Wannabe writer Daman Roy, in the wake of a car accident followed by PTSD, suffers from nightmares that make him relive the crash—and in his dreams he sees a fellow passenger he has no recollection of: a pale-faced, dark-haired, beautiful and mysterious woman who sometimes dies in the crash, and sometimes doesn't—but is always the one responsible for the crash, since she is the driver.
Daman is told by family and friends that the driver of the car, in Goa (where he had gone on holiday) was a woman named Shreyasi. She was relatively unhurt, and has since left and gone away, leaving behind no memories at all in Daman’s devastated mind. He, however, uses his dreams of her to build up a fictitious Shreyasi, whom he makes the female lead of a series of love stories (with him, Daman, as her love interest) which he posts online. This feisty, carefree and bold Shreyasi becomes so popular that Daman gets an offer from a publisher to convert his stories into a book—which, when edited, ends up turning Shreyasi into a milquetoast, a sweet and dull female.
And suddenly, out of the blue, a woman turns up, vicious and mad at Daman for having turned her into such a travesty. This is Shreyasi, a Shreyasi who is married but still madly in love with Daman. A woman who has not forgotten him, is not forgiving about how he has allowed her book character to be changed, and does not care that Daman now has a girlfriend whom he loves. She wants him back, she wants their love story back, the way it was.
The core premise of The Girl of My Dreams is not bad. There is a fair bit of mystery to it, and some of the twists and turns and revelations as the story progresses are enough to keep one turning the pages. As a psychological thriller of sorts, this is intriguing. Where it suffers is in two main aspects.
Firstly, the language, which has errors (mostly of idiom usage—not so much poor grammar). Secondly, the characters, whom I just could not bring myself to like. Shreyasi was not meant to be a sympathetic character, but I didn't even find the ‘hero’, Daman, bearable. This is a man who lacks maturity, common sense, and just sheer decency. A man who lets his editor bulldoze him into changing a character beyond recognition—and then comes down on the editor, abusing her for all he’s worth. A man who doesn't have the sense to not spend most of his royalties on an expensive car (when he doesn't have a job), and has no qualms about tearing into a fellow writer in public just because the editor they share favours the other writer over Daman.
And, this, for me, took the cake: Daman peeks surreptitiously through a washroom door and makes a video of a girl peeing. They fall in love (yes, this says nothing, either, for Daman’s girlfriend, Avni. Would I fall for a man who did that? Never). Repulsive.