Mannu Kya Karegga? Movie Review: A Quietly Beautiful Film About Growing Up, Messing Up, and Figuring It Out

Director – SsanJay Tripaathy

Cast – Vyom, Saachi Bindra, Kumud Mishra, Vinay Pathak, Charu Shankar, Rajesh Kumar, Brijendra Kala

Writer – Saurabh Gupta, Radhika Malhotra

Duration – 141.35 Minutes

Rating – 4

Mountains aren’t meant to understood, but experience, and same goes for this movie Mannu Kya Karegga, there is something wonderful about a film that does not overburden itself with drama but remains with you and let the magic slowly unfolds. It’s gentle, adorable, breezy, fun and brave, but somewhat disorganized, in the best possible way, and it is brutally honest.

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Directed by SsanJay Tripaathy and produced by Sharad Mehra, set in Dehradun’s lush, relaxed universe, the tale follows Manav “Mannu” Chaturvedi (Vyom), a university student with his fingers in every pie — football, drama, coding, you name it. He’s the quintessential overachiever with no direction. Everyone is fond of him. He’s gifted, he’s suave. But he’s trapped within his own self, he has no clue what he really wants to do with his life.

Next is Jiya Rastogi (Saachi Bindra), a determined, no-fuss transfer student from Delhi. She’s shooting for Stanford or Harvard, and she’s not around to mess around. The two cross paths (in a very traditional rom-com fashion), and the chemistry is instant. But more intriguing than their love story is the way Jiya’s certainty forces Mannu to face his own ambiguity. That’s where the story truly gets its heart.

To impress her (and perhaps keep up), Mannu makes something really stupid — he creates a false tech start-up named “Nothing.” Yes, literally nothing. It’s an app that is meant to assist people in doing. nothing. What begins as a dumb lie becomes a ginormous web of dishonesty — fake office, fake team, fake success. And naturally, like all lies, it crashes and burns. What ensues is heartbreak, disappointment, and quite a harsh wake-up call.

But that’s where the movie truly excels. It doesn’t make that fall some melodramatic collapse. Instead, it brings in “Don” — Mannu’s quirky professor (played wonderfully by Vinay Pathak) who’s odd, existential, and the perfect kind of college mentor. Don explains Ikigai — Japanese concept of discovering your purpose in life — and things begin to transform for Mannu.

Mannu Kya Karegga is that it’s very raw and real. The feelings aren’t over-the-top or artificial. They just are real. Dialogues with parents that are all too recognizable, strolls with the stars, awkward silences, that sense of feeling completely lost in your early twenties — it’s all present. And the movie doesn’t try to hasten anything. It allows things to happen as they should, which honestly makes it feel more real.

The music album of the film is a winner. You know, when you hear a song and it just resonates with something in your own life, well that’s the type of music this film possesses. There are nine songs, and they’re not background sounds, they’re actually an integral part of the emotion of the movie. Humnawa and Fanaa Hua particularly will linger with you.

Vyom as Mannu is genuinely relatable, you know he is lying out of his teeth to manage a situation, we all have done it at some point, you don’t despise him, you already know the lie, the situation and the quick get-away trick. He is flawed, and that’s his truth and honesty.

Saachi Bindra is excellent as Jiya, she is tough, focused, but not brittle or vain. She strength comes from her beliefs. Seasoned actor Kumud Mishra and Charu Shankar, as Mannu’s parents, are so warm and nuanced. They’re doting, supportive, but also obviously exasperated with their son’s obtuseness, which most parents are!

And the true master, Vinay Pathak, he’s the heart of the movie. He is humorous, quirky, wise and above all tolerant, just the sort of teacher we all had at some stage or another in our lives.

The screenplay by Saurabh Gupta and Radhika Malhotra is delightfully lifelike. And kudos to them for not opting for heavy duty melodrama. No lengthy dialogue-baaji, just authentic moments. And Dehradun, so captured in all its green, peaceful beauty, seems the ideal setting for a coming-of-age story about slowing down.

On the surface, you could mistake this for another college rom-com but it’s not. Beneath the fluff, there’s a real story about purpose, about our youth and the kind of aspirations they have, and the way they process world around them,

and the mess they create while discovering themselves. About how doing “nothing” sometimes — stepping away from the performance — is precisely what you need to get everything sorted out.

Mannu Kya Karegga doesn’t trying to invent a wheel, doesn’t give you a great big answer, doesn’t put a bow on things and tie everything together. But it does make you think and feel!