Never Ending Movie Carnival
Never Ending Movie Carnival
Dream Girl 2 movie review: A chaotic rumble jumble that fails to earn laughs
What: Pooja aka the Dream Girl –Ayushmann Khurrana is back in its sequel Dream Girl 2 with more characters, more chaos, more gags and less laughs.
Dream Girl 2 movie synopsis
It’s the same scenario, Karam (Ayushmann Khurrana) has to pay his father’s Jagjit Singh (Annu Kapoor) debt, Karam joins as a bar dancer in Sona Bar owned by Sona Bhai (Vijay Raaz) in Mathura. Karam also has to prove his credibility to Jaipal Srivastava (Manoj Joshi) - father of his dream girl Pari (Ananya Panday). Karam should have a house of his own and a healthy bank balance of around twenty-five to thirty lakhs in six months.
The added pressure to earn as much money as possible disguised as Pooja, Karam agrees to become a female psychiatrist to Shahrukh Saleem (Abhishek Bannerjee) depressed love lost son of Abu Saleem (Paresh Rawal) an aristocrat from Agra.
Karam’s best friend Smiley Dhillon (Manjot Singh) is in love with Abu Saleem’s daughter Sakina (Anusha Mishra). Manjot can marry Sakina only when Shahrukh comes out of depression and gets married.
Pooja starts finding admirers in Sona Bhai, Shahrukh, Abu Saleem’s step son Shoukiya (Rajpal Yadav) and Abu Saleem’s sister Jumani (Seema Pahwa) – Sona Bhai’s wife. While Jumani falls head over heels in love with Pooja’s original avatar Karam. A series of mad chaos and confusion follow.
What makes a good comedy – characters, situations and last but not the least a convincing script laced with gags that constantly keeps on clicking to tickle the audience funny bones.
Raaj Shaandilyaa the man behind the success of Dream Girl and Kapil Sharma show in the anticipated sequel of Dream Girl gets the central character – Pooja right. The initial situations are also perfect for the repeat of that massy laughter filled with gags sometimes cool sometimes crass that created the magic in 2019 Dream Girl. Alas, this time the overload of characters (may be the pressure to make it even better) takes a toll on the wrier director Raaj Shaandilyaa and his co-writer Naresh Kathooria and what we get is a meandering mess that fails to generate laughter and all the chaos, caricature, repeated gags in a display of sheer mediocrity.
Dream Girl had the novelty of a man imitating a woman’s voice at a call centre for those ‘dirty talks’ which goes further. Sequels of such films come without that novelty and we know Ayushmann Khurrana will turn into Pooja, that cooing falsetto that landed Karam in stage productions as Radhas and Sitas childhood, to that sweet alluring talker on phone this time turns into a bar dancer and a female psychiatrist, starts off funny but eventually becomes stale as gags don’t work.
The added subplots of Smiley Dhillon, Sona Bhai, Shahrukh, Shoukiya, Jumani hardly provide any smiles forget the laughter. Making Dream Girl 2 a sequel that should have never been dreamt of. The initial gag of Tiger Pandey (Ranjan Raj) brought a smile but after that I don’t remember when genuinely I found things to be funny.
The chaos is maintained throughout, the characters are either walking briskly or giving reactions, no smoothness, moment of pause (the much needed tehrav).
Dream Girl 2 seems like a loud TV show more than a film. The close-ups, colours, pink lips, loud background tracks, extra decorative colourful set pieces make Dream Girl 2 a big screen version of Kapil Sharma we see on television and not cinema. I had a passing thought of Welcome Back, Coolie No1, Deewana Mastana at some point.
Anyways, Dream Girl 2 goes on and on cutting from the same cloth of insults, manufactured confusion, gags built around broad stereotypes.
Still after all the misfired gags, a peep into something deep in Dream Girl 2 would have overcome the flaws, I wonder why Karam has very little to say about the effect of female impersonation on men who specialize in it. Does Karam’s gender-swapping has had any psychological impact on him? That may have turned interesting.
Raaj Shaandilyaa repeats the mistake he did in Dream Girl – in Dream Girl 2, gives the female lead almost nothing to do. To add more chutney, vinegar and aachar to the wounds the makers take Ananya Panday as Pari Srivastava- Karam's love interest. Ananya Panday turns out to be such a bad choice, in one of the scene, she has smiled while delivering a dialogue in a serious situation.
Coming to the climax, Dream Girl 2 gets into the act of moralizing talking about love and acceptance which is not at all earned.
Performance
Right from those social satires that dealt with taboos like infertility (Vicky Donor ), body positivity ( Dum Laga Ke Haisha ), older couples having a baby ( Badhaai Ho ), gay love story Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan to male gynaecologist Dr G, and action avatars Anek and An Action Hero, Ayushmann Khurrana’s unmatched diligence is at display here’s well. Ayushmann Khurrana nails it again as Pooja and is the biggest saving grace.
Ananya Panday is a bad choice
Annu Kapoor is reduced and he is good in whatever scope he has.
Paresh Rawal is fantastic.
Vijay Raaz has his moments.
Rajpal Yadav is wasted.
Sad to see a veteran like Asrani wasted.
Manoj Joshi as Jaipal Srivastava is strictly okay.
Seema Pahwa as Jumani is good.
Manjot Singh as Smiley Dhillon is fine.
Abhishek Bannerjee as Shahrukh Saleem is fabulous.
Ranjan Raj as Tiger Pandey is good.
Technicalities
Production values are top notch. Cinematography by C. K. Muraleedharan and Jitan Harmeet Singh is glossy. Editing by Hemal Kothari is fair. Music score by Hitesh Sonik and songs by Meet Bros, Tanishk Bagchi have nothing worth mentioning.
Dream Girl 2 - a movie designed to cash on its original’s success is nothing but a chaotic rumble jumble that fails to earn laughs. Ayushmann Khurrana is the major saving grace in Dream Girl 2 – sequel to the 2019 hit Dream Girl.
Bollywood mainstream franchises like Dream Girl that exploit female impersonation, I want to know from the makers what they think of queer characters in real. And why a real transgender not seen Dream Girl and Dream Girl 2 to provide Pooja a platonic shoulder, some sympathy amidst all the manufactured chaos, gags to create laughter.
Going with a generous 2.5 for this disappointing and messy follow up of the entertaining original.
A child born from life & fed by cinema. A filmi keeda from child & a film journalist for the last fifteen years. a father, seeker, foodie who loves crooning bollywood melodies twitter.com/cineblues More By vishal verma