I don't know if I even qualify to give a critique on Dostana - I couldn't stand it. I walked out of the near deserted theatre yesterday, 5 minutes into the interval. The reason might just be that in the last few months, I've been keeping myself from watching anything but classics from Hollywood apart from those that I watched at the GB film festival and Humsafar highs.
Dostana as a movie is simply bad. I couldn't see anything which was good enough from the movie critic point of view. Bad acting, bad direction, bad screenplay, tepid humor - all ensured that I spent the time that I was in the theatre surfing and checking e-mail. John Abraham's butt was by far the most emotive amongst his body parts and I was reminded of an episode of Will and Grace where Jack plays a butt-double for a famous Hollywood actor during a shower scene.
I actually liked the Boman Irani character - which I thought was a dig at Meryl Streep's role in the Devil Wears Prada. Despite his character being effeminate and rather homo-sexual, he had the guile of an 'actor' to pull it off well. I haven't watched 'Fashion' yet and I presume I would like it better than this.
From the community standpoint, I suppose it was a positive move from Bollywood. In the campy jokes that fly around, I average homo-agnostic or homo-neutral person would become more familiar our presence. The kind of acceptance given by the Ms. Chopra's and her aunt's characters in the movie is refreshing. I was touched personally by the scene in which the character that plays Abhishek's mother has an epiphany about her 'gay' son.
I guess the other half of the movie has maybe another instance of such an instance which could touch an average gay guy who is comfortable with his sexuality and maybe I should have bothered to go through a couple of dozen pages of the Wikipedia at the theatre to pass time until such a scene surfaces.
After reading the positive reviews about the movie from inside the community, I thought this movie could be the one movie which I could coax my Mom and family watch before I come out to them. Now that I have seen at least half of the movie, I would not even dare to let my sister watch it for purposes of homo-acclimatizing - because it simply isn't a good movie.
8 comments:
Good thing then, that despite the straight girls' raving about the movie, I didn't watch it. I had a feeling I would come out of the theater disappointed and 120 bucks lighter in my pockets.
You did good thing. I too couldn't watch it. :D
@ Firebolt: I guess it's the same situation for them like it's for straight men watching Priyanka and Aishwarya 'making out'. It's an abomination!
@ BloggingKnight: Well, thanks for nothing.
'homo- acclimatizing'...wow, i love that jargon...
the movie is two thumbs down...
It sounded pretty godawful to me, and clearly a remake of the appalling "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" (which I forebore to subject myself to), itself a remake -- and subject to litigation for shameless theft of intellectual property -- of the just as dreadful Australian movie "Strange Bedfellows." That being said two very discerning friends -- one from Bombay but now settled in Vancouver; the other in Islamabad -- thought otherwise. One said, "Yes, it was inspired by Chuck and Larry, which was indeed awful. Not that Dostana is a piece of art or especially sensitive through and through -- but seen in the context in which it's been made, and the audience that's seen it, the film marks a turning point for Bollywood. The irony, of course, is that the story is set in Miami, which provides a "safe distance" for the antics that occur -- one couldn't imagine the film being set in Bombay. Still, an important moment and worth watching for what it is."
The other said, "Do see Dostana. It is, I think, a landmark in expressing sexuality in Indian cinema. Yes, there have been many musings out of the School of Oriental and African Studies (which now carries courses entitled, quite simply, "Bollywood") about male bonding in Indian Cinema. For a less reverent view see http://www.indianexpress.com/story_print.php?storyid=16353- which may lose something in translation.
"Having John Abraham kiss Abhishek Bacchan is akin to having Brad Pitt snog Tom Cruise. Or (within our context) have Steve McQueen 'do' Paul Newman. Dostana is undeniably BAD. But the treatment of homosexuality could have a marked influence beyond the inanity of the film. Messrs Bacchan and Abraham have about five facial expressions between the two of them."
I will take their word for it; I'm with you and won't be seeing it. If for no other reason than that it would have to be in the company of deeply conservative but Hindi-Urdu speaking Muslim friends who borrow Bollywood movies.
hey most of us watch a movie for relaxation and may be time pass. and the movie wasn dat bad after all :P
i wouldn mind if i watched it with my family either!!
silly story(?) but time pass and entertainer
i agree, this was crappola, and not like sophia coppola crapolla...this is new crap --its own new kind of super crap, mad me cringe, an i like a movie with a singing asshole in it ---Pink Flamingoes)
duncan.
@ Masalai: Well, you have pretty much said what I wanted to say. :)
@ Apoo: First of all, are you the guy from Simpsons? ;)
Well, honestly - time pass is when you actually watch a movie instead of wikipedia entries of about the demography of hispanic people in the the non-american continents.
@ Duncan: You are right! I have to watch Pink Flamingoes now!
Post a Comment