‘Dil Dosti Dilemma’ review: A feelgood entertainer about young love and old ties

Andaleeb Wajid’s 2016 YA novel Asmara’s Summer is the source for Prime Video’s latest youth-oriented rom-com Dil Dosti Dilemma.

Asmara (Anushka Sen) is a tone-deaf teenager from upscale Bengaluru whose life revolves around shopping and hanging out with her best friends Tania and Naina. The “Awesome Threesome” share snobbery, privilege and a limited worldview. Things go belly up when, to her horror, Asmara’s lies result in the cancellation of her summer in Canada. Her punishment is a staycation with her conservative grandparents in the compact middle-class neighbourhood of Bengaluru's Tibri Road.

Asmara's mother (Shruti Seth) wants to bring her spoiled daughter on track and have her connect with her own unassuming roots and earnest family values. But Asmara is determined to rebel against her grandparents and their gossipy community. Her grandmother (Tanvi Azmi) is concerned about “what will people say”, whereas her grandfather (Shishir Sharma) is more liberal in his outlook. Worried about keeping up appearances with her fancy friends, Asmara maintains a ruse that she is indeed in Canada.

Not only does the generation gap between Asmara and her grandparents narrow, but also her affection for Tibri Road and its residents starts growing, particularly towards Faraaz (Kush Jotwani) and Rukshana (Vishakha Pandey), the grandchildren of her neighbor (Suhasini...

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