Dream girl - not a senseless comedy!

Bollywood's #achhedin are officially here. 2 weekends, 2 movies, no hype, just brilliant scripts. Last week it was Chhichhore. This week it’s Ayushman Khurrana in and as Dream Girl. Writer and director, talented Raaj Shandilya, (writer for the TV series Comedy Circus), crafts a movie that feels like a non-stop stand up show spewing witty one liners after another.

I wondered how a single line premise of a boy, Karam (Ayushman) acting as a 'friendship call-center' girl , Puja would hold on to the audience for 2+ hours. This story line, agreed, is pretty weak and if it weren’t for the hilarious dialogues this film would have been a dud. Taking it to another level is excellent acting by our favorite boy-next-door Ayushman and the extremely talented Annu Kapoor. All the characters, including all of Puja's lovers are cast perfectly. Kapoor,while playing a single character - Ayushman’s father, plays 3 roles. His transitions are fantastic - from Jagjeet to Rahul to shhh.. let me not spoil the surprise! Also a special round of applause to Ayushman for having the courage to deliver the last monologue in drag - ghagra choli, bindi, kangan and all. How many A list actors would do that? 

What the movie could have done better is controlling the number of people falling for Puja - everyone in the muhalla seems connected to her. I guess, without these characters it would have been hard to keep the running time beyond 1 hour. And so, the first half, when all these characters are building up feels slow. It is in the second half that Annu Kapur takes the driver seat and throttles the movie into full speed. The comedy of errors that follows has Ayushman in sweats and the audience in splits.

Good comedy doesn't always have to be senseless (Sajid Khan, you listening?). Enjoy this one without the usual 'dimaag ghar pe rakhake aana' warning. :)

Rating: 4/5

Chhichhore - It's good, fikar not!

CHHICHHORE, a story of 6 friends studying at an engineering college in Mumbai in the 90s, takes us on a nostalgic journey to our college days. These friends staying in Hostel 4 (called H4. The title has 4 Hs too. Some numerology stuff going on?) where all the ‘LOSERS’ supposedly stay, reminds us a lot of the endearing ‘Modern ke launde’ from Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander. Cut 2, present day, we see the lead actors Sushant Singh Rajput (Anni) and Shraddha Kapoor (Maya) in a serious setting. Thereafter, the script jumps between the carefree college days and the grave present day, seamlessly.

The college and hostel scenes are extremely entertaining. The crisp and funny dialogues make us roll out in laughter regularly. [Words of caution: some of the funniest jokes are adult. Curious preteens won’t stop from asking “Mhanje?” (What does that mean?) Here in the UAE it was rated PG 15.] Each of the character is unique; for example, ‘Acid’ can’t say a line without cussing, ‘Mummy’ needs to talk to his mom all the time, and ‘Bewda’ is as the name suggests. Yet, together their chemistry feels authentic. Dunk parties, drinking, sharing porn magazines, helping a friend win the girl, surviving on canteen food – the film showcases everything typical about hostel life.

The GC (General Championship), where all the hostels compete against each other takes center stage in the second half of the movie. Chhichhore comes from director Nitesh Tiwari (of Dangal fame), so we know when it comes to sports drama, he is one of the best! Yet, the GC feels like it is going on for too long; hasn’t the underdogs vs the privileged brats storyline been told umpteen times in Bollywood? Still, the hilarious one-liners and funny sports slogans, keep the entertainment quotient, high. One question though, aren’t these engineering students? At least once they could be shown doing a GT (glass tracing), working on a lathe machine, preparing for an exam or viva in a PL (preparatory leave). But no. All they do is talk about the GC. Other than to stress the fact that the gender ratio in engineering colleges is skewed, the fact that this is an engineering college bears no significance. It could very well have been a hostel in a law college.

The scenes in present day are mostly grim. All of them, except Maya, seem to have aged. Though a job well done with their 40-something look, the common receding hairline on the men makes one wonder if the makers just used FaceApp to chalk out their look. Do all engineering graduates start growing bald by the time they reach 40? 😏 Of the 6 friends, Sushant Singh looks most convincing as a 40-year-old. His body language and dialogue delivery are spot on.

The movie also touches on the pressures of the modern education system. It’s not preachy, yet gets the message across.

The music is hummable but doesn’t leave the Pritam mark – except maybe “fikar not”, which basically feels like Galti-se-mistake v2.0. Now that I have seen the movie, the other songs have become more enjoyable; the lyrics seem to have context now. Listen to “Who Din bhi kya din the” intently, it’s sure to make you want to go back in time.

Overall an entertaining movie with a crisp storyline and excellent performances by all the actors as ANNI, MAYA, SEXA, BEWDA, MUMMY, ACID and DEREK. Let me know which was your favorite character. For me it was MUMMY. He was just too cute!

Rating: 3.8/5