Sonam Kapoor may not be the greatest Bollywood actress in the industry right now, but her choice of films and roles is definitely admirable. Choosing her movies wisely and portraying characters that can even be looked upon as some of the better depicted in the industry, Kapoor is fast becoming an actress with a promising career. Her latest movie sees her as a con-woman bride who swindles her would-be husbands out of all their money. An enjoyable and entertaining comedy, ‘Dolly Ki Doli’ is a fun and senseless film with one of the better endings for a Bollywood movie.
Rating:
Dolly, (Sonam Kapoor) is a smart and innocent looking girl who, along with a crew that makes up a fake family, goes around the country marrying rich men and then stealing all their possessions the day after the wedding. The movie starts with Dolly conning Sonu played by Rajkumar Rao in a more commercial role than we’re used to seeing him in. One of the highlights of the film is seeing him shake a leg along with Malaika Aurora-Khan in an item song in the first act. This first con, followed by another song montage, establishes the formula used by Dolly and her cohorts to make their living. Other sub plots are also established like the crush of one of Dolly partners in crime, not content with playing her fake brother at each scam; as well as that of a cop investigating the crimes of this group, fast on the heels of Dolly, with his own score to settle.
‘Dolly Ki Doli’ is yet another movie where Sonam Kapoor plays a female character that is independent and breaks free from having her character be associated and defined by that motivations of a male counterpart. The story also removes all elements that would portray Dolly as a victim, or have her back story be a tragedy that forces her into a life of crime. Despite this, it’s a predictible tale that ties into that of the cop Robin, played the young Phulkit Samrat, whose own back story gets a little glossed over. Their history was a good opportunity for the movie to maybe deal with the naivete of young love, and the realistic challenges that impulsively rash couples wanting to elope have to deal with later in life. But that scene is too rushed to have any impact.
“… I get to dance with Malaika…??”
Dolly gets quite a bit of focus, Robin is almost ignored. Especially after dropping a bomb about his daddy issues, which is completely ignored in the story, and is never resolved, or even discussed. While the story can be praised for depicting Dolly as a strong female character, Robin is written as poorly and one dimensionally as most women are in most of other Bollywood films. Which is either progressively ironic.
Sonam Kapoor is decent in a role that plays to her strengths. While not having many chances to ‘act’, the scenes where she has to convey some emotion, she performs amazingly, echoing perspectives that many contemporary South Asian women today may relate to. This strength is really what makes Kapoor stand out in all her roles. Despite being a newcomer, most of her films see her in a leading lady role with the story centered around her character, rather than being the girl in a male centric story. (Although she’s had her fair share of those as well) ‘Dolly Ki Doli‘ is no different, despite having 3 male costars.
his work isn’t as serious as he actually looks here…
And speaking of: Rajkumar Rao is refreshing compared to his more demure roles in dramatic films as a aggressively love lorn former hubby who loves Dolly, despite her repeated betrayals. Paired with Varun Sharma playing another prominent victim of Dolly’s, a more passive mommy’s boy, the duo was the source of much of the jokes in the later half of the film. Phulkit Samrat, is as plain and under whelming as most of his performances thus far.
Debutant Director Abhishek Dogra brings the funny and avoids the preachy pitfalls of a usual female orientated story while casually allowing the main character to portray sentiments that can be seen as being in line with the mentality of yougn women today. Presumably. ‘Dolly Ki Doli’ is able to entertain and showcase a different element of the wedding situation in Indian culture, without being too high-handed with it’s morality tale, something that ‘Dawat-e-Ishq’ attempted to do, but failed miserably. You can read my Review of ‘Dawaat-e-Ishq’ here. While ‘Dolly Ki Doli’ is a short and fun enough movie to check out just for the LOL’s, but especially for the amazing ending.
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