Meet Cute:
There aren’t too many simple love stories being made these days, because romance in the time of multiple choices offered by the net can be exhausting and possibly fruitless; because the concept of meeting ‘the one’ seems fanciful.
That’s why Victor Mukherjee’s candy-coloured Sweet Dreams (on Disney+Hotstar) might appeal to a young audience, because it speaks their language. This is a new one – Kenny (Amol Parashar) is a recycling artist and influencer. He dreams of meeting a stranger at a café, and at the same point in the dream he wakes up every time. He has broken up with his girlfriend, and is possibly stressed, say his friends and his therapist (Faye D’Souza). Like in the US, in urban India too, buddies and therapists have replaced the family unit. Tinder is not helping, and Kenny is convinced that the girl he sees in his dreams is the one for him.
The young woman is Gia (Mithila Palkar), who also sees the same dream every night. Gia is the typical manic pixie found in romcoms– she can’t make up her mind about what she wants to do in life (write? sing?) and also resents it when her sorted boyfriend Ishant (Meiyang Chang) makes decisions about their future together.
On a weekend beach trip, Kenny and Dia spot each other, and are too stunned to react at that moment. Kenny gets obsessed about finding her, even though his friends do not believe she exists. “He doesn’t want a girlfriend, he wants a friendgirl,” observes his business partner and pal Akash (Sukkarann Vats), who is happily coupled with the company’s third partner (Ayesha Adlakha), so indulges Kenny’s fantasy. Her best friend and confidante (Mohini Shimpi) also thinks Dia’s dream guy is just in her mind.
Meanwhile, Kenny runs into Roop (Sauraseni Maitra), who would be ideal for him—understanding, warm, helpful—if he took his mind off the elusive dream girl.
Inspired by Hollywood romcoms like In My Dreams, the film is pleasant and easy on the eye, with trendy interiors and stylish costumes, observing city fads, like Kenny going to work on a bicycle to a cool office. Kenny and Dia almost meet a couple of times, but are disappointed, and the viewer is rooting for them, because what are dreams for if not to come true?
Mukherjee does not complicate the plot with supernatural explanations and keeps the proceedings always light and bubbly. To the film’s credit, the end is not clichéd.
Mithila Palkar and Amol Parashar have the requisite charm and an attractive guy/gal next-door youthful vibe to make Kenny and Dia tick and push the whimsical plot to work, even though both have done similar parts before. Sweet Dreams is a nice and wholesome date movie…popcorn optional.
(This piece first appeared in rediff.com)
