movie reviews

Dry Day Movie Review: Someone Told Jitendra Kumar, “You’re The Next Ayushmann Khurrana” & Unfortunately He Believed It For A Film As Wasted As A Drunk Conversation!

December 23, 2023

217 6 minutes read

Dry Day Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Jitendra Kumar, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Annu Kapoor, Shrikant Verma, Kiran Khoje, Sunil Palwal, and others

Director: Saurabh Shukla

Dry Day Movie Review: Jitendra Kumar’s Film Is As Wasted As A Drunk Conversation! (Picture Credit: Youtube)

What’s Good: It doesn’t give you a headache. In fact, it’s as good as a drunk conversation.

What’s Bad: Gives you a bad hangover – starting with a headache once it ends!

Loo Break: Anytime you want, as many times you want!

Watch or Not?: After two drinks – Yes. Struggling with insomnia? Try Probably!

Language: Hindi (with English subtitles)

Available On: Amazon Prime India

Runtime: 128 Minutes

User Rating:

Guess what is the best part of a drunk conversation? You don’t know what you are talking about, when you are talking about, how you are talking, with whom you are talking! At times, you will make sense, and sometimes, you will try hard to make sense. Most of the things you talk about would be the unfulfilled, unachieved dreams of the past, which would sound absolute nonsense in 2023, but still, you are allowed to talk about them because you are high. Dry Day, starring Jitendra Kumar, is the same drunk conversation, to be precise!

As mean as it sounds, as rude as it sounds, and as disrespectful as it sounds, it is what it is. As a movie buff, as much as I respect artists and Saurabh Shukla in particular, his directorial is as confused and as aimless as a drunk conversation.

The best part about this whole ‘talli’ conversation is one would not believe that one is talking utter crap, and one will probably not remember it the next day. In the same way, I can’t remember a thing about this film and have to try way too hard to remember what I saw in the last two hours! And trust me, as long and as exhausting this might seem to read, it has been more exhausting and hard for me to write this!

But moving on, here’s what the film is about – A man named Gannu, played by Jitendra Kumar, who is rogue and alcoholic. He dreams of being a politician someday and assists a neta played by Annu Kapoor. But can a ‘sharaabi’ turn into a neta – Well, of course, yes, for sure, in the real world, but in the world of Dry Day, alcohol strangely becomes a problem for Gannu to achieve his dreams, as far as I remember. Also, before I forget, Gannu wants to achieve this dream because of his wife. Does he succeed? Of course, yes, but the path towards this success is a strenuous 2-hour, over-stretched, over-dramatic story that promises to be a social satire.

Shriya Pilgaonkar Delivers The Most Bizarre Dialogue In Dry Day (Picture Credit: Youtube)

Dry Day Movie Review: Script Analysis

Let us establish two very important facts about this film here. 1. Gannu is an alcoholic, a problem this 30-ish-something man conveniently blames on his group of friends to the point that he even wants to believe that his flaws are a reflection of the friends he hangs out with. Since they are flawed, he obviously will be flawed. This could be a fascinating observation for a social homo-sapien theory – one tends to become like the people they hang out with. But the way it is established in the film is a bit ridiculous to start with.

Now, 2. Gannu dreams of being a politician but wants to start small – as a corporator. He has a wife who tries to school him for his bad habits despite being warned by her father not to marry an alcoholic, something she found cute while courting him and problematic after marrying him! Pheww women.

These two facts build up the whole premise of Dry Day. Gannu’s problem with alcohol addiction, how he fights with it and then against it turns into a problematic story that is scattered all over the place despite following a blueprint for a commercial dramedy – It has all the checklists – there are songs and dances thrown in from anywhere and everywhere, there is a forced romance between the lead pair, there are vile politicians, there is local Gunda, there is a fight with crackling ‘sheeshe ki botal’ on heads and not to forget there is an item dance as well. So all the boxes ticked. But why does a man as experienced as Saurabh Shukla fail to write a film out of it? Because the story has no aim! This is the only fact that has been beautifully transformed into this film!

Dry Day Movie Review: Star Performance

So someone, in probably a drunk state, told the lead actor Jitendra Kumar that you are the Ayushmann Khurrana of the OTT, and he, unfortunately, believed it, trying too hard to step into his shoes, leaving aside what comes to him naturally – playing a common man; a regular Indian guy struggling in his 30s. Be it Kota Factory’s Jitu Bhaiya, Panchayat’s Sachiv Ji, or Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan’s Aman Tripathi, the actor has effortlessly transformed into these guys, characters people could relate to.

However, then comes Gannu from Dry Day, a trying too hard larger than life Hero – now, is it Jitendra’s failure? Probably not, because he tries to hold the fort in this half-baked story. Probably, his character was modeled in such a way, or probably, it is still time for him to play larger-than-life heroes with conviction. Struggle comes to him naturally, heroism – not yet.

Shriya Pilgaonkar’s screen presence is so brilliant that she is as wasted as Jitendra in a shoddy screenplay. Annu Kapoor’s character has little depth, and neither does Shrikant Verma’s. The rest of the people (trust me a lot) – I can’t remember or place them, particularly in this overcrowded film.

Jitendra Kumar’s Gannu Is An Aimless Protagonist In Dry Day (Picture Credit: Youtube)

Dry Day Movie Review: Direction, Music

Saurabh Shukla is the man who was credited as the script writer for Satya, followed by many good films. He turned a director and hasn’t done much worth remembering. He falls hard with this political cum social satire which has the most confused protagonist and the most cringy dialogue of this decade, probably. The film fails to establish whether Gannu’s desire to be a politician makes him fight against the alcohol issue in his town or whether he actually wants to reform and actually considers his addiction as a grave problem.

Shriya Pilgaonkar’s character as Gannu’s wife wants to abort her child since her husband is an alcoholic. But also, her character says, “Thank God. You did not wear a condom that day,” after her husband fights his addiction. It is the most bizarre character arc with the most ridiculous dialogue of this decade.

As the director tries to project Gannu as the messiah of distressed women trying to make their husbands quit alcohol in a village whose major problem only seems to be drinking men, the story loses its plot in the first 20 minutes. The rest of the 100 minutes is a drunk conversation, as I mentioned. It is as indifferent as it can get. What adds to this unintentional and planned/unplanned booze session is Javed Mohsin and Protijyoti Ghosh’s music, which makes no sense!

Dry Day Movie Review: The Last Word

Words are just blabbering sounds constructing out-of-context sentences once you are wasted – so is this film, every single minute. It aims to be a strong political satire like Well Done Abba, focussing on a single issue. It models the lyrics and the songs like those from Welcome To Sajjanpur and Peepli Live, but it ends up nowhere. Never mind. Just watch it and sleep over it. A relaxing sleep, probably.

1 star.