Shy (Aarushi Bajaj) parents her fun-loving parents at home and plays the popular-cool-mean girl on campus.
You know she’s going to be humbled and come of age, learn the value of authenticity, and get all her missteps settled with the neatness of shiny wrapping paper and a bow on top.
But the question a movie like Don’t Be Shy unwittingly leaves you with is: Why are kids so annoying?
I can almost hear the don’t-be-an-oldie and this-genre-is-not-for-you accusations, but I don’t have to be grumpy and middle-aged to know that Shy is an objectively irredeemable person.
The fundamental problem with Indian young-adult (YA) romcoms is that they reduce girlhood (or boyhood) to a candyfloss template that’s derived from previous YA romcoms.
Don’t Be Shy revolves around 20-year-old Shyamili “Shy” Das: that fourth-wall-breaking and self-involved student with a foolproof life plan, a rich boyfriend she needs, a hunky childhood friend she disowns, a trendy college she attends, a first name she’s ashamed of, a middle-class Bengali upbringing she hides, and a family shop she resents. Shy (Aarushi Bajaj) parents her fun-loving parents at home and plays the popular-cool-mean girl on campus. She’d be an influencer in most worlds, but her folks are apparently too poor to buy her a BlackBerry, so social media is ruled out. You know she’s going to be humbled and come of age, learn the value of authenticity, and get all her missteps settled with the neatness of shiny wrapping paper and a bow on top. But the question a movie like Don’t Be Shy unwittingly leaves you with is: Why are kids so annoying?
I can almost hear the don’t-be-an-oldie and this-genre-is-not-for-you accusations, but I don’t have to be grumpy and middle-aged to know that Shy is an objectively irredeemable person. It’s not entirely her fault. The fundamental problem with Indian young-adult (YA) romcoms is that they reduce girlhood (or boyhood) to a candyfloss template that’s derived from previous YA romcoms.
