November 28, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Aanand L. Rai
Telugu with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in India, primarily in Delhi, the dramatic film film “Tere Ishk Mein” (a “spiritual sequel” to 2013 movie “Raanjhanaa”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A lieutenant pilot in the Indian Air Force has a turbulent and disturbing past romance with the psychotherapist who has been assigned to counsel him, and their shared history has disastrous consequences in both of their current lives.
Culture Audience: “Tere Ishk Mein” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, “Raanjhanaa,” and trashy movies where abuse is made to look romantic.
“Tere Ishk Mein” has a very off-putting way of glorifying a toxic relationship between two obsessive lovers. This nasty drama tries to make a violent man into a romantic hero when he causes destruction and makes suicide threats. That’s abuse, not true love. The woman in the relationship can’t be completely absolved either, because she’s the very definition of a co-dependent enabler who mistakes unhealthy dysfunction for passion.
Directed by Aanand L. Rai, “Tere Ishk Mein” (which means “In Your Love” in Hindi) was written by Himanshu Sharma and Neeraj Yadav. “Tere Isk Mein” has been described as a “spiritual sequel” to the 2013 dramatic movie “Raanjhanaa,” which was directed by Rai and written by Sharma. The things that these two movies have in common are they are Indian movies with a love triangle that ends badly; the two rival men in the love triangle have the names Shankar and Jasjeet (although they are completely different characters in each movie); and Dhanush stars as the Shankar character. Shankar is the last name of the main character in “Raanjhanaa,” while Shankar is the first name of the main character in “Tere Ishk Mein.”
“Tere Ishk Mein” begins by showing Indian Air Force lieutenant pilot Shankar Gurukkal (played by Dhanush) participating in a combat defense against Chinese military fighters who have attacked about 25 Indian military bases. Shankar is a very skilled pilot (he’s technically considered to be the best on his team), but he’s an impulsive hothead who has difficulty obeying authority figures. Not surprisingly, Shankar doesn’t follow orders during this combat mission.
Shankar is punished for this insubordination by Captain V. Shekhawat (played by Vineet Kumar, also known as Vineet Kumar Singh), who is the group’s commanding officer. Shankar gets a suspension, which includes being “grounded” from flying until further notice. A few of Shankar’s colleagues object to this punishment by telling Captain Shekhawat that Shankar is the most important and most talented pilot on their team. Captain Shekhawat is unmoved and orders Shankar to appear before a disciplinary committee and undergo a psychiatric evaluation during this suspension.
A psychiatric evaluation seems like an extreme way of dealing with this problem. But as time goes on, it’s obvious that something is seriously wrong with Shankar, who at the very least has an anger management problem and probably has an undiagnosed mental illness. But sometimes, mental illness can’t be used as excuse. Some people are just self-hating, troublemaking bullies who take their rage out on other people. By all indications, Shankar is this type of bully.
Shankar is upset over being suspended. But he gets even more upset when he sees who will be the psychotherapist doing his evaluation. Her name is Mukti Beniwal (played by Kriti Sanon), and she’s his ex-girlfriend. Seven years ago, Mukti and Shankar had a very bitter breakup. She is now married to someone else and is about eight or nine months pregnant.
When Shankar and Mukti see each other in an office meeting, and she’s introduced to him as his evaluating psychotherapist, it’s the first time that these two ex-lovers have seen each other in quite some time. Before this meeting, Mukti knew in advance that Shankar would be the person she had to evaluate. In fact, she insisted that she would be the one to do the evaluation. However, Shankar is blindsided and didn’t expect his psychotherapist would be Mukti.
Shankar and Mukti get teary-eyed with they see each other. Shankar is so troubled by seeing her again, he says out loud that he feels like vomiting, and he quickly excuses himself from the office. As he runs outside, he starts having memories of his life and how it was affected by knowing Mukti.
