From the title itself, it’s a giveaway that this romcom is going to be rife in clichés and oozing cheesiness. In that sense, writer-director Victor Mukherjee’s 107-minute-long film does not disappoint.
Kenneth ‘Kenny’ Fernandes (Amol Parashar) is a recycle artist and social media influencer who is nursing a broken heart and often posts philosophical and pensive posts about dreams, feelings etc. These read like memes or the kind of ‘good quotes’ one could Google up. But what is baffling Kenny at this time, is a recurring dream featuring a date with an attractive young woman in a coffee shop. Said woman does exist. Somewhere else, an aspiring and ambivalent musician called Diya Jaisingh (Mithila Palkar) is experiencing the same dream, featuring Kenny and the same coffee shop.
Diya is unambitious, unfocussed, and struggling to own it. She outsources decisions to either her boyfriend or best friend. Kenny, on the other hand, is seeking a facsimile of himself. Neither is looking reality in the eye, but preferring to escape into an idealistic fantasy.
Kenny and Diya get unhealthily obsessed with solving their dreams, not so much analysing them but with finding this person who exemplifies a perfect partner. Kenny begins neglecting his work, much to the chagrin of his colleagues, the infantile Akash (Sukkarann Vats) and over-styled Nubra (Ayesha Adlakha). At the same time, Diya’s steady relationship with nurturing boyfriend Ishant (Meiyang Chang) gradually implodes, even as she confides in and gets unequivocal support from her best friend Tanushree (Mohini Shimpi). In one scene, when Diya is sure she spotted her dream man, Tanushree says to her friend that if this guy is really the same one, it means that “your life has suddenly turned into a Christopher Nolan film”.
‘Sweet Dreams’ hinges on serendipity, on happenstance, but what works most in the film’s favour are performances by Parashar and Palkar. Parashar is at ease as the manic pixie dream guy who reconnects with reality and Palkar is artless and disarming as a confused millennial, who learns a lesson in self-belief. Sauraseni Maitra also makes an impression as the ‘realistic optimist’ Roop, who shares Kenny’s affinity for inspirational quotes.
Low on production values, high on schmaltz (dialogues by Alka Shukla and Mukherjee), punctuated with a few surprises, this love story would have benefitted from a better soundtrack, crisper writing and more inventive storytelling.
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