Dream Girl (2019 film)

Dream Girl is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Raaj Shaandilyaa and co-produced by Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor under their banner Balaji Motion Pictures.[5][6][7] In the film, Ayushmann Khurrana plays a cross-gender actor whose female voice impersonation begets attention from others.[5][8][9] Nushrat Bharucha, Annu Kapoor, Manjot Singh,Vijay Raaz, Abhishek Banerjee, Raj Bhansali, and Nidhi Bisht feature in supporting roles.

Dream Girl
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRaaj Shaandilyaa
Produced byEkta Kapoor
Shobha Kapoor
Written byNirmaan D. Singh
Raaj Shaandilyaa
Screenplay byNirmaan D. Singh
Raaj Shaandilyaa
StarringAyushmann Khurrana
Nushrat Bharucha
Annu Kapoor
Music bySongs:
Meet Bros
Score:
Abhishek Arora
CinematographyAseem Mishra
Edited byHemal Kothari
Production
company
Balaji Motion Pictures
ALT Entertainment
Distributed byPen Marudhar Entertainment[1]
Release date
  • 13 September 2019 (2019-09-13)
Running time
132 minutes[2]
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget₹33 crore[3]
Box officeest. ₹200.8 crore[4]

Principal photography began in December 2018.[10] The film was theatrically released in India on 13 September 2019.[11][12]

Plot

Karam Singh is good at impersonating the female voice from a very young age and hence keeps getting female lead roles in mythological plays (Ramayan) since his childhood. Although he protests every time that would settle for a much smaller but male character but is insisted upon pursuing the female character and takes it. He is currently unemployed and gets to perform these roles because it fetches him good money. His friend Smiley runs a liquor shop and supports him in every one of his endeavors. His father, Jagjeet Singh runs a shop dealing in funeral items and is sunk deep into loans he owes to various banks. Due to low turnover, he is unable to pay back the EMI's.

While returning from an unsuccessful interview for a job, Karam sees an ad that promises Rs. 70,000/month salary. He reaches the given address, but the employer Mauji 'W Ji' (Rajesh Sharma) rejects him outright without inquiring about his qualifications. Karamveer pleads, and finally, Mauji relents and shows him his call center where only ladies work. The call-center is entertaining fantasies of people who call them, mostly men who don't have a partner in life. Karamveer is shocked but quickly regains his composure, and answers a call in a female voice for Ms. Pooja (who works at the call center), who is frequently on leave. Mauji is impressed with his skill and immediately hires him and gives him Rs. 25,000 as advance payment. Karamveer tells his father that he has got a job at an MNC and hands him the advance payment he received. His father is happy to receive this news, while Karam celebrates with his friend Smiley. Later at the job, he garners a good fan base because of his sweet voice and sharp presence of mind.

He comes across Mahi at his customer's home where he went to deliver products asked from his father's shop. He is smitten by her beauty and catches her attention with some witty lines. Later they come across each other while waiting in a queue, and Karam impresses her with his funny personality. Soon love blossoms between the two and they get engaged.

At his job, Karam comes across a few people who call him regularly: Toto, a spoilt brat; Rajpal, a policeman by profession who writes couplets; Roma, editor of a magazine; Karam's father Jagjeet and Mahi's brother, Mahinder. Karam, initially unknown of their real identities, eventually, comes across them in his life and is surprised to know their identities. Eventually, everyone becomes obsessed with Pooja, impersonated by Karam, because of her sweet voice and friendly nature. They fall in love with Pooja and everyone wants to marry her.

Karam, frustrated with such unsolicited requests, wants to quit. His employer, Mauji rejects his resignation and blackmails him that he would expose his identity to his neighborhood, which might jeopardize his marriage. Karam decides to tell everything to Mahi but fizzles out when he realizes her brother Mahinder is also a fan of Pooja. He figures out that if he talks to his callers rudely, they would get along with their realities and stop calling him. This move backfires as everyone becomes more obsessed with Pooja, Toto attempts to commit suicide, and Rajpal threatens to abandon his wife.

Karamveer starts threatening these people to stay away from Pooja or otherwise face the consequences in an attempt to stop them from marrying Pooja.

In one such event, Karamveer as Pooja tells Roma that she is in love with her boyfriend Anurag. Roma insists upon meeting Anurag to see if he is a good guy. Karamveer meets Roma at a mall posing as Anurag. After the meeting, he comes across Mahinder, shopping at the mall who overhears Roma and Karam and tells it to Mahi, also present at the mall. Roma, already skeptical of Karamveer alias Anurag's character, tells Mahi that Karam is engaged to Pooja when Mahi reveals that she is Karam's fiancé, and his duplicity is exposed. Mahi, heartbroken, leaves from the mall when Karamveer is unable to explain the situation to her. Confusion breaks out in the mall and Pooja's identity remains tumultuous.

