Saturday, November 15, 2008

Dostana

If you are sensitive towards jokes on a community of people that is considered illegal in India, skip this one. Dostana is about three guys, a girl, two paattis and a couple of caricatures thrown in having a 'gay'la time on silver screen.

Story

Karan (John Abraham) a photographer by profession and Sam (Abhishek Bachchan) bump into each other as they hunt for an apartment on rent in Miami. This moadal soon turns into a kaadal for Neha (Priyanka Chopra ) who lives with her aunt (Sushmitha Mukherjee) in an apartment where John and Abhishek move in. Karan and Sam pretend to be a gay couple since Aunty-jee does not want to rent her apartment to single men. Karan, Sam and Priyanka are best friends now and hang out together quite often. Enter Bobby Deol, Priyanka's boss who falls in love with her. Karan and Sam try their best to woo Priyanka and get her to dump Bobby Deol. Do they manage to get Priyanka dump Deol? Which one of the three wins Priyanka's love, finally? Watch the film, peoples!

Mummy Mummy

Only when the name of the producers with the famous Kuch Kuch Hota hai "aaaaa..." chorus appears on screen, do you realize it is a Karan Johar production and await those lovey-dovey 'I love my mummy' kinda nonsense ON SCREEN! Karan Johar & Chamchas, please spare us! We all know you that you love your SRK, Manish malhotra, mummy, Farah Khan, neighbour's pet, domestic help (in that order), but do you have to waste screen space writing letters? "I love you.. thank you for the hugs and kicks! I will be indebted to you ... I will return your one cup of sugar that I borrowed, tomorrow..." blah blah... all on-screen! Daaaaaaaaaaaiiiii!!

Life's a beach

The film starts with an item number by Silluppa Setty on the beaches of Miami. Siluppa aunty is desparately trying to look younger. She has a great figure (is it minus .5 size?) and all that. But looks horribly old especially opposite John even if its for an item number. John's famous jatti butt-y scene is his entry point. Poor Abhishek Bachchan and his six paunch abs! Must have felt J of John. But Abhishek overshadows John completely in the acting department.

Gay gay gay re...

The film thrives on gay jokes, homosexual references which will definitely not go down well with gays. But some scenes are slapstick-aly(is there a term like that?) hilarious! - Abhishek narrating his 'love story' with John to others, Priyanka confronting the two after her date with Bobby Deol and most scenes that over dramatize the love angle between Abhishek and John.

Kirron Kher - my most 'favourite' Punju mummy with the famous bonda mouth in Bollywood, Boman Irani and Sushmita Mukherjee are caricatures* that walk in and out of the film. I think Kirron Kher buys herself two pairs of salwar suits, light maroon lipstick, Bangles from Kalyani covering walking in and out of studios to do the same Punju mummy role that requires the same set of outfits, jewellery etc.

What works

The film is very well shot by Aynanka Bose, Priyanka looks beautiful with Mickey Contractor's magic make-up, the plot and the treatment are fresh and the gay jokes are funny! Ofcourse you do have the senti moments like the one in the basket ball court with the three. The climax with Bobby Deol challenging the two is outrageous stuff! (am giggling with a shy ismile as I type this).

Jaane Kyun, Desi girl, Shut up and Bounce are your typical party numbers and Khabar Nahin is sure to feature as one of the top 10 songs of 2008. Vishal Shekhar's music is nice especially the usage of the famous humming from 'Jahan teri yeh nazar hai' track in the background score.

Abhishek Bachchan is fantastic . Compared to him, John is a mere eye candy. Priyanka has given her best and looks fabulous!

What doesn't

Obviously, the gay references, caricatures* and Bobby 'wood' Deol. And yes- Dear Karan dahling,*mwah mwah*. Sweetie, Kuch Kuch Hota hai was made 10 years ago and is in no way a cult film. Stop making stupid references to KKHH again and again in all your other productions. In Dostana it gets worse. You have a full projection of a romantic scene from Kuch Kuch...Spare us, please!And I wonder if the censor board listens only to the dialogues and not the background score 'cozin a couple of scenes, the background track actually says "What the %^&" in so many words. Wake up Censor board!
The final verdict

Dostana is your multiplex film aimed at Sec A , A + (ha, finally I get to use these useless SEC talks in my blog too!). If you want to laugh endlessly at stupid jokes and over the top comedy, this is a definite watch.

After a stressful and tiring week, all I needed was a mindless fun film with great cinematography, stupid Kirron kher who gives me yet another reason to blog, good looking men on screen.. What more could i have asked for?

GAYSTANA- gay for it.. er.. go for it!

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PS: Kollywood Kostan # 3's answer - Saroja (and not Kallukkul Eeram ). Congratulations Ree !Kollywood Kostan # 4 is again, a recent release. Identify the film - mail me blogeswari {at} gmail {dot} com

6 Responses:

Teesu (very very Indian, very very good) said...

NICE review. Lowwe your lufff for bonda vaai and Kkkkkaran Johar.Plan to watch it tomorrow. paakalaam. Will then offer my takes although cannot hope to do such a fine job. Write reviews for newspapers or magazines, blogeswari!

Artnavy said...

coolreview- i want to go see it even more now

Artnavy said...

i WANT that kettle

where do u pick up such stuff??

umm oviya said...

i didn't like the movie. though i was totally dehydrated after 2 hours of john abraham. slurp!

Maithri said...

Loved the "dddaaaaaaaaaiii!! karan" part

ATT said...

Be glad that... Karan finally made a movie about his own orientation and preferences...