PUNJAB EXPRESS NEWSPAPER 2 5 OCTOBER 2019
Corny, hammy
and prejudiced
bySuhani Singh
Dream Girl
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Manjot
Singh, Vijay Raaz, Annu Kapoor, Abhishek
Banerjee, Nidhi Bisht, Raj Bhansali,
Nushrat Bharucha.
Direction: Raaj Shaandaliya
DIRECTION ACTING
BY now Ayushmann
Khurrana has demon-strated
he has aced
playing the imperfect
but endearing boy next
door. In Dream Girl
though this image comes with a
spin – Karam (Khurrana) has the
uncanny ability to mimic a
woman’s voice. It’s a separate
matter it’s so high-pitched it
never seems convincing. He lands
himself a job at a “friendship call
centre” where he passes off
as Pooja. Much like Vicky
of Vicky Donor,
Karam’s asset gradu-ally
becomes a liabil-ity.
Soon his vocal
otuatke
skills make him the
target of unwanted
affection.
Those infatuated with
him (read her) include a
shayari-loving police officer
(the reliable Vijay Raaz), his
fiancee’s Rafi-singing brother
(Abhishek Banerjee of Stree
fame), a Gujjar boy with swag
(Raj Bhansali), an angry misandrist
(Nidhi Bisht) and another who rather not
be named for spoilers sake.
How Karam as Pooja quickly earns so
many fans is not high on the list of Shaan-daliya
and his co-writer Nirmaan D Singh.
Neither is subtlety as the humour thrives
on loud, tried-and-tested tricks from ’90s
films. So there are scenes of Khurrana
being overtly effeminate and delivering
smooches on phone for laughs.
One promising relation-ship
dynamic that’s never
fully explored is Pooja’s
charm offensive on Roma
(Bisht) who like most sup-porting
female characters here
is one-dimensional. Roma’s claim to
fame is men cannot be trusted and hence
her sudden affinity for a member of her
gender she has never met. But Dream Girl
is too preoccupied in slapstick antics even
if it comes across as extremely prejudiced
at least on one occasion.
In one deeply problematic scene, Pooja
wears a burqa and goes on to list all Mus-lim
stereotypes as he tries to dissuade a
Hindu lover on the grounds of faith. It also
sees Shaandaliya and Singh swerve the
film in unconvincing waters – one in which
the said Hindu lover has embraced Urdu,
henna and everything green – an arc that
only stretches the wafer-thin premise.
Dream Girl is essentially a film which
rides on a series of some amusing sketches
and encounters and misleading games
until it runs out of fuel to carry on.
Bharucha’s screen time as Karam’s girl-friend
is split between two songs and a few
scenes. It almost feels like the character
exists solely to establish Karam’s mas-culinity
lest audiences forget. It’s hardly a
surprise one is drawn more to Pooja’s run-ins
with the men than the heterosexual
coupling.
Khurrana is in familiar territory as a
young man who becomes irritable as he
lands himself in a quandary of his own
making. Khurrana’s gender-bending per-formance
is more manufactured for
laughs but he’s still able to bring in an
element of vulnerability and haplessness
to it. The supporting cast also shines
Raaz, Manjot Singh as Karam’s amiable
friend, Banerjee and even newcomer
Bhansali ensuring this comedy has its
moments. Shaandaliya and Singh’s last-minute
spiel on the rising trend of lone-liness
which fuels such passion is half-baked
and is designed to throw in a
serious message in a film that never
takes itself too seriously.
Perfect Excellent Good So-so Avoid It!
Has justice been served?
Section 375
Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Richa
Chadda, Meera Chopra, Rahul
Bhat
Direction: Ajay Bahl
‘Dream Girl’ is too
preoccupied in
slapstick antics even
if it comes across as
prejudiced at least
on one occasion
SCRIPT
IMPACT ON TARGET VIEWERS
SCRIPT
DIRECTION ACTING
IMPACT ON TARGET VIEWERS
TARUN Saluja (Akshaye
Khanna) is a sought-after lawyer
for his braggadocio is his biggest
asset. He doesn’t converse but
make declarations with some phi-losophy
thrown in. One of them
includes “never fall in love with
law”. When his point of view is
challenged or negated he passes
a sardonic remark or flashes a
smirk. Morality doesn’t concern
him. And so Saluja agrees to
defend a filmmaker (Rahul Bhat)
accused of rape by a costume
assistant (Meera Chopra).
In Ajay Bahl’s judicial drama,
Saluja gets ample time to defend
the accused. As a result this is
more of a he-said narrative than a
he-said, she-said, as the accuser
sits as a mute spectator and her
lawyer (Richa Chadda) rises from
her seat at regular intervals only
to exasperatedly say “Objection
Milords”. It isn’t a surprise she’s
constantly overruled.
If Pink was a powerful drama
about consent, Section 375 only
scruffs the surface of the abuse
of power. The politics of Section
375 are hard to dismiss especially
since it comes at a time when
those accused of sexual assault
in Bollywood are slowly being
co-opted into the film
industry (Alok Nath,
Vikas Bahl).
Bahl and writer
Manish Gupta want
audiences to look at
the other side. Their
argument is law can
be misused and have
damaging repercus-sions
on how future rape cases are
seen is a reasonable stance but it
comes with a caveat – one man
gets to dictate the proceedings.
As Saluja begins to find loop-holes
in the police investigation
and unravels the murky past, his
protégé-turned-rival in court Hiral
(Chadda) gets increasingly wor-ried
as the tonality of the
accuser’s narrative is challenged.
Makers are so focused on conver-sations
around consent and
power, they cease to ask can a
woman walk away with dignity
after accusing one of rape? Sec-tion
375 highlights the humilia-tion
women suffer when
asked to recall the
assault repeatedly
and face character
assassinations.
What the film does
do well is make a
case we need more
of Akshaye Khanna
on the big screen.
Section 375 is
more of a he-said
narrative than a he-said,
she-said, as the
accuser sits as a
mute spectator