As the latest Jackky Bhagnani project played out on the big screen, one couldn’t help but wonder about the autobiographical nature of the film’s premise. Of course, Jackky’s Abhimanyu Kaul, the foreign-educated young computer game developer who is hurled into politics overnight after his father’s death, may instantly awaken comparisons with the Gandhi scion, but it is also the Bhagnani kahaani in action.

In Youngistaan, the dying prime minister (Boman Irani) urges his son Abhimanyu to join the family business — get sworn in at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He is good at making codes for racing games but now he has to decide on the country’s indirect taxes. And thus begins the quest to fit into an alien world and make his father proud. Very much like the Vashu-Jackky annual attempt at box-office gold.

To give the Bhagnanis their due, Youngistaan is well-intentioned and very topical. It revives the Nayak challenge — what if a common man suddenly has to run the state —and adds the extra layer of the candidate being a 28-year-old, thus representative of young Hindustan aka Youngistaan. The tribe more concerned about their Facebook photos being taken down than the country’s nuclear security.

But curiously, the film is not about a young today’s boy finding his feet in Indian politics and cleaning the system. All that is there somewhere but what Youngistaan is more concerned with is whether Abhimanyu is able to protect, preserve and protract his live-in relationship with Anwita (Neha Sharma). As the protesting poster screamed out in a scene in the film: Ladki ya desh?

So, the progressive soch of the film is that if the world’s youngest prime minister of the world’s largest democracy is able to convince his countrymen — not just the city folks but even rural rallies — that it’s okay to live together with a girl and father a child without marriage, he has brought about change.

Also, Abhimanyu hardly does anything from the time he assumes power. The “good boy” opens a grievance cell for women and reshuffles his Cabinet a couple of times to retain undisputed power. And yes, he speaks in Hindi at the United Nations. [Something Atal Bihari Vajpayee had done in 1977.] What our PM actually devotes most of his time to is get matka kulfi for his girlfriend in the middle of the night, take care of her hangover in the morning, and use national security forces to give her a special tour of the Taj Mahal.

The problem with Youngistaan is that you never quite build up respect for the man in the middle. He’s got a 1.2 billion people’s problems on his hands but he is more excited about getting his girl’s name tattooed on his hand. That the girl is extremely irritating throughout the film doesn’t help matters. Neither does the sloppy pace of the movie.

Jackky is getting better with every outing but still lacks the charm and the wit to pull off an Abhimanyu Kaul. He is earnest but to lead the country and a film like this, you need a lot more than earnestness. Neha’s is the annoying presence and every time Anwita appears on screen crying or fasting because her PM boyfriend hasn’t given her time, you feel like giving her OTS (go figure!).

There are two great joys of watching Youngistaan, though. One is Deepankar De making a sparkling Bollywood debut at 70. He plays Subhoda, a senior politician in the ruling party, and the Satyajit Ray find is so effortlessly good in the few scenes he has, you wonder why Hindi cinema doesn’t cast him more often.

And then there’s Farooq Shaikh in what seems to be his last screen outing. He plays the trusted PA to the PM, who had served the father and is now serving the son. There’s so much life and love he brings to his character and those half-smiles and knowing stares brighten up even the most flaccid of scenes. There’s also a lovely 35-second tribute video before the film starts, which is sure to well up the eyes. Watch Youngistaan for Farooq sa’ab. They won’t make ’em like him anymore.