By Shane J. Alliew
Running at 132 minutes and made at a budget of 200 million rupees, Raaj Shaandilyaa’s directorial debut, Dream Girl has raked in ten times its budget and is currently running to near-packed houses across the country.
What made this comedy of errors click, causing the producers Ekta and Shobha Kapoor and Nachiket Pantvaidya go laughing all the way down to the bank? Well – the answer is in the query itself – comedy that tickles while presenting to you the darker realities of life, aperitive yet thought-provoking.
Remember Tarun Mansukhani’s Dostana (2008)? Audiences lapped up the comedy of an ersatz gay couple (Abhishek-John A), whilst at the heart of the story lay a deep cry for such couples to be accepted in society and not to be ridiculed at.
Well, Dream Girl, comes with a similar social message – one, no employment is below the dignity of an individual, even if it means that an individual woman sex-friendship-chats at the other end of the phone line, faking the relationship for lonely men, who may be married, committed or just curious. Two, a pansy-voiced man or a butch-natured woman may not necessarily be gay – do we actually need to label people and hedge them into parameters?
Karamveer Singh (Ayushmann Khurrana) is good at impersonating female voices and from a young age plays the female lead roles in mythological plays. The money that comes in is not enough to keep body and soul and he is desperate for work. Through a sequence of events he bags a job as a female caller at a friendship-call center, wherein men of all ages and from various genres of life call in for entertainment. Karamveer becomes Ms. Puja the ‘hot hit’ of the center.
In the course of all this he meets Mahi Rajput (Nushrat Bharucha) and falls for her – getting engaged. But now he has to get off the web spun by Ms. Puja, his alter-ego, wherein are ‘honey-trapped’ at least half-a dozen men, including his widower father!
But will his employer Mauji WJI (Rajesh Sharma) allow his greatest asset to go off so easily? Therein lies many-a-message. When Karamveer looked for employment then he found none and now when he seeks to get out of the illusionary world he has created not only for himself (in terms of monetary benefits and the materialistic pleasures it brings with it) and that of sinful-simplistic pleasure for the others, he can’t get back into the world of reality.
National Award winner Khurrana may just be seriously nominated once again for his dynamic role – but for now the man in on a roll – take a bow dude – the best is yet to come.
You will enjoy Dream Girl – just for gags sake at least! Lighten up a bit folks, watch the lighter side of life.
Rating: 3.5/5