Pooja Meri Jaan review: Mrunal Thakur, Huma Qureshi film aims to challenge stereotypes, but lacks edge
Navjot Gulati’s legal drama gets ZEE5 release after four years in the cans, but comes across as dated.
Though well-intentioned, Pooja Meri Jaan is predictable in its treatment.
A woman rejects the proposal of a man whom she regards as nothing but a friend… the perceived snub leads to dire consequences, as the spurned lover kills himself. But the aftermath is even worse, as the woman is implicated for the abetment of suicide and what follows is a witch hunt as she is subject to public vilification and slandering.
This, in a nutshell, is the premise of Navjot Gulati’s legal drama Pooja Meri Jaan, starring Huma Qureshi and Mrunal Thakur, which finally gets a release on ZEE5 after four years in the cans.
The film draws thematic parallels with high-profile celebrity cases as well as real-life instances where smear campaigns, intense public scrutiny and character assassination have been directed against those who may have rejected or distanced themselves from the victims who have chosen to take an extreme step. Portraying one as a victim and the other a villain, leaving everything in between up for insinuations and judgements by those more or less uninvolved.
Judged for rejecting
The opening scene is a classic reenactment of Romeo and Juliet’s last moments, but as the curtains fall, Romeo aka Aniket (Vikram Chauhan) professes his undying love for Juliet, Pooja Dogra (Mrunal Thakur). Shocked at the proposal, though she accepts the ring, backstage she flings it back in his face, saying she is not in love with him and never was.
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A distraught Aniket tells her that as she flits in and out of relationships, he was the one who was constantly by her side, be it as her plus one when she needed one, helping her pick up the pieces of her heart when her relationships ended, or just being around.
In a fit of rage, Pooja, feeling swamped by his attention, asks him to leave her alone and die if he must. She switches off her phone, since blocking him doesn’t seem to be an option.
Aniket kills himself and Pooja is blamed by all. Even her friend and lawyer Sana (Huma Qureshi) tells the jailed Pooja that she did lead him on and then friend-zoned him, while being aware that he was in love with her. Prosecutor Jatin Trivedi (Vijay Raaz) represents Aniket’s family.
In interrogations in court and media and social media trials, Pooja is portrayed as a temptress, a charlatan and a loose woman who led an innocent man to his death. The hashtag ‘kaisi ladki hai Pooja’ (what sort of a girl is Pooja) becomes viral, with people coming up with their own theories, echoing the modern-day malaise of online vilification and violation of basic human rights and the right to privacy.
Lacking edge
The film, though well-intentioned, is predictable in its treatment, focusing on public prejudices and gender politics, which often lead to biases and attitudes. Perceptions are often framed by conditioning.
Pooja, in this case, is shown as a ‘modern’ woman who has been through several relationships and was often seen in the company of male friends, overstepping the ‘boundaries of propriety’ women are expected to adhere to. It is she who is perceived to have given them the bait and then walked away. The irony is that while the film sets out to question such judgements, it repeatedly falls back on the very stereotypes it seeks to expose.
Though it highlights how men cannot handle rejection and the importance of consent, the movie focuses heavily on the issues of crime, punishment and public perception. It misses a critical opportunity to comment on the lack of mental health resources, emotional regulation or psychiatric intervention that could have prevented a tragedy of this kind.
Aniket’s actions are reduced largely to the question of Pooja’s culpability, leaving little room to examine the emotional and psychological factors behind his extreme reaction.
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One thing that works, though, is the film’s use of social media and the way public opinion is shaped through hashtags and online commentary — a world where even a phrase like “Pooja, what is this behaviour?” can become a cultural shorthand.
Mrunal Thakur plays her character well, capturing her frustration and anguish, while Huma Qureshi seems on familiar ground. But the film needed a sharper edge. It is predictable and foreseeable, following a familiar trajectory with few surprises or turns that could have given the narrative some bite. More importantly, at a time when crimes and transgressions are no longer defined by gender, the film could have taken a more gender-neutral view of love, rejection and culpability. Instead, it remains locked into a familiar gendered narrative, making Pooja Meri Jaan feel dated in its treatment.
