Jab Khuli Kitaab Movie Review | Anupama Chopra | THR India

Anupama Chopra reviews Jab Khuli Kitaab, a dramedy directed by Saurabh Shukla and streaming on Zee5. The film follows an elderly couple — played by Dimple Kapadia and Pankaj Kapur — whose 50-year marriage is thrown into turmoil when a long-held secret surfaces after Dimple's character wakes from a two-year coma. Anupama finds the central pairing to be the film's strongest asset, noting that both Dimple and Pankaj exude vintage charm and navigate the emotional spectrum with skill. She also singles out Aparshakti Khurana, who brings warmth as an underemployed lawyer who becomes an honorary member of the family.

However, Anupama finds the film weighed down by too many underdeveloped subplots — from the couple's thinly written children to a side track involving a female judge and a climax piled with misunderstandings and convenient dramatic turns. She calls the film schmaltzy and contrived, with uneven tonality where grim situations are undercut by lilting background music, and heavy-handed metaphors like thunder punctuating emotional scenes. Still, she acknowledges a big-hearted core — the idea that we are all bigger than our biggest mistake — even if that truth arrives wrapped in considerable banality.