• Tejas Nair
    Tejas Nair
    258 reviews
    Top Reviewer
    3

    I like comedies about social issues; the reason I count myself among the few people who liked Daawat-E-Ishq's (2014) story. Dolly Ki Doli, as it turns out, is a mixture of that film + the female version of Ladies Vs. Ricky Bahl (2012) + Hollywood rom-com Runaway Bride.

    The story about a petty girl who teams up with crooks to form a family and cheat well off grooms and their families is appealing. The screenplay starts off rather gaudily, slipping in the item song by the sexy Malaika Arora in the first fifteen minutes. There is no background on how and what and why Dolly (Sonam Kapoor) and her fake family are doing what they are doing. Not even the proceedings throw light into the origin. Of course, there is some silly philosophical babble that explains Dolly's immoral profession at the end, but it doesn't make sense.

    There are few comedic sequences that jeers at issues like arranged marriages in India, auspicious post-wedding first-nights, traditions, dowry customs, etc., but they all fade into nothingness. The final twenty minutes are the worst I have seen in any movie in the past months and that includes Bhushan Patel's torturous, concocted dish Alone (2015).

    Even if one sustains the tedious first half, nothing will stop you from wondering whether the writers really put in any effort to end this drama rather ceremoniously. There is nothing to talk about the filmmaking parameters, except that Sonam Kapoor cannot act. I have brought up this issue in many (all) of my reviews of her films that Kapoor is just not the chip off the old block. She should shift to catering, or even better: miming in a park in Bandra.

    The supporting cast (Rao and Samrat, too) adds humor and ounces of glory to the film while Kapoor is busy dancing in at least four songs that I happen to notice.

    BOTTOM LINE: If I were a 27 year old lad with a job and no girlfriend looking for a getaway this weekend, I would skip Dolly Ki Doli. I would even skip that pretentious Baby (2015) and Depp's career suicide Mortdecai (2015). Instead, I would go to a beach and watch the sun go down the horizon and induce pleasure from it. 3/10.

    Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

    April 08, 15