Dream Girl 2 Review: When Ayushmann Khurrana dressed up like a girl and grooved to the beats of Radhe Radhe in Dream Girl, it was nothing short of an iconic moment for contemporary Hindi cinema.
How often do we get to see mainstream and cisgendered heroes challenge the status quo, shed their masculinity, slip under the skin of a woman and revel in the same without the slightest tinge of mockery attached to it? But it’s not surprising considering the hero in question is Ayushmann.
Battling erectile dysfunction, turning into a sperm donor or a gay man, supporting his trans-partner, becoming a woman, addressing gender stereotypes as a male gynaecologist, time and again, the uninhibited actor has set new rules without ever shying away from embracing and standing up for soft masculinity onscreen.
Dream Girl 2 is no different. Four years later, he returns to a zone that is far removed from the Ayushmann Khurrana genre of cinema. Dream Girl 2, much like its first film, is also set in heartland India and but is an out-and-out frontbencher and commercial potboiler and is unabashedly unapologetic while being so.
But what’s interesting is that this time around, Ayushmann’s Karam isn’t just emulating a woman’s voice over telephone calls. He’s seen role-playing a woman for most part of the film and taking on the role of a dancing queen clad in sarees, lehengas and other traditional ensembles in three whole songs.
And despite being a part of some bizarre situations, he deserves praise for deftly treading the thin line between frivolity and entertainment.
