Dream Girl- Ek Ladki Deewani Si - Quite Positive!

Monday to Friday at 9.30pm only on Life OK

Produced By: Shashi Sumeet Production

Cast:  Nikita Dutta, Moshin Khan, Shraddha Arya, Khalid Siddiqui, Aparna Kumar, Virendra Singh, Gaurav Sharma, Moshin Khan, Rukhsar Rehman

Story so far:  Dream Girl tells us about Lakshmi Mathur and her dream of becoming the 'Star'.  Coming from Jodhpur, Lakshmi Mathur (Nikita Dutta) lives with her father (Virendra Singh), aunt and brother (Gaurav Sharma). Lakshmi loves to perform on stage. It's while performing as 'Sita' in a local 'Ram Leela', she first realizes the definition of Super stardom'. While everyone is engrossed in watching Ram Leela', a sudden announcement of arrival of super star Ayesha (Shraddha Arya), makes everyone run to catch a glimpse of her. Curious Lakshmi and her Bua too join the crowds.

The euphoria created by actress Ayesha's mere presence sparks Lakshmi's dream to become an actress.  To get a closer look at Ayesha's performance, Lakshmi breaks out from the crowd. She is spotted by director Manav Sareen (Khalid Siddiqui) who asks her to play a small role opposite his brother Samar, on screen. Excited with the offer, both Lakshmi and Bua agree to it.
 
Later, they get disappointed, when they realize that Lakshmi's face is not shown on the camera and the entire scene shows only Samar's face. This doesn't hamper Lakshmi's mood and she promise her Bua that she too will become a successful actress, just like Ayesha! With each passing year, Lakshmi's dream of becoming an actress gets stronger and she starts taking acting classes at home. One day Bua informs her of Samar Sareen's return from New York where he was studying film making. Bua encourages Lakshmi to participate in the auditions to become the new face opposite Samar. To make it happen, Lakshmi decides to come to Mumbai, but her father forbids her. He doesn't believe that acting can be a serious profession. He tries to reason with Lakshmi but she wants him to give her one chance to try out her luck. Finally, fed up with Lakshmi's consistency, Mr. Mathur asks her to get Mr. Sharma's daughter's marriage fixed with the help of her acting talent. He challenged her that if she can convince her town people with her acting, then he will allow her to go to Mumbai. 

When all this is happening, there is other track running parallel to Lakshmi's and that is Samar Sareen's (Moshin Khan). Being from the prominent Sareen family and of Navrang Studios, Samar is pushed towards big screen by elder brother and noted director Manav Sarin. But Samar doesn't want to be regular star kid but be a real Artiste'. He wants to revive Manav's old script Raaz Samosewala' which the latter drops due to unknown reasons.  Manav doesn't want to share the reason behind it, but Samar strongly believes that the script is apt for his debut. So while Lakshmi is working hard to get her father's permission to let her go to Mumbai, at the same time, Samar too is trying to convince Manav to revive his old script to make his debut. Finally both of them succeed in their goals. At the auditions, Samar's performance is not up to the mark. He decides to live life as a common man to get the feel of the character Raj Samosewala'. He convinces his parents and Manav to give him one chance to make Raj Samosewala' happen. Lakshmi and Samar both set out for a new journey.

When Lakshmi reaches Mumbai, her estate agent informs her that she has to share her flat with other occupant. Lakshmi straightway refused to do that, but her Bua pacifies her. He asks her to get room keys from the other occupant Raj Samosewala'. When Lakshmi is praying to Lord Ganesh, she meets Raaj Samosewala', unaware that he is none other than Samar Sarin, with whom she shared her first screen appearance many years ago. She informs Samar aka Raj Samosewala that she is all set to be Samar's heroine in his debut film. Former actress and now head honcho of Navrang Studio is a very fussy boss and allows her employees only 3 mistakes after which they have to quit the job.  Looking at the condition of the flat, Lakshmi and Bua are disgusted. They criticized Raj (aka Samar) for his untidiness. Together three of them clean the flat and make it presentable.  Ayesha is in mood to cook and works in the kitchen. While Manav and his father are happy about it, her mother-in-law is not very excited about it.  Lakshmi dreams about her dream man but wakes up and saw sleeping Samar's face. Samar wakes up and thinks of informing Ayesha about Lakshmi's visit to Navrang Studio. Ayesha is tensed about her new movie and asks for assurance from Manav. Manav praises her saying that there will be no one like her and gifts her precious earrings. Ayesha gets worried thinking about how Samar is managing without the lifestyle he is used to. They send few electronics to Samar's flat. Seeing so many valuable gadgets arriving, Bua and Lakshmi get worried and ask the delivery guys, whose is this? The man replies it's for Baba!

When they realize it's for Samar, they doubt his profession and think of him as Gold Smuggler and ask him to explain. Ayesha calls Samar but he says that he will call her back.  Lakshmi informs him about her visit to Navrang Studio. Samar asks her about her portfolio pictures and their importance. Lakshmi doesn't have any portfolio and nor have the Rs.20000/- to make one. Lakshmi thinks Ayesha's movie will show her some way to earn that much money. Worried Ayesha takes help of her tarot card reader friend, who informed her that someone is trying to enter your life and get connected with you. 

Hoping for some miracle to make Rs.20,000/-, Lakshmi arrives at theatre and get the idea of selling tickets in black. But no one is ready to buy the tickets. Lakshmi bumps into Samar who is selling samosas there. Both are stunned to see each other. Ayesha calls to check her movie collection but is much less than her expectation. She thinks that if the movie doesn't do well at single screen it will be considered as a flop.

What works: It's fun to watch Lakshmi cut corners to get her work done.  Nikita Dutta makes an impressive debut with Dreamgirl'.  She holds viewers' attention with splendor. Mohsin Khan aka Samar Sareen/Raj Samosawala - compliments Lakshmi's perky nature. He will get a chance to portray completely different characters in 'Dreamgirl'.  Mohsin has all the making of small screen's Chocolate Boy'. Having worked earlier, Shraddha Arya is back with the production team as Ayesha Sareen' -a superstar and businesswoman.  Sharddha oozes the charisma of the glam diva Ayesha'. Her entry scene was captivating. Dialogues tell us about how entertainment industry is looked upon by common people. They adore it but still consider it a taboo for a full-fledged career, especially for girls.
 
What doesn't work: Besides the main leads, more detailed characterization of other roles would have been better- like Manav's ex-wife Nandini (Aparna Kumar), Rukhsar Rehman etc. The roles might get more defined as the story progresses further. Audience would have loved to see more of Ayesha' in Lakshmi's growing up years as the former plays an important part in Lakshmi's ambition to become an actress.

Our take: This show talks about Lakshmi's dream of becoming 'Dreamgirl' of million hearts, Samar's dream of becoming not just a star but an accomplished 'Actor' and their journey together to reach their destinations.  'Dreamgirl' just proves that, if there is a will, there is a way, but at what cost only time will tell. The show also comments on glittering world of stars and all the hard work it requires to reach the top.  'Dreamgirl' is full of hopes, optimism and feel good factor.