‘Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri’ Movie Review: Kartik Aaryan and Ananya Panday’s Discount ‘DDLJ’ Romcom Feels Made for Algorithms, Not Fans! (LatestLY Exclusive)

Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri Movie Review: Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri comes with a mouthful of a title, and I saw someone joke on social media about how its acronym sounds like a discount coupon code. Watching the film, you realise the joke has layers - because the movie itself feels like a discounted knockoff of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Tu Meri Main Tera...!! Big B Turns Kartik, Ananya's Film Title into Tongue Twister.

Which is especially baffling because DDLJ belongs to YRF and this is a Dharma movie. Did Karan Johar, who worked as an AD on that film and even acted in it, not enjoy the experience? Or is this his way of proving that lightning doesn’t strike twice when it comes to creating something as culturally seismic as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge?

'Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri' Movie Review - The Plot

Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri follows Rehan aka Ray (Kartik Aaryan), a hotshot wedding planner, and Rumi (Ananya Panday), a struggling writer, who meet at an airport en route to Croatia for yacht week. She’s irritated by him, he refuses to take the hint, and through a series of coincidences - flight seats, yachts, shared spaces - they keep landing next to each other. I would call it kismet, but I don’t want to dignify lazy writing with poetic terminology.

Predictably, love blooms. Kisses are exchanged. Clothes are shed. The film seems convinced that enough eye candy will distract us from how aggressively borrowed its soul is. Sorry, but no amount of swimwear montage can mask the creative bankruptcy here.

Watch the Trailer of 'Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri':

Rumi, however, does not want to commit to marriage with Ray. And while I desperately wished the reason was that he is monumentally annoying, the film disappoints yet again. The real obstacle is her father, Colonel Amar Wardhan Singh (Jackie Shroff), back home in Agra.

'Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri' Movie Review - Lazy Setups

The film opens with an oddly framed scene of a young boy sleepwalking out of his house while his parents are… otherwise occupied. Rehan’s voiceover insists this moment will matter later. The scene does return, yes - but its eventual 'payoff' is so hollow that it feels less like foreshadowing and more like a content warning. Expect this kind of narrative emptiness throughout.

Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri repeatedly sets things up that lead absolutely nowhere. Early on, Rehan’s mother Pinky (Neena Gupta) tells him to marry anyone but an Indian woman because Indian daughters-in-law cry during bidaai. Does this statement make sense? No. Does it inform her character? No. Does it matter later? Also no. It simply exists - like much of this screenplay - without purpose or consequence.

'Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri' Movie Review - Pitch Meeting

I genuinely wish I had been present in Dharma’s creative room when this film was greenlit. At the very least, I can imagine how the conversation went.

“Hey, Saiyaara worked. Chhaava worked. So should we make a romcom or a historical propaganda movie?”

(PS: This conversation happened before Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari released.)

“Romcom. Easier. Do we have a script?”

“Who needs one? People are drowning in nostalgia. DDLJ is turning 30 - basically our boss’s anniversary too. Why not celebrate his legacy?”

“So… remake DDLJ? Shouldn’t we ask Adi for the rights?”

“No need. Just feed it to ChatGPT. Ask it to Gen-Z-fy the screenplay. Change the conflict. Bauji is too 90s. We have to make our heroine more empowered even if she is illogical.”

“ChatGPT suggests the girl can’t marry her US based lover till her father is alive.”

“Dark. I love it. Will they plan to kill him then?”

"No... no... she wants to take care of him."

"Oh, that works too..."

“But couldn’t they just… talk it out?”

“Don’t overthink. ChatGPT ne keh diya, toh bas keh diya. Also insert a ChatGPT joke so people think we’re self-aware.”

“Who plays the hero’s father?”

“Gender-swap it. Make it his mother. Give her Anupam Kher’s entire DDLJ arc. Adi can’t sue us then.”

“What about those annoying nitpicky fans?”

“We’ll drown them in references. Dialogues, callbacks, and a full-blown pre-wedding Mehendi Lagake Rakhna performance. To balance it out, we’ll also drop songs from the other two Khans.”

“Brilliant.”

“And how does the hero win over the family?”

“Make him a wedding planner. But not exactly DDLJ. He’ll plan the heroine's sister’s wedding.”

“ChatGPT says the sister finds her fiancé on Tinder.”

“Is Tinder still Gen Z?”

“ChatGPT says yes. Also wants us to cast an influencer.”

“Done. That's our niche these days. What about the lead actor?”

“Ranbir Kapoor?”

“He’s already done the first half of the plot a few times. I have an idea, let's take in Kartik Aaryan. This would be a chance for us to mend fences with him after the Dostana 2 fiasco.”

“Sahi boss. Also let’s make every character - airhostess, a married aunty, even a gay dude - swoon over him and his body. He will feel mollified.”

“You’re underpaid.”

“Thanks boss. What about Alia as the heroine?”

“Not Alia. Too veteran now. Take Ananya. She was also a 'Student' if you get my joke...”

“Nice one, sir. I have an idea. Let’s use her father’s song to promote the film. "Saat Samundar Paar". Also name her Rumi so we can quote Rumi.”

“Didn’t Jab Harry Met Sejal do that?”

“It flopped. Nobody remembers.”

“Give this man a raise.”

“Thanks boss. Chemistry check?”

“Why bother? Just make them kiss a lot. People confuse kissing with chemistry anyway. That’s what DDLJ got wrong - no kisses.”

“Absolutely, sir.”

And that, I imagine, is how Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri was born.

'Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri' Movie Review - Empty Shell of a Film

What makes this more disappointing is that the film is directed by Sameer Vidwans, who has made genuinely solid films in Marathi cinema and previously helmed Satyaprem Ki Katha - also with Kartik Aaryan - which at least had a functional plot. Here, neither half works. The first half’s “easy-breezy” travelogue romance is grating, with Ananya Panday rolling her eyes endlessly while Kartik mistakes annoying the heroine for annoying the audience. The second half collapses into inert melodrama, and not even veterans like Jackie Shroff and Neena Gupta can salvage it. SatyaPrem Ki Katha Movie Review: Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani's 'Marriage Story' is More Problematic Than Romantic.

The songs are decent, but the nostalgia bait is relentless and exhausting. Instead of evoking affection, it only underlines how creatively hollow this exercise is. Sure, Croatia looks beautiful. But this is a movie and not a travelogue. I wish the makers realised that...

'Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri' Movie Review - Final Thoughts

Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri doesn’t honour DDLJ’s legacy - it cheapens it, like a souvenir you buy at an airport because the real thing was far too expensive to recreate. What should have been an easy, charming romcom collapses under the weight of lazy nostalgia, hollow conflicts, and a screenplay that mistakes references for originality.

Rating:1.5

(The opinions expressed in the above article are of the author and do not reflect the stand or position of LatestLY.)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 25, 2025 10:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).