Dramebaaj review: Adesh Singh barely holds this film together, Gopal Hari impresses instead

2.5/5

Story:

Ketan Patel (Adesh Singh) is a theatre artist who has grown up with a strict father (played by Chetan Daiya). Due to that, he has multiple personality disorder. In such a condition, he has fallen in love with his co-star Anushka (Rima Ramanuj) without knowing that their producer Som (Gopal Hari) is in love with her since childhood. Will KT and Anushka ever be able to find love in each other?

Review:

Drama is a form of art and unfortunately, not everyone is an artist. While lead actor Adesh Singh has given some fairly good projects, ShemarooMe's latest offering Dramebaaj isn't one of it.

Dramebaaj, as the title states, is about a play. The drama is already yawn within less than two minutes into the movie.

The story is about how dramebaaj (theatre artists) are considered as nobodies in front of the rich. The film has a lot of drama for no reason which makes this one boring.

This one, obviously, tries to make you believe in fairytale love stories. However, that is the thing of the past and thus, even this aspect fails to connect with you.

Seeing the black-and-white dreamy shots is nothing less than funny. It is cute but cheesy and somehow, this scene leaves an impact.

Dramebaaj is what you get when Nautanki Saala meets Tabbar and the bad parts of the latter - the moment when everything went downhill. Literally nothing works in this film and the big problem is what happens with Gujarati film industry. They tend to add comedy in serious situations and treat lighter moments in a dramatic manner. It is the same case with this film and so, the scenes don't go hand-in-hand with the emotion the movie wants to convey.

The film creates iconic Bollywood scenes successfully through its songs but that's all about it. The visuals in the songs make up for what the film lacks. The production value for this one is sure high and it is seen through the songs.

Dramebaaj is somewhat inspired from Vikram's Aparichit. The plot is about our lead actor having multiple personality disorders but Aparichit had a good cause and actor backing the performance. Here, you do not have either. Adesh Singh as KT (Ketan Patel) and his alter ego Rocky is only fairly good.

You see Adesh becoming romantic Rocky in front of the nurse and that is a good scene. It is almost as iconic as Aparichit's confrontation scene with the doctor. He has various scenes, including a mirror scene but it isn't as impactful as one would expect.

Rima Ramanuj as Anushka is good but limited as a sidekick. She is not the definition of modern woman and nor does she try too hard to fit in.

Chetan Daiya is good as always. He has various moods throughout the film and plays the stereotypical dad who thinks the solution to every problem is a slap on his son's face and talking to his wife in high pitch.

Gopal Hari as the antagonist Som does a better job than Adesh. He manages to get scary through a few scenes and action.

The retro pants add the x-factor to the play. While you get the Dil Toh Pagal Hai vibe from the scene, it ends up being Darr, which is a good thing for the movie, except it comes a bit too late. The comedy also falls in place in this scene.

Mayur Chauhan makes a special appearance in the movie. The role is too short to talk about but he comes as a surprise for sure.

The movie comes to an end with a scene that you might least expect. Of course, you aren't too surprised either because how else would there be a happy ending?

Verdict:

Dramebaaj gets better only in the last 20 minutes. Before that, all you really have to look forward to are the songs, which have the production value equal to a Bollywood song and if you have to watch a movie for its songs, then you'd rather YouTube it. Dramebaaj is too much a stretch to sit through and so, you can skip this one and miss out on nothing.