Dream Girl, the Raaj Shaandilyaa film released in 2019, had an interesting conflict despite the content having many problematic bits here and there. But when it comes to Dream Girl 2, the writing part just focuses on being a 2-hour long skit, and the storytelling is horrifyingly bad. It’s like the makers have made up their minds that the first film was a hit, and hence, we will just give them back-to-back comedy dialogues, just like Comedy Circus, and they will just laugh and forget the fact that the makers haven’t taken an effort to create a story. If you have ever felt that a two-hour-long version of the Kapil Sharma show would have been an entertaining Hindi cinema, then I guess this is the movie you have been waiting for.
So, in this spiritual sequel, Karam and his father, Jagjith, are in massive debt, and Karam is in love with Pari, a lawyer (note the point). When Pari’s father comes to their house for alliance, he learns about the family’s terrible financial status, and he gives an ultimatum to Karan that he will have to make a massive amount of money if he wishes to marry Pari. The crazy things Karam had to do to make that much money is what we see in Dream Girl 2.
What I have told you guys as a summary takes only 10 minutes of the movie. The rest is Shaandilyaa and co-writer Naresh Kathooria just going on writing the very first absurd and usual thought coming into their head. Pari, played by Ananya Pandey, is an advocate. There is a scene in the movie where she comes up with four or five abstract paintings and says since Davinci’s paintings are worth millions, her painting will get ten or fifteen lakhs. The policy is simply to focus on gag laughter and nothing else. The trademark Ayushmann Khurrana movies were hilarious, but they all had narratable emotional stories with feelings. The entire Dream Girl franchise is a black mark to Ayushmann’s filmography that otherwise had entertainingly addressed pertinent problems.
The effort made by Ayushmann Khurrana to make this nonsensical comedy look convincing is palpable. But the adamance of the writing to keep things sleazy at times drags that performance to the level of discomfort you feel while watching the Malayalam movie Mayamohini. Annu Kapoor, as the aged ashiq Jagjith Singh, is hilarious in rendering those dialogues. The movie focuses so much on these cheap jokes that it almost forgets that there is a heroine, and everything is built around the idea of the hero getting the heroine. The screen time of the character and the performance of Ananya Pandey were forgettable. The safe bet actors when it comes to comedy, Paresh Rawal, Vijay Raaz, Rajpal Yadav, Seema Pahwa, Manoj Joshi, and Manjoth Singh are there in the film, and they all gave their best to make the nonsense look fun on screen.
Interval is a concept only Indian movies have, and when they release English movies here, there will be an awkward interval pause. Dream Girl 2 was perhaps the first time I saw an out-of-the-blue interval card in an Indian movie. Ayushmann Khurrana is running after Ananaya Pandey to explain something, and they have inserted the interval block in the middle of that scene. I am talking way too much about this interval thing because the entire writing of the movie has this taken-for-granted tone. In order to create a Priyadarshan comedy-like confusion in the narrative, they are in this Kuch-Bhi mode. Shaandilyaa, who has written scripts for comedians, is trying the same thing here. And just like those comedy circus scripts, some of them will really crack you up. When Annu Kapoor says, “Dhoondne se toh Bhagwan bhi mil jate hai,” Manoj Joshi’s character replies something like, “Umar ke hisaab se Bhagwan ab aapko dhoond raha hoga.” These ones are funny. But the repeated Santara Kela jokes are just crass.
A comedy skit and a comedy film are entirely two different things. Dream Girl 2 is one movie that arrogantly disregards coherence and drama from the story. The ability to write witty rhyming dialogues is indeed a great talent. But writing a whole lot of that and filling thoughtlessly created scenes with those dialogues can’t be called filmmaking.
The ability to write witty rhyming dialogues is indeed a great talent. But writing a whole lot of that and filling thoughtlessly created scenes with those dialogues can’t be called filmmaking.
Signal
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended