‘Nadaaniyan’ Movie Ending Explained & Summary: Did Pia Forgive Arjun?

Shauna Gautam’s Nadaaniyan, starring Khushi Kapoor and Ibrahim Ali Khan, is a repackaged Dharma rom-com recipe that is quite bland. Using Gen Z terms and even casting Orry for a special appearance could not save the film from being a disaster. As usual, a rich kid at an ultra-elite school falls in love with a scholarship student. However, due to the imbalance in their societal status, they face heavy criticism (basically Alia Bhatt and Sidharth Malhotra’s characters from Student of the Year). Add to that a dose of the ‘fake boyfriend’ trope (The Wedding Date, Holiday Engagement), and you have Nadaaniyan!

Spoiler Alert

Why did Pia hire Arjun to be her fake boyfriend?

Pia Jaisingh, a popular girl in school with a broken family but a strong friend circle to fall back on, decided to hire a boyfriend. The reason—she’d a  misunderstanding with her childhood besties, Sahira and Rhea. Sahira had had a crush on Ayaan for ages, and when she saw the kind of suggestive texts he had sent to Pia, she wondered why her best friend had never told her about it. Sahira blamed Pia for not making it clear to Ayaan that she was not interested in him. She could not help but wonder if Pia was hiding the conversation from her because she too was secretly interested in Ayaan. This led to a falling out between the friends, and Pia believed that the only way she could solve the misunderstanding was by establishing that she already had a boyfriend, meaning Ayaan was never really an option for her. In reality, Pia chose to not disclose the texts to Sahira because she knew it would hurt her, and she was trying to protect her. But her plan backfired, and she was determined to come up with a solution to patch up with her girlfriends.

Pia was on the lookout for her perfect fake boyfriend, and that was when she ran into Arjun Mehta. He was a scholarship student at Falcon High School, a national-level swimmer, and had already been elected as the captain of the debate club. The best part? He did not have a social media presence. Pia was convinced that he was the perfect fake boyfriend; his absence from social media guaranteed that their secret would remain safe, and he was yet to become a popular face at school, which meant that people would not manage to instantly recognize him. Pia tried to convince Arjun, and while he sympathized with her situation, he believed he had nothing to gain by pretending to be Pia’s boyfriend. But they ultimately struck a deal when Pia offered to pay him twenty-five thousand rupees a week to keep up with the charade.

Pia initially focused on soft-launching her fake boyfriend on social media to keep people guessing, and she promised to make the big reveal at her birthday party. Birthdays were important for Pia because it was a way for her to celebrate her friendship with her besties. As a little girl, she was always made to feel inadequate by her family because she was not the son they had prayed for. It was her friends who helped her with her self-worth, and she could not imagine celebrating her birthday without them. As it turned out, the soft-launch plan worked, and Sahira and Rhea apologized for misunderstanding Pia and tried to find out who her boyfriend was. Pia invited them to her birthday party, where she promised to reveal his identity.

Everyone at the party was impressed when Pia walked hand-in-hand with Arjun. She introduced him to her friends and family, and everything was going according to their plan when all of a sudden Pia’s mother received a call from Arjun’s father inquiring about his son. Arjun’s father was Pia’s family doctor, and when her mother figured out that Arjun belonged to a middle-class family, she expressed her disappointment. She stated that by dating someone below her social status, Pia had humiliated her entire family. While her mother disapproved of Arjun, her father seemed more considerate. He was impressed by all the accolades Arjun had managed to achieve at a young age and did not think Pia had done anything wrong. 

What led to Pia and Arjun’s misunderstanding?

Pia thanked Arjun because he was the reason why her father had shown an interest in her life. Rajat and Neelu were married on paper, but they barely lived together anymore. Rajat had a separate life outside his marriage, and Pia never got the chance to know her father well. But things had started to change, thanks to Arjun! Rajat was eager to have family dinners to get to know Arjun well, and Pia assumed it would eventually bring her parents close again. Neelu was hopeful as well; they had drifted apart after their regular arguments over Neelu’s failure to produce a male heir. Neither Rajat nor his father believed that Pia was talented enough to pursue law and join their law firm eventually, but Arjun changed Rajat’s perception. He mentioned how academically brilliant Pia was and that she had the argumentative skills needed to become a prolific lawyer. Rajat never considered that Pia could carry on their family legacy, and he felt hopeful hearing all the positive comments from Arjun. All her life, Pia had craved his attention and approval, and she finally felt happy with how things were at home. She decided to pursue law and join the debate team as well. But things took a turn for the worse at the Diwali party.

Everyone was having the time of their lives, and Pia was overjoyed when she saw her parents dancing together. She never thought she would witness such a sweet moment, and she decided to capture it. Rajat handed her his phone, and as soon as she was about to record a video, she noticed messages sent by Anahita. She was her father’s mistress, and Pia had just found out that Anahita was pregnant. Pia passed the phone to her mother, and she was devastated when she read the texts. Rajat and Neelu got into a heated argument after the party, and Pia was reminded of her traumatic childhood days. After finding out his girlfriend was pregnant, Rajat decided to divorce Neelu and marry Anahita. Pia intervened and rejected Rajat’s decision. She was convinced that Rajat was ready to abandon them only because he felt his girlfriend could produce him an heir. She pitied herself for always thinking she was not good enough when in reality it was her father who made her feel that way. Rajat was surprised to see Pia’s reaction, and he proclaimed he would never allow her to join his firm. Pia did not care anymore; she had realized that her father was a selfish man, and she had made up her mind to live with her mother. Pia had a debate competition to attend the next morning, but she was too distracted and disheartened to participate. Arjun tried to contact her, but her phone was broken. He had no idea what was going on, and he assumed that Pia was no longer interested in him. He’d seen her with Rudra, a Rajasthani prince Pia’s mother approved of, at the Diwali party, and he thought maybe Pia got caught up entertaining him. 

