikram's terrible family have never approved of her. She's absolutely devastated by the break-up, though she struggles to put on a brave face. And then she meets Sunny, who lays out the obvious (if terrible) plan: Sunny and Tulsi will pretend to be a couple who are "accidentally" staying at the same resort where Vikram and Ananya are holding their wedding, and the exes will be so jealous that they call of the wedding and comer back to their former loves.
They set off, with Sunny's best friend Bantu (Abhinav Sharma) in tow, and the plan actually works really well; Vikram and Ananya are properly befuddled, and Sunny and Tulsi keep getting invited to the wealthy couple's many, many wedding functions, making them very jealous over the course of three musical numbers.
Both Tulsi and Sunny are aware that they're being very manipulative, and Ananya and Vikram are both nice people. Our protagonists are interfering with a wedding, which can have real social consequences, rather than seeing off a nasty gold-digger. On the other hand it is an arranged wedding rather than a love match; Vikram and Ananya are still getting to know each other, so they don't know about things like Vikram's potentially fatal allergy to fish.
If you have ever seen a movie before, you can probably guess how this is going to end, and especially if the movie you've seen was Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. This is a very Karan Johar sort of movie (though Johar only produced this one, and makes a cameo appearance) so there will be plenty of noble self sacrifice, longing glances, silly bickering, and references to other movies. I am a fan of old school Karan Johar movies, so I am here for that.
However, there's an issue. Tulsi and Sunny are aware that they're manipulating people and breaking up a wedding for their own purposes, but they're still doing it. And even after they inevitably fall for one another (without telling each other, because that would make things too simple) they continue to disrupt the wedding, hoping to provide each other with a happy ending. I honestly preferred Vikram and Ananya.
But the character I was really invested in was Rakhi (Manini Chadha), the wife of Vikram's brother Param (Akshay Oberoi). Rakhi was a gifted fashion designer before giving up her career to please her mother-in-law (Monika Kohli), and she's been offered a prestigious internship in Paris but the family won't let her go. It's a heartbreaking little subplot that the movie never properly resolves.
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