Star Cast: Junaid Khan, Sai Pallavi, Kunal Kapoor, Pragati Mishra
Director: Sunil Pandey
What’s Good: Direction, script, the lead pair, the cinematography, the music…I could go on!
What’s Bad: Believe me, nothing!
Loo Break: Ille (Tamil for ‘No’)!
Watch or Not?: I would…again!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 125 Minutes
User Rating:
Meet the office IT department nerd, Dino (Junaid Khan), the guy who no one notices. Meet also his colleague, Meera Ranganathan (Sai Pallavi), from South India, who ‘speaks Hindi in Tamil,’ as Dino puts it. He is besotted with her, but she notices him only once, when he sets right her office laptop. Having fallen for office boss Nakul Bhasin (Kunal Kapoor), Meera is happy.
Nakul is on the verge of divorce as his life has been made miserable by his wife. He tells Meera that she is his sole anchor in the storm of his life, and he is set to annul the marriage.
With targets met and more, as an incentive, Nakul takes the entire team on a tour of Japan, a country that has always been on Meera’s bucket list, as her late father had introduced her to its highlights, food, and more. Meera is thrilled, especially as Nakul has admitted he chose the country only for her and that they will have an extra two days to themselves when the rest of the team returns home.
Dino, real name Dinesh Srivastava, is part of the group and has philosophically accepted that Meera is meant for Nakul. At a shrine in Japan, there is a Wishing Bell, and he wishes to spend just a day (Ek Din) of his life with Meera.
Uncannily, that wish is fulfilled when Meera realizes that Nakul’s unhappy domestic life story is fake and is heartbroken. She is injured in an accident while drunk and suffers from Transient Global Amnesia (TGA), a temporary episode of severe, sudden-onset memory loss, usually lasting up to 24 hours, where the person cannot form new memories and also forgets most of the immediate past.
Dino has stayed back too, because Meera did not return along with her team, and he gets his wish when he pretends to be her boyfriend in the hospital. And that day becomes the most beautiful one in his life, as well as in Meera’s. But what happens when she recovers her memory 24 hours later and has forgotten that day?
Ek Din Movie Review: Script Analysis
By now, we know that Sneha Desai (Laapataa Ladies, Maharaj, Loveyapa, among a long list of TV and stage writing) is no ordinary writer, and she takes the 2016 Thai film One Day and transforms it, with consummate yet extraordinary skill, into a magical Indian story. Co-writing with Spandan Mishra, they adapt it wonderfully to the Indian ethos and a logical conclusion.
Their realistic dialogues are a treat, and the film leaves the viewer so emotionally engrossed that we empathize with Dino and share his affection for the absolutely lovable Meera, a girl full of life, with, as Dino puts it, nothing but positivity in her and someone who makes people feel that life is all about sunshine and cheer.
Scripts always form the backbone of great movies, and this case is no different. The Thai film had won multiple awards back home, and this one deserves the same here!
Ek Din Movie Review: Star Performance
Junaid Khan is growing from role to role. Having watched him right from his 2024 play, Strictly Unconventional, by Faezal Jalili (who is also this film’s casting director), Maharaj and Loveyapa, it is clear that he is solidly improving with every acting vehicle. It is very tough shining in underplayed, seemingly simple characters like this one, and such actors are almost as underrated as those doing comedy.
Sai Pallavi is another powerhouse of talent. She is simply adorable as the no-nonsense yet pragmatic Meera, and her eyes express what long lines of dialogue cannot. Here is another whopper of an actor who proves that a skin show is not needed to deliver a wallop.
In smaller roles, Kunal Kapoor as Nakul, Pragati Mishra as Meera’s roommate, and Kavin Dave as Dino’s colleague also impress. The rest of the cast, including a few Japanese actors in walk-on roles, is fine.
Ek Din Movie Review: Direction, Music
Sunil Pandey holds the film together with brilliance. If the emotional content is stunning, the cinematography by Manoj Lobo is terrifically bewitching. Japan has never been a favorite locale in Hindi cinema, except for six decades back in Love In Tokyo, but it has been captured spectacularly. And what is much more vital is that Pandey and the writing make the country a veritable character in the film. The hypnotic snow, the bright tapestry of festivals and fairs, the picturesque streets, the lovely cafes, the beautiful snow-clad walks and mountains, and much more. The locales are not merely cinematographed to enhance the film’s look, but to become an integral part of the narrative.
A director’s caliber is also seen in the way he shapes the actors at his disposal, besides his interpretation of the writing and his utilization of the technical resources, and the debut-making Pandey gets full marks here.
Ram Sampath’s music keeps up with the general standard. The music is gossamer, and the title track is to die for. Khwab Dekhoon and Behke Yaar also score high, and what raises the bar further are Irshad Kamil’s absolutely perfect lyrics. Here is a perfect Hindi film album after eons (I discount Dhurandhar, as its needs were special). And Sampath’s background score cannot be bettered.
Ek Din Movie Review: The Last Word
This is the perfect Hindi film as a complete package. I am going to watch it again. And that’s my last word on this quasi-masterpiece!
Four and a Half stars!
Ek Din Trailer
Ek Din released on 01st May, 2026.
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