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Review: Even the luminous Sai Pallavi can't rescue dull and gimmicky 'Ek Din'

Scroll | May 1, 2026 2:41 PM CST

Welcome to Bollywood, Sai Pallavi. Long may you reign. So what if the new kingdom isn’t worthy of your majesty?

The brilliant Southern cinema actress, in her first Hindi-language outing, is paired with Junaid Khan, in his third attempt to assert his aptitude for acting. Sunil Pandey’s movie is adapted by Sneha Desai and Spandan Mishra from the Thai-language One Day (2016). The Thai hit was about one-sided ardour that is enabled by that oldest scripting trick – memory loss.

Dinesh (Khan) is a timid, self-conscious IT professional who is infatuated with his free-spirited colleague Meera (Pallavi). Dinesh lurks about in his office unnoticed despite his height and bulk (in the Thai original, the stalker-ish hero lacks confidence as well as inches).

Meera is oblivious to Dinesh, having eyes only for her married boss Nakul (Kunal Kapoor). During an office trip to Hokkaido in Japan, Meera gets amnesia that isn’t just short-term but lasts exactly for a day. It’s official: that’s what the doctor says in all seriousness.

Dinesh finally has the chance to pose as Meera’s boyfriend and turn fantasy into reality, if only temporarily. Consent wasn’t a concern of the original film, which was the weirdest-ever mash up between The Invisible Man and Sense and Sensibility. In Ek Din, the hero is less creepy; the...