Hot Bodies, No Brains – Missed Opportunity.
For debutant director Tarun Mansukhani, it is a clear case of missed opportunity!
Dostana, even before it’s release, got instant popularity because of it’s banner and the name of Karan Johar, who is synonymous to - real emotional new age hindi cinema, with movies like Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and Kuch Kuch Hota hai. Dostana can also claim to be first hindi movie which showcases the best bodies in the industry. Priyanka Chopra is looking awesome and stunning and John Abraham is looking like a Greek God – a true embodiment of Adonis, look stunning and hot. To top it, there are some real cool locations of Miami, where these people, in their short clothes, completely jell in the settings. Dostana has got a lot of visual appeal as well as cool music to go with it, which would make anyone, who has seen the promos, to go for the movie.
However that is where the good part ends. The script is very vague and the story telling immature. Tarun should know that good visual appeal and good music is good to make a nice promo for the movie; however for the entire movie to sustain you need something more …. a meaningful script and some good direction. Both are missing in Dostana. A great opportunity to make a real nice pleasant movie has been lost by Tarun. I just wonder, if Karan Johar was not involved in the making of this movie?
Dostana seemingly has a simple story line of two tricky but lovable guys eyeing the same thing. In this case, it is the pretty lass Priyanka. Similar situation has been depicted many times in hindi movies and there are two major ways of handling such story … one through humor and other through the classical emotional way. We have had great movies in the past, like the 70s classic “Dau aur dau paanch” who handled such a story in a very humorous way. And there have been umpteen movies, who have handled such a story the emotional way.
Tarun is not sure which one to use and that is the biggest problem with Dostana. Tarun juggles to handle the story using both humor and emotions and fails miserably in both. He starts in a humorous way, but there are hardly any pranks the two guys play on each other to get the girl. In fact there is just one prank which John plays on Abhishek where he gets him “woman”-handled by a bunch of Aunties. When Abhishek is back from the “assault”, it looks funny, however that is not how Abhishek actually feels. He seems to be actually hurt and sentimental and even slaps John for the same and the movie seems to take an emotional turn here … but then Abhishek suddenly seems to forget all his pain and he is shown jolly, soon again. Quite an emotional yo-yo! Taurn tries very hard to juggle to make Dostana full of fun, emotion and happy go lucky feel and somehow gets lost in between.
Dostana can also claim to effectively use vulgar expressions and dialogues and disguise it as humor. Looks like it got un-noticed by censor board and probably they believed that being a Karan Johar movie, it could not be vulgar. There is no reason the movie should not get an “A” Certificate. It is quite astonishing that Madhur Bhandarkar had to really struggle even to get an “A” certificate and Dostana managed a “U/A” certificate. Dostana will be taking our acceptable social fabric to next level, making Gay jokes popular, even with kids.
In terms of acting, Priyanka is really cool and has given an effervescent performance even better than her recent Fashion, where she seemed to be burdened by the seriousness and reality of the movie. Here she looks, cool charming and confident of her self and her body. We all know how sexy John looks in his mischievous smile. However he can not carry the entire movie with this single look of his. He needs to emote and act aswell, which we know he can, however looks like he forgot to do it. Abhishek seems to be completely lost in the movie. He is not sure if he has to act and look funny or emotional or sad or what? He definitely needs to hire an acting consultant to manage his looks and emotions, especially when the director does not know how to manage it. (case in point Goldie Bahl in Drona and now Tarun). One actually ends up having pity on Abhishek, who is such a potential as an actor and is getting wasted in movies like Dostana, Drona, Mission Istanbul, etc. Kiron Kher is repeating her Punjabi mother act, which seems to be getting overused - since we saw her in Singh is King, Om Shanti Om, Rang de Basanti, etc. It is no more funny and she actually ends up hamming. Boman Irani has done justice to his very small role. Lastly it was good to see Bobby Deol trying to act. He however is not able to hide his aging and seems quite unfit in the company of Abhishek, John and Priyanka – maybe it was intended that way !
Music of Dostana is quite catchy. Some of the tunes are quite hum-able especially Jane Kyon song. Vishal and Shekhar, who are having a good run since a couple of years, have done a pretty good job. Though some of the songs, like Ma da Ladla, are too much in your face and screechy.
On a whole, Dostana had all the right ingredients v.i.z - actors, bodies, locales, music, cinematography and budget to make a fine movie and for Taurn to make a strong debutant impact, but Alas, like many other such high potential movies, Dostana also falls flat and leaves the audience with emptiness and bitterness on how such potential was wasted. The saving grace though is that the young audience might have a good time enjoying the crass humor.
Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi
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