The director, who’s from television, doesn’t want ‘people’. He is content with flat, sitcom-style cartoons and poke-in-the-ribs music.
Spoilers ahead…
You can read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/dream-girl-movie-review-by-baradwaj-rangan-ayushmann-khurrana-nusrat-barucha/
In 1977, Pramod Chakravorty made a movie titled after what the nation had nicknamed Hema Malini: Dream Girl. It was about a woman who desperately needs money, and ends up pretending to be other people. The new Dream Girl — written and directed by Raaj Shaandilyaa — does a gender-flip on this premise. This time, it’s a man who needs money, and he’s the one doing the impersonation. From childhood, Karam (Ayushmann Khurrana) has had the ability to mimic a woman’s voice — he pretends to be a friend’s mother over the phone, talking to a teacher, and he’s always cast as Sita and Radha in stage plays. He protests mildly at being used this way, but as a grown-up, this talent becomes his way out of debt. He becomes a call-centre worker named Pooja, talking to men who seem to all think: If this woman’s talk is so seductive, imagine how she’ll look! They fall instantly in love with her. Yikes! What does this mean for the very hetero Karam?
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Pratibha
September 13, 2019
Well said – “His lamest one yet”.
May good sense prevail and hope this will be “his only lamest of all time”.
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Sri Prabhuram
September 13, 2019
Surprised that you didn’t like it. Really hope Gang Leader does it for you.
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Ramit
September 13, 2019
“And with this corker of a premise, we deserved a better comedy.”
I think it’s a solid comedy, and it’s going to be a cult movie.
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Isai
September 14, 2019
I have not seen Chhicchore and Dream Girl due to some reviews including BR’s.
But I was surprised to know that Chhicchore is doing quite well at the box office. Engineering college nostalgia was touted as its USP. Then I looked at Anupama Chopra and Rajeev Masand’s reviews and they have it reviewed more benevolently than BR. This was all the more surprising considering that among these 3, only BR is an Engineer.
Then I saw some reviews of Dream Girl including this and I think there is a pattern. There are sub-cultures/milieus that are not often portrayed in movies. When they do get portrayed, it resonates a lot with people who are very familiar with that sub culture/milieu and they would rate it higher than others. An example would be BR’s fondness for the Madras (Upper Class IMHO) Male portrayal in Maniratnam’s movies. Other examples are the village family portrayal in Kadaikutty Singam, portrayal of oppressed/poor people in Ranjith’s movies. I think Dream Girl is yet another example. I feel those who are very familiar with the North Indian small town milieu would be far more benevolent to this movie. And since most of the B & C center hindi audience belong to this group, I think this movie is going to collect 100+ crore in India despite BR calling it Ayushman’s lamest movie. For comparison, Andhadhun crossed 95 crores in India and 335 crores in China!! I think while this movie will cross 100+ crores in India, its China collection would be lesser.
If this prediction holds true, I wish reviewers could add a line in their review about which section of the audience is going to like the movie the most.
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vinjk
September 14, 2019
@Isai as far as I know, BR is not a trade analyst.
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Isai
September 14, 2019
@vinjk Thanks for the update. The point that I was trying to make through the box office numbers is that some movies like Andhadhun would have a wider appeal whereas other movies are more of an acquired taste, where knowing the milieu would help a lot in their appreciation while not knowing may lead to a blind spot (It is like say Anniyan for someone like BR.) I just read BR’s review of Welcome to Sajjanpur and it has left me all the more convinced that North Indian small town movies are a blind spot for him.
