‘Dolly Kitty’ should have been named ‘Of hopes and hormones’

Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare (Netflix)

Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Bhumi Pednekar

Director: Alankrita Shrivastava

Rating: 2.5/5

She is frigid. Her husband doesn’t turn her on (no sex in two years, we are informed). The couple has a child grappling with gender identity (Pappu hates sports but loves to play with dolls).

Now the man is always making a move on his wife’s cousin — a virgin from Bihar who has just landed in Noida with a truckload of hormones and hopes.

Add a dollop of religious intolerance and patriarchy, and you have ‘Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare’.

The women in the film have several layers to them but no agency over their body or desires. Of course, there is the final moment of liberation, which arrives after you put up with countless calls made by horny men to an adult call centre. There is also some clumsy sex in between (fully-clad too).

Still, the film works at some point because of its performances. Konkona Sen Sharma doesn’t need
any training in the strong-woman territory. She charms as the flawed, unapologetic Dolly who is trapped under heaps of mundane domestic chores. But in the humid confines of her office, she sparkles as the only employee with an AC at home. Despite her cool status, she is expected to make tea for her male colleagues every day.

Dolly’s transition begins after a sexual encounter with a food delivery boy (Amol Parashar, equal parts naive and edgy). Another catalyst in the empowerment tale is Kitty who raises several sanskari eyebrows. Together, the women lift the burden of morality.

A vagina installation and some stray bullets derail the track in the end. And surprisingly, in a film revolving around Dolly and Kitty’s stars, it is Pappu who shines the brightest.

True, children are the best teachers.