Ek Din

Dorky, geeky men too can get lucky in love. That’s the basic premise of Ek Din, featuring Junaid Khan as the said dork-geek, with Sai Pallavi playing the pretty woman way out of his league. During the course of two hours, the film pushes the idea that even if IT guy Dinesh (Khan) has a colourless personality and, therefore, is forgettable and invisible to most people, he still is good boyfriend material because he’s cloyingly sincere and shy. Only that Khan, while befitting the part in the physical sense, struggles to pull off the task of making audiences root for Dinesh in his quest for love.

They say it is the mere conception of an idea—the first glimmer of narrative possibility—that sets a journey in motion. In the realm of creativity, that initial spark is often so invigorating that one feels half the battle is already won, especially when the ambition is to tell a story that reaches beyond the self and resonates with a wider audience.

At a time when the box office menu is brimming with masala entertainers, Ek Din tastes like a palate cleanser, blending mood and memory with a touch of magic. A gentle, heart-tugging alternative to spectacles and morally twisted love stories, the film leans into a quiet, introspective, and emotionally tender atmosphere. Set amidst the corroding corporate culture, where relationships tend to be transactional, it explores how a single shared memory or a single day of connection can feel like an entire relationship. Not a fantasy but a light whimsical sprinkle that makes the impossible feel real, raising questions about identity, fate, truth, and what lingers when everything else fades.

ऑफिस के सब लोग घूमने के लिए जापान गए हैं। साथ काम करने वाली मीरा को चुप-चुप के देखने वाला दब्बू दिनेश वहां विश मांगता है कि मीरा उसकी हो जाए, एक दिन के लिए सही। और ऐसा हो भी जाता है। एक हादसे में मीरा को टी.जी.ए. हो जाता है, यानी उसकी याददाश्त चली जाती है, सिर्फ एक दिन के लिए। यह एक दिन मीरा और दिनेश एक साथ बिताते हैं। अगले दिन मीरा की मैमोरी वापस आ जाती है लेकिन वह दिनेश के साथ बिताए इस एक दिन को भूल जाती है। जाहिर है कि दिनेश को सदमा तो लगेगा ही, मगर फिर एक ट्विस्ट आता है…! 1983 में आई कमल हासन-श्रीदेवी वाली फिल्म ‘सदमा’ में याद्दाश्त खो चुकी श्रीदेवी की महीनों तक देखभाल करने वाले कमल को तब गहरा सदमा लगता है जब याद्दाश्त वापस आने के बाद श्रीदेवी उसे पहचानने से इंकार कर देती है। कुछ वही बात इस फिल्म (Ek Din) में भी है, लेकिन कुछ अलग अंदाज में, एक अलग ट्विस्ट के साथ। वह ट्विस्ट ही इस फिल्म में नया है वरना दो घंटे की इस फिल्म का पूरा निचोड़ तो इसके दो मिनट के ट्रेलर में दिख ही चुका है।

Nobody notices the tall and nerdy IT support guy. He doesn’t mind it; “invisibility is my superpower,” he tells himself. He only longs to be noticed by the popular office girl. But she’s in a relationship with their tall and handsome boss, who is going through a messy divorce. A company trip to Japan beckons. Our nerdy guy makes a middle-class wish at a holy site: “if we could be together even for a day”. It’s a figure of speech that gets lost in translation. An accident happens, and popular girl wakes up with an amnesia specifically tailored to his wish. Her short-term memory is wiped out, but it will return in exactly one day. There’s one more symptom: she will permanently forget everything that unfolds in this one day. Boardgames have less elaborate rules. So our nerd does what any self-respecting romantic would: he pretends to be her boyfriend for the day. This is his chance. You know the rest. You know she’s going to find out, you know it will get ugly, and you know that science will be challenged by its greatest rival: the Bollywood heart.