What made Arjun realize his mistake?

Arjun had fallen in love with Pia. While they’d agreed to be pretend lovers, they developed a beautiful bond. Even though they came from different backgrounds, Arjun appreciated Pia for not being a typical judgmental elite. She saw him for who he was, and Arjun too helped Pia believe in herself. She was an underconfident youngster who always thought her interests should be limited to fashion and makeup, but Arjun helped her realize that she had the potential to explore more in life. She never thought she would study law, even though she did well academically, but she gradually realized that she had to broaden her horizons and overcome the deeply patriarchal ideas that were propagated by the men in her family. Arjun was particularly impressed when Pia defended him in front of her friends. Ayaan tried to publicly embarrass him; he liked Pia, and he wanted to make Arjun feel ashamed of himself, but he never thought that Pia would aggressively defend him. Arjun had agreed to help Pia hone her debating skills because he’d figured out how important it was for her to prove her father wrong. Arjun had always focused on his career; he knew he wanted to study law in India and develop an app that he would eventually sell at a high price, earning him enough for his parents to live a carefree retired life. On his vision board, there was no place for love and friendship, but Pia changed that completely. When she didn’t receive his calls after the Diwali party, he could not think straight, and he ended up losing the debate competition.

Meanwhile, Rudra had requested Neelu to oversee the renovation of the Summer Palace. She was an interior designer, and now that Rajat had decided to divorce her, she was determined to build something of her own, so she readily accepted Rudra’s offer. But things took a disastrous turn when the paparazzi spotted Pia with Rudra at his summer palace. Their pictures (Pia was hugging Rudra) were published on digital platforms, and people speculated they were together. When Arjun came across the pictures, he was heartbroken. He thought his assumption was right, and he refused to talk to Pia even though she tried to contact him. When they met again at school, she tried to explain herself, but Arjun decided to publicly humiliate her. He exposed that Pia had paid him to be her pretend boyfriend, and he went on to insult her friends, who he believed were too sensitive, having thrown tantrums over a text exchange. He pushed Ayaan to the ground when he tried to defend Sahira and Rhea, stating that he was nothing but a phony repeat offender that girls wanted to get rid of.

Pia’s friends supported her through the tough times. She missed Arjun, but she was also extremely disappointed in him and almost hated him. Arjun too longed for Pia’s company, but he knew he’d messed up badly. She wrote him a letter stating that she didn’t want to meet him ever again because she had realized that he too was a red flag who lacked patience and didn’t know how to communicate with his loved ones. Arjun’s mother advised him to let go of his ego after going through the letter, but Arjun was furious about the fact that she read it without his permission. Arjun’s father later advised his son to decide whether Pia was the Rosaline or the Juliet in his love story, which meant he had to decide if she was his forever or not. And if she was his Juliet, he must never cling to his ego. Arjun considered his advice. He was all the more convinced about his decision when his principal, Miss Briganza (Archana Puran Singh’s beloved character from “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”), notified him about his selection at a law college in the UK. She added that when Pia learned that his application essay required reworking, she edited it and sent the final draft to their principal, which led to his selection. Miss Briganza also stated that even though Pia had received acceptance letters from UK colleges, she’d decided to stay back because of her parent’s divorce. Arjun was stunned; he realized he’d misunderstood Pia. 

Did Pia forgive Arjun?

At the annual bonfire party, Arjun contacted Pia’s friends and arranged a proposal for her. He admitted that he’d been a terrible friend, and he begged her to forgive him. It was not easy for Pia to forget that Arjun had insulted her publicly, and she decided to walk away. But Arjun was persistent; he was ready to fight for the person he truly cared about, and he explained that it was his childish stupidity that drove him to mistreat Pia. He believed he was a changed man who valued those around him. He had realized that his feelings for Pia had never been fake, and he regretted hiding his true feelings from her. Arjun admitted that he was jealous when he saw her with Rudra.

During Nadaaniyan’s ending, Arjun got down on his knees and professed his love for Pia; he no longer cared about anything in the world but her. Pia was still hesitant about expressing her feelings because deep down she had made up her mind to never speak to Arjun. But then again, she could not deny the fact that she loved him. Pia ultimately decided to give their relationship a chance because she’d realized they were quite alike, and for better or for worse, she wanted to be by his side. In Nadaaniyan’s final scene, Arjun and Pia were at the airport; he was moving to the UK to pursue his dream of becoming a lawyer while Pia stayed back in India to support her mother and continue her studies. Whether or not they will be together forever is still a mystery, but the lovebirds were determined to make their long-distance relationship work. Well, we wish the lovers the very best!

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