Dostana - a very gay movie in both senses of the word ;)
{FILM DIARY}
Dostana (India, 2008)
Seen: Thursday, 26th March 2009 (cinema, special screening)
Director: Tarun Mansukhani
Cast: John Abraham, Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Bobby Deol, Kiron Kher, Shilpa Shetty (cameo), Boman Irani
Production House: Dharma Productions
Plot: (from imdb)
Kunal and Sameer, two straight guys who pretend to be a gay couple to secure an posh Miami apartment, but both of them fall for their gorgeous room-mate Neha, hilarity ensures as they strive to convince one and all they are gay! While secretly trying to win Neha’s heart.
Scene from the Film
The trailer is in my film spotting post. Below is the Venice scene *grin*
Impressions In Short
I haven’t laughed so hard in ages *grin*
More About the Film
The film is hilarious. My mum is actually wondering how the hell they shot it cause she reckons they must have been peeing themselves with laughter the whole time ;)
It was also quite a bit gayer than I thought it would be ;) I mean the Shahrukh-Saif subplot in Kal Ho Naa Ho is really innocent by comparison. I’ve started wondering whether Indian filmmakers really need to wait any longer before making a full on mainstream gay romance. If this was so well received in India, I reckon they have a very good chance of making an “Indian Brokeback Mountain” work.
John and Abhishek had brilliant chemistry together lol I mean literally - the scenes in which they were trying to romance Priyanka just totally paled in comparison ;)
Some people on the imdb boards are offended with the way homosexuality is portrayed in the film. And yes, the film does perpetuate the “flaming queen” kind of stereotype, but on the other hand it uses loads of stereotypes generally - there’s plenty of stereotypes of straight people in the film too. It’s a comedy and comedies often stereotype. Besides, a lot of the film consists of two macho straight men trying to appear gay and not really knowing how to, so resorting to stereotypes kind of makes sense. The important thing is that I never felt the makers of the film were in any way looking down on the gay community or anything like that. So I think people are overreacting a little.
Personally, I loved the humour, even though I guess they did tread on dangerous grounds sometimes. One of my favourite (and possibly most dangerous) jokes was when they suddenly introduced the concept of gay soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was so totally random and yet so appropriate ;) And it only occurred to me later how loaded that joke was - the current laws in the USA are not gay-friendly when it comes to soldiers.
Something else I really loved was how they were parodying other Bollywood romances. I mean they totally “destroyed” Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, which is even more hilarious considering Karan Johar (the director of K3G) produced Dostana.
Then there’s the fact that this film is total fan service ;) I know that’s a term that is only really applied to Japanese pop culture, but seriously - it describes Dostana perfectly lol I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a movie very clearly eroticize a gay relationship to make it attractive to straight women. And the kind of treatment John Abraham’s body got in this film really didn’t leave much to the imagination ;)
It did have its downsides too of course. In the second half it got a bit soppy and while they did need to change the mood for a while or it would have become a bit too much, I think what they did didn’t work too well.
Also I felt Bobby Deol totally didn’t work in that part. Clearly a lot of people on imdb agree ;)
But on the whole I feel this was an awesome entertainer :) The good news is that following its huge success, they’ve already started planning a sequel *grin* I just hope they manage to do it justice - that might not be so easy :) It’s the kind of joke that could get a bit boring if they don’t set it up really well. I’ll be very curious what they come up with :)
Recommended?
Absolutely - unless, that is, you totally don’t approve of cheap entertainment ;) Or, er something like that. Or maybe not if you really, truly detest Bollywood or something. But if you like silly comedy and pure entertainment kind of films then you really should see this *grin* I don’t think you need to be into Bollywood to appreciate it, though you might not get the jokes that parody other Bollywood films.
