At first Dream Girl (1977) seems like standard Bollywood
fare, a typical story of love, deception, gangsters, orphans, family,
mistaken identities, giant wedding cakes, and the world’s worst
prostitute. And then, halfway through the film, something happens.
Something . . . unusual.
As the film opens, millionaire playboy Anup (Dharmendra) is living the life of a millionaire playboy. It is his birthday, and his party is attended by a score of attractive young women all eagerly throwing themselves at his feet. Anup enjoys the attention, but he’s saving himself for his “dream girl”; not long ago, he bought a portrait of an unknown but beautiful woman from a roadside vendor, and was instantly infatuated.
The very next day, Anup bumps into his dream girl, Sapna (Hema Malini), in the flesh. She’s smart, sassy, and sophisticated, claims to be a princess, and after some initial flirting, she breaks into his car and steals his money before vanishing. Coincidentally, the theft delays Anup long enough to delay a shady and potentially disastrous business deal set up by his weaselly cousin Prem (Prem Chopra). Good news for Anup, very bad news for Prem.
Sapna has a secret. (She has many secrets, but let’s deal with one at a time, shall we?) She is a con artist and petty thief, but she only steals to support “Happy Home,” the orphanage she runs with her equally felonious but goodhearted brother Chandru (Asrani). Sapna and Chandru would love to give up their criminal ways and get real jobs, but if they did they couldn’t make enough money to support their orphans, and there’s no way they could afford a trip to America and expensive medical treatment for Chintu (Master Chintu), the crippled but artistically gifted Adorable Orphan In Chief.
While raising money for Chintu’s operation, Sapna (in various wacky disguises) keeps crossing paths with Anup. Eventually one of her scams backfires, and she and Chandru are caught red handed by a significantly less infatuated Anup, and he agrees to let them go if Sapna will pretend to be his fiance and help convince his overprotective grandfather (Ashok Kumar) not to arrange a marriage for him. (This is a terrible plan, because there’s no endgame. No fake fiance can last forever, but Anup hasn’t thought about what happens next.)
Anup’s grandfather thrilled by the “princess”, and when he learns that her alleged parents are allegedly out of town, he insists that she move in right away. Before long, he gives her the keys to the safe; she’s very tempted to take the money and run (in order to pay for Chintu’s operation, and perhaps a trip to Disneyland) but the old man has grown to depend on her, so she stays.
The timing couldn’t be worse. Chandru has just been arrested for theft. (He’s innocent, surprisingly.) No one is left to care for the orphans, so Chintu is forced to lead his adorable comrades into the streets to search for Sapna. They find her, but since Sapna is hoping to gather enough money from Anup and his family to pay for Chintu’s operation, she refuses to break cover and pretends she doesn’t know them.
Anup, of course, follows the orphans, and learns the truth. He uses his pull to have Chandru released from jail, and then makes for arrangements for Chintu’s treatment. He also takes a second look at Sapna, and after a long conversation the two are engaged for real.
Prem, meanwhile, catches sight of Sapna, and recognizes her from her younger days as a prostitute named Champabai. He tries to blackmail her, but she outfoxes him. He reveals the truth to Anup’s family, but she has already vanished, leaving behind a letter explaining the truth. Confronted with this evidence, Anup decides that it doesn’t matter - he knows that Sapna is a good person, and her past is less important than her actions and the person she’s chosen to become. Nobody else seems to agree, and his housekeeper and former nanny is so shocked by his defense of a fallen woman that she reveals a long kept secret of her own. Anup leaves the house to find Sapna.
And then . . . well, what do you expect? There’s some more melodrama, and a spectacularly silly fight scene, and the family patriarch learns a valuable lesson. Nothing that unusual.
What is unusual about Dream Girl is the relationship between Sapna and Anup. His early infatuation her portrait is portrayed as just an infatuation, and it’s clear that he falls in love with her not because she’s beautiful, not because she’s a traditional Indian girl he can bring home to Mother, but because she’s a good person. (And vice versa, really; Anup is handsome and rich, but helping the orphans is what impresses Sapna.) It’s not the sort of relationship you see every day at the movies.
