Dream Girl 2 movie review: Ayushmann Khurrana dives into drag with abandon, but the film is a stretch

That’s when the circus hits the road. Last time, Khurrana had done a good job of using his high-pitched voice to create ripples in male nether-regions; this time around, he goes the whole nine yards, and turns into a girl. That’s right, Karam dives into drag, using a couple of oranges to fill up the bosom (reminding us of Rishi Kapoor and Gufi Paintal in ‘Raffoochakkar’), and layers of foundation to smoothen his stubble.

Watch Dream Girl 2 movie trailer:

Several cases of mistaken identities, and the complications that arise thereof make up the bulk of the film: Singh is once again the BFF but this time in love with Muslim girl Sakeena, leading to several ‘Gadar’ jokes (Sikh guy-Muslim girl, gotit?). One of the things that make ‘Dream Girl 2’ brave for these times is the way it shows people from all religions tumbling around each other in a big-budget Bollywood movie. And that’s a good thing too, especially given the near-erasure of Muslim characters in the mainstream. Sakeena’s ‘abbu’ (Paresh Rawal, no less) turns out to be a surprisingly liberal gent; the several-times divorced bua (Seema Pahwa) has the hots for a much younger man; her ‘bhaijaan’ (Abhishek Bannerjee) is a heart-broken fellow who lives with a secret. It’s almost as if it’s a return of the Muslim social but with the kind of large subversive heart that only messy, massy Hindi movies can create, and there are some on-point moments here.

Dream Girl 2 movie review: The film is a spiritual sequel to the 2019 film Dream Girl.

There’s so much to-ing-and-fro-ing within this gang, and also when it bumps up against the owner of a night-club (Vijay Raaz) who develops feelings for Pooja — Karam in drag swinging it, baybee — that the film has to keep remembering to circle back to Khurrana, and his ‘asli pyaar’ Pari. Ananya Panday doesn’t have much to do, but is surprisingly getting better when there’s not too much pressure on her to deliver. You wish, like last time, that the film was not huffing-and-puffing all the time, or not getting its characters to deliver monologues underlining its liberal woke self.

Dream Girl 2 works best when it has Ayushmann Khurrana unerringly bringing out the concept of ‘ardhanareeshwar’ so strongly and with such ease: Pooja is Karam and Karam is Pooja. Genders can be beautifully fluid, and yes, men can like men.

Dream Girl 2 movie cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Annu Kapoor, Ananya Panday, Paresh Rawal, Vijay Raaz, Manjot Singh, Seema Pahwa, Abhishek Bannerjee, Asrani, Manoj Joshi, Ranjan Raj
Dream Girl 2 movie director: Raaj Shaandilyaa
Dream Girl 2 movie rating: 2.5 stars