Ananya Panday-Lakshya film ‘Chand Mera Dil’ counters airbrushed fantasy

Vivek Soni’s Chand Mera Dil arrives as a grounded, mature counter-narrative to mainstream romance. At a time when Bollywood love stories often swing between airbrushed fantasy, comedy and toxic masculinity, the film subverts musical melodrama tropes, including Dharma production tropes, to offer a sharp dissection of modern intimacy with a melancholic flourish.

The film does not ignore career and bread and butter issues. Aarav, played by Lakshya, and Chandni, played by Ananya Panday, are portrayed as believable engineering students facing rigorous academic pressures. They do not drop out when life gets messy.

Writers Vivek Soni, Tushar Paranjpe, and Akshat Ghildiyal treat intellect and ambition as the framework within which the love story exists, not as an alternative to it. The script shows that pursuing career ambitions and a love story are not at odds.

Ananya Panday and Lakshya anchor the film’s shift from a lyrical college romance into a stark, mature reality. The pair establish effortless physical and emotional intimacy early on, making the eventual fracture sting all the more.