As the film opens, millionaire playboy Anup (Dharmendra) is living the life of a millionaire playboy. It is his birthday, and his party is attended by a score of attractive young women all eagerly throwing themselves at his feet. Anup enjoys the attention, but he’s saving himself for his “dream girl”; not long ago, he bought a portrait of an unknown but beautiful woman from a roadside vendor, and was instantly infatuated.
The very next day, Anup bumps into his dream girl, Sapna (Hema Malini), in the flesh. She’s smart, sassy, and sophisticated, claims to be a princess, and after some initial flirting, she breaks into his car and steals his money before vanishing. Coincidentally, the theft delays Anup long enough to delay a shady and potentially disastrous business deal set up by his weaselly cousin Prem (Prem Chopra). Good news for Anup, very bad news for Prem.
Sapna has a secret. (She has many secrets, but let’s deal with one at a time, shall we?) She is a con artist and petty thief, but she only steals to support “Happy Home,” the orphanage she runs with her equally felonious but goodhearted brother Chandru (Asrani). Sapna and Chandru would love to give up their criminal ways and get real jobs, but if they did they couldn’t make enough money to support their orphans, and there’s no way they could afford a trip to America and expensive medical treatment for Chintu (Master Chintu), the crippled but artistically gifted Adorable Orphan In Chief.
While raising money for Chintu’s operation, Sapna (in various wacky disguises) keeps crossing paths with Anup. Eventually one of her scams backfires, and she and Chandru are caught red handed by a significantly less infatuated Anup, and he agrees to let them go if Sapna will pretend to be his fiance and help convince his overprotective grandfather (Ashok Kumar) not to arrange a marriage for him. (This is a terrible plan, because there’s no endgame. No fake fiance can last forever, but Anup hasn’t thought about what happens next.)
Anup’s grandfather thrilled by the “princess”, and when he learns that her alleged parents are allegedly out of town, he insists that she move in right away. Before long, he gives her the keys to the safe; she’s very tempted to take the money and run (in order to pay for Chintu’s operation, and perhaps a trip to Disneyland) but the old man has grown to depend on her, so she stays.
The timing couldn’t be worse. Chandru has just been arrested for theft. (He’s innocent, surprisingly.) No one is left to care for the orphans, so Chintu is forced to lead his adorable comrades into the streets to search for Sapna. They find her, but since Sapna is hoping to gather enough money from Anup and his family to pay for Chintu’s operation, she refuses to break cover and pretends she doesn’t know them.
Anup, of course, follows the orphans, and learns the truth. He uses his pull to have Chandru released from jail, and then makes for arrangements for Chintu’s treatment. He also takes a second look at Sapna, and after a long conversation the two are engaged for real.
Prem, meanwhile, catches sight of Sapna, and recognizes her from her younger days as a prostitute named Champabai. He tries to blackmail her, but she outfoxes him. He reveals the truth to Anup’s family, but she has already vanished, leaving behind a letter explaining the truth. Confronted with this evidence, Anup decides that it doesn’t matter - he knows that Sapna is a good person, and her past is less important than her actions and the person she’s chosen to become. Nobody else seems to agree, and his housekeeper and former nanny is so shocked by his defense of a fallen woman that she reveals a long kept secret of her own. Anup leaves the house to find Sapna.
And then . . . well, what do you expect? There’s some more melodrama, and a spectacularly silly fight scene, and the family patriarch learns a valuable lesson. Nothing that unusual.
What is unusual about Dream Girl is the relationship between Sapna and Anup. His early infatuation her portrait is portrayed as just an infatuation, and it’s clear that he falls in love with her not because she’s beautiful, not because she’s a traditional Indian girl he can bring home to Mother, but because she’s a good person. (And vice versa, really; Anup is handsome and rich, but helping the orphans is what impresses Sapna.) It’s not the sort of relationship you see every day at the movies.
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