Dream Girl 2 Movie Review
Putting the plot to paper was exhausting and it’s no wonder, so to speak, that it feels like director Raaj Shaandilyaa had a tough time keeping track of all the mayhem. The original Dream Girl (2019) had one main gimmick – that its protagonist can change his voice to sound like a girl and makes money by joining a ‘friendship chat’ call centre. Here that basic idea is stretched into ten different directions. The constant change of equation is confusing. It all starts looking forced after a while and loses its freshness. The director also wants to earn brownie points by giving token nods to gender fluidity and homosexuality. But this isn’t the core aspect of the film, as Badhaai Do or Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. Ayushmann does have a long monologue at the end about middle class guys not catching a break but it sounds overly apologetic.
The film has got some fantastic cast for sure. Asrani, Paresh Rawal, Vijay Raaz, Seema Pahwa, Manoj Joshi, Abhishek Bannerjee et al are damn fine comic actors and here too they have their game face on but their efforts are stymied by the lack of a coherent script. Ananya Panday doesn’t have much to do, except to look pretty, which she does quite nicely. The film rests squarely on Ayushmann Khuranna’s shoulders. He really extends himself for the role and does all that is asked of him and lots more. Your heart goes out to him seeing his conviction. But even his heroic efforts aren’t enough to save the film from the morass of bad writing.
Watch the film if you love leave-your-brains-behind products. Don’t expect too much from it and you’ll be fine.
Trailer : Dream Girl 2
Dhaval Roy, August 25, 2023, 1:30 PM IST
Dream Girl 2 story: Karamveer wants to marry his girlfriend, Pari. But he must first fulfil her father’s condition and make Rs 25 lakhs in six months. An easy way out for him is pretending to be a girl and dancing at a bar. Things take a bizarre turn when four people pursue Pooja/Karam for marriage.
Dream Girl 2 review: Director Raaj Shaandilyaa serves this comedy four years after the original Dream Girl, which was delightful for its quirky set-up and premise. The second outing has a similar premise. Karamveer (Ayushmann Khurrana) needs to raise an enormous amount of money quickly if he wants to marry his girlfriend, Pari Shrivastav (Ananya Panday). So, he pretends to be a woman, Pooja, and works as a dancer at Sona Bhai’s (Vijay Raaz) bar. Thereon, the movie has little new to offer throughout its 133 minutes. Writers Raaj and Naresh Kathooria have tried to crank up the comedy, but the narrative goes haywire and ends up as just a mishmash of situations and characters pursuing each other.
Besides Sona Bhai, Pooja attracts unwanted attention from Shoukiya (Rajpal Yadav) as she pretends to be a psychiatrist treating his brother Shahrukh (Abhishek Banerjee), who is depressed after a breakup. The much-widely spoken issue of mental health could have been treated far more sensitively in the plot, instead, it's left to being called a 'rich person’s disease.' Shahrukh’s father, Abu Saleem (Paresh Rawal), believes marrying Pooja is the cure, and the family vows to reward her with Rs 50 lakhs for the unison. Amid this, there’s Shahrukh and Shoukiya’s sister Jumani (Seema Pahwa), who falls for Karam while his father Jagjit Singh (Annu Kapoor) is in love with her.
As the viewer tries to keep up with the characters’ shenanigans, some tracks are long-drawn, such as when Karam switches between being himself and Pooja. Many comedy scenes come across as too forced, and simply add ot the film. In comedy films, dialogues and their comic timing play a pivotal role in bringing out the laughs, but here, the one-liners here are kitschy and don't always land. When trying to convince Karam to become a dance girl, his friend Smiley (Manjot Singh), pointing to an aged customer on the dance floor, says, ‘Shakti nahi bachi par Shakti Kapoor poora bacha hai.’ While songs pop up one after the other, the music by Meet Bros and Tanishk Bagchi is not memorable, except for Dil Ka Telephone 2.0, a redux of the hit from the movie’s first instalment.
Ayushmann Khurrana skillfully switches between playing Karam and Pooja’s characters in the film. He particularly shines in the dance sequences and gets the latkas and jhatkas perfectly. His knack at pulling off situational comedy shows and he owns some of the best parts of the film. Ananya Panday has little scope to perform, and struggles with consistency in her Braj Bhasha dialogue delivery. Annu Kapoor stands out, while other actors like Paresh Rawal, Seema Pahwa, Vijay Raaz, Manjot Singh, and Abhishek Banerjee offer commendable support.
Dream Girl 2 relies on familiar territory, often straying into unnecessary comedic tangents. Despite some good performances and moments, the film falls short of recreating the quirky charm of its predecessor.