“Tere Ishk Mein” (which jumps back and forth in time) then goes into flashback mode to seven years earlier, when Shankar and Mukti had their whirlwind romance in Delhi. At the time, Shankar was a student at the University of Delhi, where he was president of the Delhi University Students Union. Mukti was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Delhi.
The first time that Shankar and Mukti meet, she is giving a presentation about violence and anger management in a lecture hall attended by students and faculty members. In her presentation, Mukti says that people with violent anger issues can be treated by getting compassionate evaluations done and by teaching them behavior modification. Ironically, Mukti will see how bad Shankar’s rage issues are when they meet for the first time.
At the same time that Mukti has been giving her presentation, Shankar has been furiously chasing another male student around campus and whipping him hard with a belt. It doesn’t matter what this student did to get Shankar angry. The student who is being attacked is defenseless, and this type of physical assault is heinous and illegal.
The student is bloody from his injuries and frantically runs into the lecture hall and sits down, to try and hide from Shankar. Unfortunately, Shankar finds him in the lecture hall and continues to beat the student with a belt. Mukti is horrified and yells at Shankar to stop.
Mukti goes up to Shankar to hit him, as a way to stop the attack. Shankar grabs Mukti’s upraised hand. For a few seconds, their eyes meet. And the movie makes it obvious that Shanka and Mukti are instantly attracted to each other. Shankar then takes Mukti’s hand so that she can lightly slap him on the face. He smirks, and then he walks away. He is soon apprehended by the campus police.
Most people with any ounce of self-respect and decency would be turned off and offended by this disgusting brute. But not Mukti. She is intrigued. She wants to get to know Shankar better. The next few times that Mukti and Shankar see each other, they play flirtatious mind games with each other. Shankar is actually very rude to her.
However, Mukti wants to “study” Shankar for her anger management thesis. She asks him out on a date, which she insists will be strictly platonic and for “research purposes.” Well, you know that’s a lie because she’s been attracted to him from the moment she first saw him, even though she knows he’s a violent abuser. Shankar and Mukti “fall in love.”
But in a trashy melodrama like “Tere Ishk Mein,” this young couple has a stereotypical obstacle: a disapproving parent. In this case, it’s Mukti’s father Yashwant Beniwal (played by Tota Roy Chowdhury), who thinks Shankar is bad for Mukti and unsuitable for anyone who wants a stable and loving partner. (Yashwant is absolutely correct.) Yashwant also disapproves of Shankar because Shankar is in a lower caste.
Even though Shankar is an awful person, he has some loyal supporters. His biggest supporter is his widowed father Raghav Gurukkal (who Prakash Raj), who overlooks and is in denial about Shankar’s serious rage that has caused Shankar to commit violent crimes. In other words, Raghav is an enabler who’s part of the problem.
Shankar also has a best friend named Ved (played by Priyanshu Painyuli), whose only purpose in the movie is to be an unquestioning sidekick to Shankar. Ved is such a sycophant imitator, he does the same activities that Shankar does, including joining the Indian Air Force at the same time as Shankar. Ved needs to get a life, a backbone, and his own identity that’s separate from a loser like Shankar.
The only reason why Shankar joins the Indian Air Force is because of an argument that he had with Yashwant, who refused to give his blessing for Shankar and Mukti to get married. In the argument, Shankar told Yashwant that he would prove to Yashwant that Shankar is worthy of being Mukti’s husband by passing the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) test, a national-level exam in India that qualifies people to work in various civil service jobs.
Shankar works hard to pass the exam. He joins the Indian Air Force. And for the first three years in the Indian Air Force, Shankar thinks Mukti will wait for him until he gets enough Air Force respectability for her father to give his blessing for Shankar and Muti to get married. But there would be no “Tere Ishk Mein” movie if things were going to be that easy.
Mukti doesn’t wait for Shankar. She moves on to having a relationship with a man named Jasjeet (played by Paramvir Singh Cheema), whom she first met when they were grad students at the University of Delhi. Jasjeet was a biochemistry student, but he eventually becomes a pilot in the Indian Navy. Jasjeet is a typical “nice guy” who was Mukti’s longtime platonic friend who had a crush on her. She finally decided to let their relationship become romantic, and they get engaged. Mukti’s father approves of Jasjeet.
However, Mukti is not “in love” with Jasjeet in the way that she’s “in love” with Shankar. At the engagement party for Mukti and Jasjeet (which is held outdoors at Jasjeet’s home), Mukti gives forced smiles and a half-hearted speech where she says that sometimes the person you’re meant to marry has been there all along as a friend. In other words: “I’m settling for someone who is safe but boring because I can’t be with the unstable person I think is more exciting.”
Here’s the part of “Tere Ishk Mein” where Shankar’s unhinged abusiveness becomes irredeemable, although the movie tries very hard to make it look excusable: When Shankar finds out that Mukti is engaged to another man, Shankar not only crashes the engagement party, but he also throws Molotov cocktails to literally burn the party to the ground. Mukti’s house is one of the things that gets destroyed by the fire. During this rampage, Shankar also abusively yells at Mukti for “betraying” him.
Luckily, no one was killed or injured during this vile arson. But who in their right mind thinks this violence is attractive, romantic and sexy? Only people who have no idea what healthy love is. If you hear anyone describe this garbage movie as showing a “great romance,” tell them to go get counseling, because chances are, they have a messed-up perspective of what true love is.
Shankar is arrested for the arson. But that’s not the end of his stalking. As already shown in the movie’s trailer, Shankar also shows up uninvited to Mukti’s wedding to Jasjeet, who marries Mukti, even though she confesses to him during their engagement that she’s still obsessed with Shankar. At the wedding reception, Shankar angrily pours so-called holy water on Mukti’s head, so that she can be “cleansed” for being so “sinful.” It’s a degrading act that is completely excused in this horrible movie.
In addition to being a violent monster, Shankar often threatens to commit suicide, in order to manipulate people to do what he wants. It’s one of the most common tactics used by the worst and most manipulative abusers. Shankar experiences a tragedy soon after his arsonist meltdown at Mukti’s engagement party. It’s just the movie’s pathetic way of trying to make viewers feel sorry for Shankar. And if you look at the circumstances of the tragedy, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Shankar’s drunken selfishness.
Shankar shouldn’t get all the blame for this disastrous relationship from hell. Mukti is also responsible for her own misery by fixating on this tormentor, who is so obviously damaging to himself and others and is unwilling to change, he is no way suitable to be anyone’s love partner. Mukti also has no credibility as a psychotherapist, based on the bad judgment she has about Shankar, whom she pines over like a lovesick puppy. Mukti has her own moments of wallowing in alcohol and self-pity.
Far from being an uplifting film, “Tere Ishk Mein” is grim, depressing, and has a deeply warped view of romantic love. This long-winded 169-minute movie is also boring and repetitive drudgery to sit through, with too many extensive scenes of hostile Shankar and co-dependent Mukti moping around because they’re not together. The acting in this movie ranges from average to unwatchably terrible.
Perhaps the only good thing about “Tere Ishk Mein” is the musical score by Oscar-winning composer A. R. Rahman, but the music is wasted on this heinous movie. Since winning two Oscars (Best Original Score and Best Original Song) for 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” Rahman has done music scores for many bad movies, so his name alone does not guarantee that a movie will be high-quality. Anyone who denies that “Tere Ishk Mein” is a poorly veiled attempt to make abuse look romantic should be ashamed of themselves.
If you think Mukti and Shankar have a wonderful love story, and if you think “Tere Ishk Mein” is an admirable movie, then please rethink your values and how you might condone abuse when it shouldn’t be condoned. And if you care about the types of movies you want to support, then don’t waste any time or money supporting this junkpile repulsive movie that wants to make this horrendous abuse look acceptable and tries to make an abuser look like a martyr.
AA Films released “Tere Ishk Mein” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on November 28, 2025.
