Planet Bollywood
Dolly Ki Doli
 
Producer: Arbaaz Khan and Malaika Arora Khan
Director: Abhishek Dogra
Starring: Sonam Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Pulkit Samrat and Varun Sharma
Music: Sajid Wajid
Lyrics: Kumaar, Danish Sabri and Irfan Kamal
Genre: Comedy
Film Released on: 23 January 2015
Reviewed by: Stutee Ghosh  - Rating: 5.5 / 10
 
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Public Rating Average: 5.11 / 10 (rated by 410 viewers)
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We know the cake in the oven is done when a skewer or knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Wish somebody had done the same with Dolly Ki Doli. If only producer Arbaaz Khan, or debutant director Abhishek Dogra or actress Sonam Kapoor has cared enough to insert a fork into their half baked muffin of a film they would have been able to see the sloppy characters and damp mixture still sticking to it. 'Dolly Ki Doli' is a terribly half baked affair and that’s a pity. Particularly because it’s hard to run down a film that has some really hearty performances to boast of. Dolly ki Doli starts off just fine. Sonam Kapoor plays the con – bride Dolly and no ordinary ‘dulhan’ is she! Dolly ensnares men with her charm, marries them with aplomb and then runs away with all their money and jewelry. In police records she is known as the ‘Looteri Dulhan’ and quite aptly so. “Main woh dulhan nahi jo sirf ladke ko doodh deti hoon. Main to woh dulhan hoon jo sab ghar walon ko bhi dudh deti hoon” she coyly announces in one of the scenes. This laced milk works its magic and by next morning our Dolly runs away with her loot leaving her 'sasural walas' distraught and 'dulhas' in shock.

Dolly, of course, has a gang – her fake family so to speak complete with an old daadi parroting “beti de di sab dediya”. There is the brilliant Manoj Joshi who plays her 'nakli baap' and her unwilling 'nakli bhai' wonderfully played by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. In spite of blurred characterization and a loose plot these two actors still shine through giving us many laugh worthy moments.

Moving on, these wedding heists wouldn’t be half as entertaining had it not been for Dolly’s hapless dulhas and their clamorous parivaars. Rajkumar Rao playing Sonu Sarawat is a delight to watch. He rattles off in Haryanvi leaving us in splits. Sonu’s father played by Rajesh Sharma too ensures there is never a dull moment when he is around. To pull off such impressive performances with limited screen time is the reason 'Dolly Ki Doli' can’t be totally dismissed.

Varun Sharma plays Dolly’s next flabbergasted dulha Manoj Chadha. Archana pooran Singh plays his loud Punjabi mom with a kiran Kher-ish hue which Bollywood and we have come to love. She is good and so is Varun Sharma and together they help us with some more chuckles and laughs.


Dolly Ki Doli scores thanks to top notch casting and brilliant performances. However familial ties prove to be its undoing. Pulkit Samrat as Robin Singh, the policeman entrusted with the duty of capturing Looteri Dulhan is totally overshadowed by all including the charming Sonam Kapoor. He simply pays obeisance to his godfather in the industry Salman Khan by doing his own version of a Chulbul Pandey and quite a bland one at that. The useless item number by Malaika Arora Khan right at the beginning does not cut much ice or set the screen ablaze (whatever it was there for). To be fair the film manages to keep it together in the first half. However post interval it’s a fizz less cola. As half baked as it is, little wonder that we are left feeling hungry - Hungry for more laughs, for a tighter climax and some substantial plot. There is a bouquet of intriguing characters and zero insight into them. Surely for someone as tantalizing a looteri dulhan as Dolly, her back-story should have had some more meat. So while the characters on screen run helter skelter looking for Dolly, the only thing we keep chanting is
”if only
if only
 they had inserted that damn knife into the cake and realized how half baked it was
”

The smartest move by the makers is to keep it all well within 100 minutes. So, perfect if you only wish to kill time.

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