On "Dolly Ki Doli"

(Spoilers ahead!)

Dolly Ki Doli could have been a terrific little film if the plotting were not so frustratingly facile. The idea of a young woman tricking men into marrying her and then making off with their money is rich with potential for both humor and intrigue, but the narrative rushes from one plot point to the next with such little concern for internal logic that the film starts feeling a little limp. Characters turn up at places, discover crucial information, and get out of trouble without the audience ever finding out how they did it. I'm perfectly willing to suspend my disbelief if the film asks for it, but this one isn't aiming for farce. The tone is, if not realistic, then at least fairly low-key. Thus the slapped-together, ramshackle plot feels egregious.

One of the film's pleasures is that it runs a brisk hundred minutes, and I don't think it should have been longer. But the makers ought to have lopped off a few slow-mo walks and wedding-montage bits and showed us in greater depth how Dolly and her gang make their cons work again and again without getting caught. There's a bit where someone tries to take a picture of Dolly on her phone but she hides her face, but how have they managed to stop people from taking smartphone pictures before this? Also, the film goes to great lengths to show us that Dolly avoids all physical intimacy with her grooms, not only making excuses to forego consummation but managing to convince them they shouldn't even touch her on the wedding night. I mean, your husband is probably going to want to at least make out on your wedding night even if you're on your period.

The film is not without its joys, though. Some of the funny bits are actually pretty, well, funny. Archana Puran Singh is especially hilarious as a domineering matriarch, and her caftans are amazing. (The costuming is pretty great throughout, and gives you an instant sense of who the characters are or who they're pretending to be.) The cast is stacked with wonderful character actors, who do a great deal with small, lightly outlined parts. The leads are all good (with the exception of Pulkit Samrat, who has very nice skin but whose acting is weak Salman pastiche). Rajkummar Rao sells the smarm and the heartache equally well; there are few young leading men working in Hindi films right now who can fashion such clever, subtle performances out of under-written roles. Sonam Kapoor still does her best acting in her quiet moments, since her voice isn't her strongest asset. (She is lovely in the beautiful flashback number, Mere Naina Kafir.) But she brings a sense of humor to her coy girl-next-door act as bride-Dolly, and gives "real" Dolly a casual steeliness that I was into.

I also appreciated Dolly as a character. Dolly is amoral, but she isn't weak or foolish. A strong female protagonist in a Bollywood comedy is rare enough that Dolly's character felt fairly radical to me. The narrative, for all its flaws, never neuters her or robs her of her agency, even when you are certain that it will. She gets a tragic backstory, but she states clearly that her past doesn't define her or explain her. I'm not particularly turned on by criminals and antiheroes in fiction or films, but there's a unapologetic patriarchy-smashing quality to Dolly's escapades that feels unusual and subversive. I wish the film built around her had been as interesting as Dolly herself, but I'll take what I can get, which, in the case of Dolly Ki Doli, is a moderately enjoyable diversion.