Karam chases Mahi and takes her to his office and explains everything. Mauji misbehaves with Mahi and she slaps him in front of his staff. Karamveer defends Mahi and leaves the office, further enraging Mauji. Mahi reconciles with Karamveer. Later, she attends the play where Karam is playing the role of Radha. At the end of the play, Rajpal arrives with Mauji who claims that Karam has killed Pooja. Karam recites one of Rajpal's couplet. Rajpal is taken aback since he shared the couplet with Pooja and nobody else.

Karam reveals that he has been impersonating Pooja all this time. This is followed by an emotional speech by Karam on growing loneliness amongst people. Roma comes with the real Pooja and exposes Mauji who is arrested by Rajpal. Toto, Mahinder, Jagjeet, and Roma learn that Karam has been impersonating Pooja all along. Finally, everyone refuses to marry Karam except Mahi.

Cast
  • Ayushmann Khurrana as Karamveer "Karam" Singh/Pooja
  • Nushrat Bharucha as Mahi Rajput
  • Annu Kapoor as Jagjeet Singh
  • Manjot Singh as Smiley Singh
  • Vijay Raaz as Rajpal Kirar
  • Abhishek Banerjee as Mahinder Rajput
  • Raj Bhansali as Chandu “Toto” Pushp
  • Nidhi Bisht as Roma Gupta
  • Neela Mulherkar as Dadi
  • Neha Saraf as Chandrakanta Kirar
  • Jitender Gaur as Toto's father
  • Arihant as Sonu Kirar
  • Gagan Gupta as Director
  • Saurabh Nayyar as Ram
  • Rajesh Sharma as W, owner of call centre
  • Vaibhav Mathur as Dablu's assistant
  • Sahasi Ranjan as Hanuman
  • Yash Yogen as Laxman
  • Basant Garg as Deepak
  • Sukesh Anand as Ravan
  • Vedika Bhandari as Pooja (Original)
  • Habib Azmi as Kazi
  • Riteish Deshmukh (special appearance in song "Dhagala Lagali")[13]

Production

In November 2018 Ayushmann Khurrana announced Dream Girl to be written and directed by Raaj Shaandilyaa and produced by Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor and Aashish Singh. Nushrat Bharucha cast opposite him.[5] The lead character will have three accents in the film.[14] Ahmed Khan is choreographing the dances with Khurrana in sari.[15]

Principal photography began in December 2018.[10] Bharucha completed her part of filming in January 2019 in Mumbai.[16]

Release

The film was released theatrically on 13 September 2019.[11] ZEE5 acquired the rights to the film and released it on 21 November 2019.[17][18]

Reception

Critical response

Dream Girl received mixed response from critics, who criticised the "empty" and "jumbled-up" writing as well as the "tasteless" and "stale" humour,[19] but praised the performances of the supporting cast. The film holds an approval rating of 50% based on 12 reviews on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 6/10.[20]

Charu Thakur of India Today gave the film three stars out of five, noted that Dream Girl was an out-and-out comedy with witty one-liners and jokes, which made it a long comic skit sans a storyline. She concurred with Taran in praising performance of Khurrana and Kapoor. Criticising director for losing subject of the film she concluded, "However, his [Shaandilyaa's] hesitation to delve deeper into the subject makes it score less on the report card. If you are looking for a light-hearted comedy this weekend, [this film] should definitely be on your list."[21]

Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave two stars out of five and felt the film was had many good ideas but those were not executed, stating, ".... these ideas remain half-baked, being mouthed strictly as meaningless dialogue for either laughs or claps". Praising Khurana for his performance, she concluded, "You stay watching Dream Girl for Khurrana. He plays Karam/Pooja with grace and conviction, and makes this thing sing." [22] Priyanka Sinha Jha of CNN-News18, praising Khurrana and ensemble of Manjot Singh, Vijay Raaz, Annu Kapoor, Abhishek Banerjee, Nushrat Bharucha, Rajesh Sharma, Nidhi Bisht and Raj Bhansali for their performances, rates the film with three and half stars out of five. Agreeing with Gupta, she noted that the second half did suffer from lack of ingenuity. Praising writer-director Raaj Shaandilyaa for 'keeping the screenplay pithy, the dialogues glib and story on the tracks, she opined, "Dream Girl will surely entertain the film going audiences while sparking off an important conversation on gender constructs in Indian cinema."[23] Writing for Film Companion, Baradwaj Rangan said "These are one-joke characters, and this is a one-joke movie. Very quickly, a sense of staleness sets in."[24]

Box office

Dream Girl has the opening day collection of ₹10.05 crore,[25] and second day collection of ₹16.42 crore, whereas the third day collection was ₹18.10 crore, taking its total opening weekend collection to ₹44.57 crore in India. On the fourth day the film crossed ₹50 crore and became Khurrana's fastest film to cross ₹50 crore until his next release, Bala.[26] The film has become the eleventh highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2019.[27]

As of 24 October 2019, with a gross of ₹169.36 crore in India and ₹31.44 crore overseas, the film has grossed ₹200.80 crore worldwide.[4]

