Movie: Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare (Hindi)
Cast: Konkana Sen Sharma, Bhumi Pednekar, Amol Parashar, Aamir Bashir, Kubbra Sait
Rating: 1.5/5
The movie is about cousin sisters - Radha aka Dolly (Konkona SenSharma) and Kajal aka Kitty (Bhumi Pednekar) navigating through their respective lives to find true freedom. It is the story of two women exploring their sexual desires.
The movie starts interestingly in an amusement park where Dolly's husband, Amit (Amir Bashir) touches Kajal inappropriately while taking a family photo. In the next scene. Kajal confides to Dolly di about her husband's deeds. This scene is beautifully shot on a scary rollercoaster ride, foreshadowing the horrors the women face in this chauvinist and misogynist world. It sets the tone of the movie perfectly.
Dolly's family is shown as the typical middle-class family that puts up a happy image for all. They have bought a flat in one of the upcoming complexes in Greater Noida and believe that all their problems will vanish once they shift into their new house.
Kajal joins a factory job but immediately realizes that she is a complete misfit. She is in a dire situation where she has to move out of her cousin’s house and find herself a new job to support it.
Dolly represents those suppressed middle-class wives who want to show to the society that their life and family is picture perfect. This forces them to go to any length to fulfil their place in society. She is shown as a sexually dissatisfied wife who gets attracted to a young delivery boy (Osman) and tries to fulfil her desires with him.
While Kajal gets a job in a call center aka phone sex company, and the first client interaction breaks her emotionally and she realizes the tough road ahead. Over time she gets hold of herself and starts handling her job professionally. But then she gets involved in a romantic relationship with one of her clients – Pradeep (Vikrant Massey). Their conversation sets a lively tone to the movie and you start connecting to both the characters.
Then the story drifts into multiple plotlines. The movie tries to handle multiple issues like disturbed childhood, identity crisis for a child, caged life of a woman in a middle family, woman treated like a sex object and the list goes on. The movie never indulges into one plotline dedicatedly and just when we start connecting with the characters there is an abrupt halt and that kills the entire viewing experience. It haphazardly also tries to show the increasing influence of fringe Hindu fanatics against couples and women in the name of saving the culture of the country.
Kajal joins a factory job but immediately realizes that she is a complete misfit. She is in a dire situation where she has to move out of her cousin’s house and find herself a new job to support it.
Dolly represents those suppressed middle-class wives who want to show to the society that their life and family is picture perfect. This forces them to go to any length to fulfil their place in society. She is shown as a sexually dissatisfied wife who gets attracted to a young delivery boy (Osman) and tries to fulfil her desires with him.
While Kajal gets a job in a call center aka phone sex company, and the first client interaction breaks her emotionally and she realizes the tough road ahead. Over time she gets hold of herself and starts handling her job professionally. But then she gets involved in a romantic relationship with one of her clients – Pradeep (Vikrant Massey). Their conversation sets a lively tone to the movie and you start connecting to both the characters.
Then the story drifts into multiple plotlines. The movie tries to handle multiple issues like disturbed childhood, identity crisis for a child, caged life of a woman in a middle family, woman treated like a sex object and the list goes on. The movie never indulges into one plotline dedicatedly and just when we start connecting with the characters there is an abrupt halt and that kills the entire viewing experience. It haphazardly also tries to show the increasing influence of fringe Hindu fanatics against couples and women in the name of saving the culture of the country.
Society follows certain defined rules and these are applicable to all individuals and an individual who tries to break from this shackle has to sacrifice a lot - like Dolly's mother. Also, the path for Dolly and Kitty to discover their sexual desires in the film gets completely haywire and confusing.
One of the most memorable and touching scenes was when Dolly and Kitty reminiscence about the present and past life, and connect emotionally on the terrace. But after that, the movie goes completely downhill and the climax is a chaos of epic proportion.
The director Alankrita Shrivastava totally fails in delivering a coherent movie. She is not able to take control of the terrible writing and the movie never gets out it. However, she is able to give some life to her female characters which helps the movie from not collapsing completely.
The writing of the movie is below par and it just seems like a lost opportunity. The build-up of the story was quite good but after that, the script does not seem to remain focused on one particular subject. It becomes too preachy at times or too entangled in its own web of storylines.
The cinematography is nothing noteworthy and does not venture into anything new.
The main cast of Konkana Sen Sharma and Bhumi Pednekar is the saving grace of the movie. Both give a very good and intense performance which elevate their character beyond the flaws of the screenplay. Vikrant Massey does what was expected from him in the role. Aamir Bashir gives a very effective performance. Amol Parashar as Osman is quite likable in the movie.
This movie could have been bold and path breaking but it gets too tangled in its storylines and messages.
Great review! Couldn’t agree more ��
ReplyDeleteWell written!
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