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An Jo
September 16, 2019
I for one am so glad that you have called a spade a spade BR Saab and am heartened by your reviews for both CHICHORE and DREAM-GIRL. It’s been hilarious to see folks orgasming over these ‘content’ movies. The problem that’s creeping in here is, for the most part, and I have gotten into vehement battles with bloggers and commentators, is the ‘low’ bar that is being set consistently: If ‘formula’ Hindi films were considered a bane during the ’80s’ — which again is a stupid classification since some of the greatest movies on the commercial and so-called f-‘artsy’ movies-front be they SALEEM LANGDE PE MAT RO or SPARSH or MOHAN JOSHI HAAZIR HO were made during the time: Now, it’s this over-hyphenating of pretty average movies like STREE, DREAM-GIRL, or CHICHORE as some ‘renaissance’ movies that claim rich ‘content’! All these terms of great writing, ‘screen-play’ film, are being bandied about. [The less said about SAAHO the better.]
Here’s the new recipe/formula for you: Take actors like GAJARAJ RAO, RAJKUMMAR RAO, NEENA GUPTA, SULEKHA SIKRI in your films, localize the film in a small-town belonging to Hindi-Hinterland, and lo and behold, you have a tightly budgeted film making moolah! Just have a few ‘weird’ – weird for the elite — characters like Pankaj Tripathi or Aparakshit Khuraana in your films, give them cheesy applaud-lines, and get the tag of a ‘content’ film! Then claim WOM is damn good for these films, spread the word around, and you gotten yourself a hit! Are the lines in the film, is the writing, really spectacular? Is it really so ‘mitti-ki-khusboo-chehekti-hai’ scenario, the ‘petrichor’ of its kind? I barely laughed for 10 minutes in STREE, maybe a little more in BADHAI HO, and maybe almost equivalent in CHICHORE!–[Trust me, I did go to the shrink and check if age is indeed catching up on me at the cusp of 40 and am being the old, cynical farts like my grand-uncles who thought there would be no better actor after Dilip] — Yes I had a few moments of laughter: That doesn’t make these films the next GOLMAAL [talking of Mukherjee, not Shetty]; nor does it make Khurrana the next middle-class hero, Palekar!
There are some genuinely effective films like VICKY DONOR, PIKU, OCTOBER — with the bad actor Varun Dhawan — ANDHA DHUN that deserve these epithets. But you see, conflating the other films I mentioned before with these is seriously unjustified. I do not mind folks saying, CHICHORE is a hit and I loved it because it took you back to your ‘shagging’ — in the Indian context, that is an independent affair with Bunty — days and there was a lot of nostalgia and that’s what connected, but it’s an average film as-a-whole. But trying to shove it as a ‘great’ film just because it’s ‘connected’ and made crores is ridiculous. When are we going to realize that because your 30% is equal to 100% in your books, that’s not in my case. A person scoring 35/100 is a passed student, so is a person scoring 65 and so is a person scoring 95. But you know why one’s called a rank-holder and why one’s a passed candidate, right? Can we please have this common-sensical, ‘nuanced’ categorization?
Where would you put movies like THE KING OF COMEDY or JAANE BHI DO YAARON by today’s yard-stick? They would be bloody Haley’s Comets!! And they would come more often!
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Isai
November 10, 2019
Was expecting BR’s review of the movie Bala. But since that doesn’t seem to be happening, I thought I will share my thoughts on the movie here.
I watched it yesterday after reading the headlines of the glowing initial reviews and I must say that I am bit disappointed. The movie captures the North Indian small town milieu quite realistically. But it is not consistently engaging.
It talks about sensitive issues like body shaming but is tonally inconsistent. And Ayushman, at times, comes across like a prick. That’s not totally bad but I felt there is not much depth to his character and there is also not much scope to perform, even though most scenes revolve around him.
By contrast, I really liked both the women characters in this movie and wish they had more scenes. It would have also been better if someone who is really dark skinned played the role performed by Bhumi Pednekar.
Unfortunately, in India, dark seems to stop at dusky, as far as female stars are concerned, while Men, as usual, get more leeway.
To sum up, interesting moments in this movie are like the hair in its hero’s head. They are there but are not just dense enough.
I am surprised to see that this movie has got a lot of very positive reviews. But I would be surprised if this movie replicates the teriffic box office success of Dream Girl.
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