Soundtrack
Dream Girl
Soundtrack album by
Meet Bros
Released6 September 2019[28]
Recorded2019
StudioMeet Bros Recording Studio
GenreFeature film soundtrack
Length27:26
LanguageHindi
LabelZee Music Company
External audio
Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The music of the film is composed by Meet Bros while lyrics are by Kumaar and Shabbir Ahmed. The song "Dhagala Lagali" was removed due to a copyright issue.[29][30]

Track listing
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Radhe Radhe"Amit Gupta3:30
2."Dil Ka Telephone"Nakash Aziz, Jonita Gandhi3:29
3."Dhagala Lagali"Jyotica Tangri, Mika Singh3:00
4."Ik Mulaqaat" (Lyrics by Shabbir Ahmed)Altamash Faridi, Palak Muchhal,4:07
5."Gat Gat"Jass Zaildar, Khushboo Grewal3:40
6."Radhe Radhe" (Remix)Amit Gupta, DJ Harshit Shah2:45
7."Dil Ka Telephone" (Remix)Nakash Aziz, Jonita Gandhi3:16
8."Ik Mulaqaat" (Unplugged)Ayushmann Khurrana3:33
Total length:27:26
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References
  1. "Pen Marudhar Entertainment acquires the India Distribution rights of these Balaji films". Box office India. 17 June 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  2. "DREAM GIRL (2019)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  3. "'Dream Girl' Box-Office Prediction: Ayushmann's 6th Hit In a Row?". the quint. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  4. "Dream Girl Box Office". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  5. "Ayushmann Khurrana announces his next film Dream Girl". Indian Express. 30 November 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  6. "'Badhaai Ho' actor Ayushmann Khurrana to feature opposite Nushrat Bharucha in 'Googly'". Latest Indian news, Top Breaking headlines, Today Headlines, Top Stories | Free Press Journal.
  7. Rakshit, Nayandeep (16 October 2018). "After AndhaDhun and Badhaai Ho, Ayushmann Khurrana set for another unique film with Googly". DNA.
  8. "Ayushmann Khurrana and Nushrat Bharuch in Raaj Shanndilya's Googly -Hindi Filmibeat". hindi.filmibeat.com. 15 October 2018.
  9. "Ayushmann Khurrana and Nushrat Bharucha signed for Googly". Bollywood Hungama. 13 October 2018.
  10. "Ayushmann Khurrana starrer Dream Girl's shooting begins". Indian Express. 3 December 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  11. Taran Adarsh [@taran_adarsh] (21 February 2019). "Release date finalised... #DreamGirl to release on 13 Sept 2019... Stars Ayushmann Khurrana and Nushrat Bharucha... Directed by Raaj Shaandilyaa... Produced by Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor and Aashish Singh" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. "Ayushmann Khurrana's 'Dream Girl' gets its release date". Times of India. 24 February 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  13. "Riteish Deshmukh shakes a leg with Ayushmann Khurrana and NuNushrat Bharucha in the recreated version of an iconic Dada Kondke Song". Mumbai Mirror. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  14. "'Dream Girl': Ayushmann Khurrana to flaunt three accents in the film". Times of India. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  15. "Ahmed Khan to choreograph Ayushmann in Raaj Shaandilyaa Dream Girl". Times of India. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  16. "Nushrat Ends Her Shoot for the Upcoming Film Dream Girl on a High, See Pics". News 18. 31 January 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2019.
  17. "'Dreamgirl' to premiere on ZEE5 this month". Biz Asia Live.
  18. "https://www.indiantelevision.com/iworld/over-the-top-services/zee5-reveals-largest-content-line-up-for-november-191111". Indian television. External link in |title= (help)
  19. "Dream Girl Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  20. "Dream Girl". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  21. Thakur, Charu (13 September 2019). "Dream Girl Movie Review: Ayushmann Khurrana film is ROFL all the way. But that's all". India Today. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  22. Gupta, Shubhra (13 September 2019). "Dream Girl movie review: Ayushmann Khurrana saves the day". The Indian Express. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  23. Sinha Jha, Priyanka (14 September 2019). "Dream Girl Movie Review: Is it a woman? Is it a man? No, it's Ayushmann!". CNN-News18. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  24. Rangan, Baradwaj (13 September 2019). "Dream Girl Movie Review: Ayushmann Khurrana Stars In An 'Ayushmann Khurrana Comedy' That's His Lamest One Yet". Film Companion. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  25. "Dream Girl Box Office Collection: Ayushmann Khurrana's film off to a good start; earns Rs 10 cr on Day 1". Business Today. 14 September 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  26. "Dream Girl box office collection day 4: Ayushmann Khurrana starrer declared a hit, his fastest film to cross Rs 50 crore". The Hindustan Times. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  27. "Bollywood Top Grossers Worldwide Bollywood Hungama". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  28. "Dream Girl - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Jio Saavn.
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