Yeh Jawaani Hai Dewaani… Phir Se!

Screening Minds – Millenial Nostalgia with the re-release of YJHD

I’m gonna try something different and go for a chatty-patty approach in a blog and then do a TLDR (‘Too Long Didn’t Read’ for my millennials/boomers out there) on the IG post. So yes, a long post incoming, but for the YJHD stans- I think you’ll love it.

In the most recent segment of #ScreeningMinds where I analyse movies for their psychosocial themes, I took myself for a solo birthday treat to watch Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani as it re-released in cinemas. This 2013 Bollywood gem hit different in 2025! The first time I watched it upon release was when I was the same age as our 4 main characters, Bunny, Naina, Aditi and Avi in the first half of the movie, post graduation, on the cusp of starting my career. I’m now the age of rewatching it on its re-release, and I’m a similar age as them after the intermission. So to say it was a real book-end moment was an understatement!

However hard you try and avoid it Bunny, you’re always going to miss out on something in life. So enjoy the moment wherever you are…

Naina Talwar, played by Deepika Padukone

From the incredible opening scene, I was hit with a floodgate of nostalgic emotions. The way Naina reflects on how memories work – some sharp as photographs, others blurry; yet much like a “mithai ka dabba” (box of sweets), you can’t stop them pouring out once you unlock one- deeply resonates with my journey navigating depressive dissociation, where I struggle to hold on to memories. (I had even forgotten that I had used the intro music when I made a video for my friend’s wedding of all our nostalgic memories together!)

Just as Naina learns to piece together her transformative journey, I’m learning to honour both the clear and foggy moments of mine. This rewatch feels especially poignant as I explore how cinema helps us make sense of our own stories – even when those stories sometimes feel distant or disconnected. Let’s explore some of those moments below (and if you like where this is going/ends up – please do engage with it through a like, comment, share).

Beyond the infectious energy and stunning visuals, it’s fascinating how the film explores our eternal struggle between personal ambition and deep connections. Bunny and Naina’s journey perfectly captures that quarter-life crisis we all face: do we chase our dreams across the world, or nurture the relationships right in front of us? And let’s be real, I’ve had so many clients that face this even later in their lives. Perhaps it’s not so much a quarter-life crisis as it is of a crises of identities when your voice is lost in the sea of the community that surrounds you.

As a psychosocial perspectives reviewer, I’m struck by how YJHD doesn’t just show love – it dissects the psychology of growing up and making peace with change. This movie still holds up as a masterclass in depicting how our relationships (with others AND ourselves) evolve as we mature.

Let’s explore this through each character arc. (I wanna know who your favourite is/ who you relate to the most in the comments!)

Another Positive Male Parent Representation

And can we have a little moment for the late Farooq Sheikh who plays Bunny’s father- there is no shying away from his vulnerability as a desi-parent who wants to keep their child close to them. Mr Thapar knows his son is a wild bird who yearns to be free and can’t stop him, but he still shows up and recognises that ultimately, my child has their own life.

How many times can you have a ‘jawaani’?

This film, that set an unprecedented level of wedding goals, came at a time when I’m feeling a mixture of emotions about my birthday. There’s something about these so-called important milestones which draws upon an expectation to have mapped your biological age against a checklist of things that society has laid out for you. But what if they don’t always work out. What if you didn’t get a fancy Udaipur wedding by 30, a house by 32, and kids by 34? What if you had all those things and had to start again? Is there a maximum number of times that we’re allowed to ‘start again’? Who decides that?

I refuse to believe in a world that our chances are finite. If God can give us multiple opportunities, if each moment and each breath is another opportunity…then why can’t we love again, laugh again, live again…as many times as it takes until we get it ‘right?’ YJHD is a great example of having the courage to find yourself, multiple times, even if it’s not the same one that you confidently held at 21!

Lord knows I feel very delayed in my ‘timeline’, and that’s not for a lack of trying. So let’s cool it with the comments to our friends and family about ‘growing old’, or ‘time to settle down’, and ‘so I guess the next step is trying for a baby right?’ because you never really know who’s going through what struggle. You could say I’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt, ripped the t-shirt and sewn it back together MANY a time. The last 5 years saw me revisit my childhood years and catch up on so many things that were stolen from me. That wasn’t my fault. Perhaps the next few years may require some caring of my inner teen, I don’t know.

Screening Minds – exploring psychosocial themes of the movies that gave us comfort

In sharing snippets of my mental health journey through my Instagram in the past, I’ve learned that processing memories isn’t always linear. Perhaps the blocker to my personal and business growth is being almost too ‘muted’ in my approach to the healing. So let’s expand this sharing through these #ScreeningMinds reviews, because honestly, on the days where I had no one, I had cinema and music.

Rewatching YJHD really cemented this for me. As I say, it was a real book-end moment, for when I watched it in 2013 as a fresh faced uni graduate, about to embark on what I thought was the most ‘end-game’ career; and now in 2025, where that career evolved into something different; some failed relationships, many hours of therapy, and a whole business later. I’m inspired to keep trying. Again, and again, and again.

Let me know in the comments what you think about this movie? Which character resonates with you?

Fun fact: the lead actress Deepika Padukone and I both share a birthday and we both have experienced severe depression. We also have mental health companies whether that’s my own Muted Healing, or her Live Love Laugh Foundation…hey maybe we should collab…

#manifestation