Movie Review: Dream Girl - 3/5

Dream Girl Story: Desperate to find employment, Karam picks up a job as ‘Pooja’ at a call center for sex chats, keeping most people in his life in the dark about the nature of his work. How long can he keep it up before everyone including his girlfriend and father find out?


Dream Girl Review: From the time he is a kid, Karam does a fine job of imitating women’s voices. So while in school he makes proxy phone calls to teachers as his friend’s mom, when he is older, Karam ( Ayushmann Khurrana ) lands roles in local plays as Sita and Radha. And is often revered by the people in the small town of Gokul for his roles and mostly for the voice he is able to modulate. But it’s not something either he or his father, Jagjit Singh (Annu Kapoor) are comfortable with. His dad wants him to find a regular job, where he doesn’t have to don the woman act and Karam is also very clear that he will play these roles only till he finds a regular job. Which he does soon enough, but the only hitch is it requires him to be ‘Pooja’ at a call center for sex chats. Soon enough, ‘Pooja’ has an assortment of men and a woman besotted by her. And each of them want to either meet or marry her. All this while Karam’s girlfriend Mahi ( Nushrat Bharucha ) is oblivious of his double life.

‘Dream Girl’ is positioned as an out and out comedy, so don’t expect any nuanced probe into cross dressing or exploring one’s sexuality. In fact, there is none of that. Perhaps, one has been spoilt by Ayushmann Khurrana’s choice of films so far, which always manage to push the envelope.

While the premise of ‘Dream Girl’ is an interesting one to begin with, it doesn’t go beyond that idea. However, director Raaj Shaandilya manages to evoke some amount of laughter in this situational comedy. But there is also a dollop of humor which treads into the bizarre, double entendre and at times offensive zone. As a variety of characters and situations are bunged in, the screenplay moves at an uneven pace. The songs, ‘Radhe Radhe’ and ‘Dil Ka Telephone’ add some of the pep to the wobbly plot.


The performances by an ensemble cast stays above board – Ayushmann Khurrana pulls off a commendable, self-assured act, despite working with a character which is not entirely well fleshed out. Annu Kapoor, Vijay Raaz, Abhishek Bannerjee and Manjot Singh add to the comic element. Nushrat Bharucha and Rajesh Sharma are effective.


At the end of it, the film slips in a message on loneliness, social media friends and having someone to talk to. Despite the flaws, ‘Dream Girl’ attempts to show the leading man in a different light, and manages to entertain in parts.