Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare

Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma,Bhumi Pednekar, Aamir Bashir, Vikrant Massey, Kubbra Sait, Amol Parashar, Karan Kundra, Mushtaq Khan

Director: Alankrita Shrivastava

Producer/s: Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor

Plot:

Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare Rating: 2/5 Stars (Two stars)

Star Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Bhumi Pednekar, Aamir Bashir, Amol Parashar, Vikrant Massey, Kubbra Sait, Karan Kundra

Director: Alankrita Shrivastava

What’s Good: Just read the names of stars above, the director below that and join the dots. What would you expect? So did I, but not every weekend denotes holiday!

What’s Bad: It somewhat is connected to what’s good because that’s where all the hopes are built, and that’s where they are shattered

Loo Break: Hmmmmmmmm

Watch or Not?: Even if you’re someone who can ignore the weak points to enjoy the performances, watch the films which will have better performances by the similar cast and crew. Not.

User Rating:

Hailing from a small town Dharbanga (Bihar), Dolly (Konkona Sen Sharma) and Kaajal (Bhumi Pednekar) are cousin sisters tackling their issues and hoping to find an escape in the city of Greater Noida. Not so happily married Dolly combats s*xual tension with her husband Amit (Aamir Bashir). At the same time, Kaajal is on her way to becoming Kitty with the help of a call centre that sells romance.

In the process of turning the ‘voice operator’ Kitty, Kaajal tries to balance her life by seeking love in one of her clients Pradeep (Vikrant Massey). Rest of the story is about how all of these characters battle their intensely personal life problems and getting confused while jumping between what’s right or what’s wrong for themselves as well as the people around them.

Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare: Script Analysis

Sadly, I haven’t seen Alankrita Shrivastava’s much-acclaimed Lipstick Under My Burkha and so won’t be making any parallels with it. But this is so HEAVILY inspired by Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. The basic premise of two f*cked-up sisters, with the elder’s husband trying to seduce the younger, and how both of them are with each other despite all the ‘s*xual’ issues screams Fleabag from every angle. Now, don’t get me wrong because that’s a classic and we should be inspired by it, but it just ends up being a sloppy, dramatised version of Fleabag’s ‘certain’ chain of events.

The script is continuously looking for a ground to settle, but time and again it’s left groundless. The tensions around the characters are never established in a way so you could connect to them. That’s where Fleabag brings in the subtlety, and Dolly Kitty ends up reeking of mawkishness. Majorly, it fails to connect the characters. They just happen to end up with each other and hence demolishing the emotional bridge with the viewers.

Sub-plots such as – Dolly’s unrequited equation with her mother, her kid’s confusion regarding his gender, installing a statue of Vagina to celebrate the idea of feminism and ending it in a minute showing some goons destroying it – leaves impact not even close to what they should’ve. John Jacob Payyapalli smartly takes the route of ‘candyfloss cinematography’ so that he can keep the tone of the film delightful despite all the tensions. But even that’s affected by the very ordinary production value of the film.

Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare: Star Performance

Every single frame I saw Konkona Sen Sharma in, the only thing that came to my mind is how good this film would be on paper to lure her in. Despite all the flaws, this is a performance-heavy film roping in some seasoned artists. Bhumi Pednekar is a perfect cast for Kitty, and she dazzles amid dark clouds. She manages to be there and do what she’s best at – act well.

Aamir Bashir is wasted, and for the better part of the film, I didn’t even recognise him. He also suffers from a very poorly sketched character, and so is Amol Parashar. He could’ve been so much more but ends up being almost nothing. Though, compared to the rest of the characters, he gets a thorough finale. Can’t say the same for Vikrant Massey because for the level of an actor he is, there’s no significant scope for him to express his talent. Kubbra Sait and Karan Kundra’s characters are as misfits as their performances.