Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Sorry, but the nepo-fest The Archies was a teeny bit better than the 2026 comedy Don’t Be Shy. The latter is supposed to be a light-hearted joyride about a chaotic young woman with a simple life plan: get an MBA, marry her filthy-rich college boyfriend and help run his company. But instead of delivering a fun, breezy comedy, it had me rubbing my temples in frustration for half its runtime. It’s half-fun, half-infuriating.
Directed by Sreeti Mukerji, who has co-written Don’t Be Shy with Sehaj Kaur Maini, the film follows Shyamali Das, aka Shy, the daughter of a loving Bengali couple who run a struggling saree shop in Mumbai. Embarrassed by her middle-class roots, Shy concocts an elaborate fake persona to pass herself off as one of the cool kids at college, even snagging Mayank Jhunjhunwalla (Piyush Khati), a multimillionaire heir, as her boyfriend. Ambitious, hyperactive and spectacularly self-centred, Shy has her entire future mapped out. Unfortunately, the universe hasn’t received her itinerary. And when new girl Tara Verma (Bianca Arora) starts stealing her thunder at practically everything, Shy gets a reality check she’s totally unprepared for.
The opening minutes of Don’t Be Shy are cluttered as hell, and not in a fun, relatable, chaotic manner, but in an anxiety-inducing, trying-too-hard sort of way. Still, I suppose the makers deserve some credit for delivering on the title’s promise. Because it’s pretty hard to like Shy, and the title itself is a cheeky dig at her rather odious personality. Don’t Be Shy isn’t just an encouragement to shed your inhibitions; it’s also a warning against being a Shyamali: a smart cookie who’s hilariously disconnected from reality. Thankfully, Sehaj Kaur Maini is adorable enough to make the frequently insufferable Shy just about bearable.
While Shy dreams of tying the knot with campus heartthrob Mayank, there’s also her handsome childhood friend Dhruv (Ansh Duggal), and despite her carefully laid plans, Shy isn’t entirely immune to Dhruv’s charms either. Unfortunately, both Piyush Khati and Ansh Duggal feel a little miscast. Khati lacks the effortless swagger and flamboyant charm you’d expect from a filthy-rich, entitled raja beta. Duggal, meanwhile, plays the supposedly grounded, middle-class boy next door with such a languid drawl that he sounds perpetually stoned. He gives off more of a ‘bad boy your parents warned you about’ vibe than the sweet neighbourhood boy you’d actually fall for.
Bianca Arora brings a burst of colour and energy to ‘Don’t Be Shy’ as Tara, whose flashy personality, infectious optimism and genuine kindness make her a refreshing departure from the stereotypical college rival. Her first encounter with Shy is comically staged like a classic Bollywood meet-cute, complete with a DDLJ-inspired train sequence in which Shy helps Tara aboard. It’s a clever reversal of the usual romantic introduction, giving the supposed antagonist a grand, almost SRK-esque entrance. Bianca Arora endearingly portrays Tara, but she falls just short of making the character truly iconic, as her bubbly charm and infectious optimism don’t come quite as effortlessly as they should.
Between trying to sabotage Tara’s rising popularity, getting Mayank on board with her future plans and making herself the centre of everything, Shy is a walking wrecking ball. One of the film’s funniest sequences has Shy repeatedly failing to sabotage Tara, with the catchy track ‘Bawri’ playing in the background. Unfortunately, Don’t Be Shy is far too scattered in its ambitions, unable to decide whether it wants to be a romance, a sismance or simply a lesson in humility.
Also, the film makes a rather half-hearted attempt at recreating the early 2010s, back when BlackBerry phones were still a status symbol among wealthy college kids. Beyond that little detail, however, there’s precious little in the costumes or overall visual aesthetic to suggest the period. For starters, where are all the skinny jeans that practically defined college fashion back then? Instead, the characters are left awkwardly mouthing era-specific references in their dialogues, as though constantly reminding viewers what decade they’re supposed to be in.
By the time ‘Don’t Be Shy’ reaches its climax, it settles for a clichéd romantic storyline and throws in a silly, exaggerated ‘college fest gone wrong’ twist to manufacture some last-minute conflict. I happened to watch the Tamil teen comedy Youth the same week, and boy, was that a whole lot more fun than this muddled mess!
Watch ‘Don’t Be Shy’ on Prime Video.
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