Dream Girl 2 Review: Ayushmann Khurrana & Ananya Panday tickle our funny bones in bits & pieces

Film:
Dream Girl 2

Duration: 2 hours 3 minutes

Director: Raaj Shaandilyaa

Starcast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Ananya Panday, Abhishek Banerjee, Annu Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Vijay Raaz, Rajpal Yadav, Seema Pahwa & Manjot Singh

Platform: Theatres

Dream Girl 2 Review

In 2019, Raaj Shaandilyaa’s Dream Girl became Ayushmann Khurrana’s biggest opening ever and received critical acclaim. The film broke several barriers in Indian cinema as Ayushmann cross-dressed as a woman and won the hearts of many with his performance. Now, the team is back with its sequel – Dream Girl 2. The film marks Ayushmann’s return as Pooja who is joined by Ananya Panday in this one. The film is based on how far a lover will go to convince her ladylove’s father for marriage.

Watch the trailer while reading Dream Girl 2 Review:

Storyline

The 2 hour 3 minute long film begins with how Karam (Ayushmann Khurrana), a small-town boy from Mathura, is struggling every day to pay his father Jagjit Singh’s (Annu Kapoor) debt, who has borrowed money from nearly everyone on the planet. On the other hand, he is deeply in love with Pari (Ananya Panday), whose father Jaipal Srivastava (Manoj Joshi) has kept some conditions to marry her. To make ends meet, Karam poses as Pooja after his best friend Smiley Dhillon (Manjot Singh) convinces him and ends up marrying Abu Saleem’s (Paresh Rawal) son Shah Rukh (Abhishek Banerjee), which creates wild chaos and a comedy of errors.

Dream Girl 2 manages to tickle our funny bones but only in bits and pieces. While it has a few punchlines, the other jokes feel like a WhatsApp forward. Its poor writing unfortunately overshadows the film’s strong performances.

Performances

Ayushmann as Pooja is superb. He walks, talks and acts like a woman. However, Ayushmann is unnecessarily over-dramatic as Karam. Even with limited screen space, Ananya makes her presence felt as Pari. Their Mathura accent is bang on, leaving no room for error. Annu Kapoor and Paresh Rawal are undoubtedly a treat to watch in this one and so is the entire supporting cast including Abhishek Banerjee, Vijay Raaz, Rajpal Yadav, Seema Pahwa & Manjot Singh.

Technical Aspect

Raaj Shaandilyaa’s direction is at the right pace however, his writing with Naresh Kathooria is disappointing. We certainly expected a better storyline and punchlines in Dream Girl 2. By the second half, the film becomes extremely confusing with new turns and twists coming every minute. The film could have certainly been better written. Cinematographers C. K. Muraleedharan and Jitan Harmeet Singh have done a decent job. Hemal Kothari’s editing is dragged and puzzling. Music by Hitesh Sonik, Meet Bros and Tanishk Bagchi is a hit.

What’s great about the Raaj Shaandilyaa directed Dream Girl 2

Ayushmann’s Portrayal as Pooja: Ayushmann Khurrana is a treat to watch as Pooja. The actor has done a wonderful job with his dialect, talking style, and body language and played a woman as naturally as possible. It’s sometimes hard to even realize that it’s actually an actor in cross-dressing.

Supporting Cast: Be it Annu Kapoor’s punchlines, Paresh Rawal’s sternness, or Vijay Raaz’s goofiness, the entire supporting cast has lent good support to the film, making it a fun watch.

Drawback of Dream Girl 2

Weak Dialogues: If you’re entering the theatres expecting a laugh riot, you might be a little disappointed to watch Dream Girl 2 as the dialogues are not as funny. Some jokes really feel like bad WhatsApp forwards and others are just poor dad jokes. It feels like there was absolutely no effort put into the comic writing.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a fun watch this weekend then Dream Girl 2 is an apt choice for you. However, it’s not as good as the first part.

Also Read: Will Dream Girl 2 be Ayushmann Khuranna’s third biggest opener? Trade experts predict