A tiresome and mediocre social satire
In a fictional small town where all but a handful of bloated day-and-night drifters shun happiness, a hard-drinking man inadvertently starts an anti-alcohol campaign that, thanks to the women around him, spirals out of his control.
Control is indeed conspicuous by its absence dry dayA boring and mediocre social satire written and directed by Saurabh Shukla. Not only is the film dry as a pile, it drowns itself in mounds of absurdity.
The purpose of the film is clear enough. It seeks to drive home the dangers of alcoholism. No problem there. It is the implementation of ideas that do not measure. dry day This is a film let down by its unpleasantness.
Available on Prime Video, Dry Day stars Jeetendra Kumar as the male lead, the undisputed poster boy of small-town films and web shows. He plays Gannu Kumar, a shameless foot soldier of a politician, whose pregnant wife Nirmala (Shriya Pilgaonkar) threatens to abort their child unless he gives up drinking, forms and finds a real job that can sustain a family.
The lady’s ultimatum sets off a chain of actions and reactions that turn Dry Day away from his chosen path. Gannu and his companions find themselves in knots as the anti-Prohibition movement, which begins half-heartedly and without a clear goal, sucks the entire community into its vortex and casts a shadow over the future of the town’s only liquor store.
The liquor store is run by Balwant (Shrikanth Varma), a politician’s stalwart who is involved in the business of keeping the city’s working men perpetually drunk.
The relationship between power and alcohol is public dry dayBut the script doesn’t see the value in pursuing that aspect of the plot. It only tangentially makes a case against political corruption and moves on to deal with less important issues.
Jeetendra Kumar has built his career playing men facing the challenges of life in India’s hinterlands. Kota factory And Panchayat The actor is well within his comfort zone dry day. It should have been a cakewalk for him. But since the screenplay doesn’t add much to the tropes it puts at hand, the vacuous routine allows him to navigate the role.
The rest of the cast does their best to inject life dry dayBut the senseless antics of Gannu and his gang in the face of the indifference of smooth-talking politician Omvir Singh “Dauji” (Annu Kapoor), their mentor, robs the dry deck of any chance to settle into a steady, meaningful rhythm.
Gannu hopes to become the corporator of Jagodhar ward in Naroutpura town with Daoji’s blessings and prove to his wife that he is not the waste he thinks he is. His political masters poured cold water on his aspirations. He gives election ticket to Satendra “Satto” Prasad Trivedi (Sunil Palwal).
Gannu and his angry sons, who form the dirty tricks division of politicians on the ground, decide to do something to regain the ground they have lost. Gannu begins a hunger strike but when the townspeople ask him what his specific agenda is, he is not entirely sure.
He’s obviously in the right picture – Dry Day is just as confused as he is. As he tries to explain that he didn’t get what he deserved, Gannu’s suffering increases. After an adventure in Delhi sends him and the gang to Schlemmer, they find themselves completely with their backs against the wall and their image as political activists shattered.
Neither his mind nor his selfish frustrations lead him to what he really wants. The plight of a man who knows little can result in mildly diverting, harmless fun if not so subtle in Dry Day’s approach.
Despite the passable noise it makes, the film is an utterly pointless exercise that leaves nothing to the imagination. Its occasional shots of humor do little to enliven the listless proceedings.
dry day Also makes feeble attempts to whip up some drama. A woman walks away with her alcoholic husband, her children. Another takes a more direct approach to teaching her drunken husband a lesson. And, of course, Gannu’s wife, the daughter of the local school headmaster, hits her wayward spouse where it hurts.
dry day It’s basically about a band of boys but it’s the women who guide the town’s accidental anti-alcohol activist. As he becomes a messiah overnight, Gannu is caught in his own web and forced to go the whole hog, not knowing where the movement is taking him.
Gannu’s fake movement is inspired by a seasoned anti-corruption campaigner (a shadow of a real-life figure from the not-too-distant past) who quips to a man sitting next to him on a protest stage in Delhi, “Natak hai, enjoy.”
Sadly, there is little drama dry day Any closer to enjoyable. The film is like a tipple that is too diluted to deliver any high.
