Dostana – Debate
Last week’s release Dostana has been well received by both, the masses and the critics.The movie is far from being great cinema, but yes it is hilarious at times and overall it is fun.I was in complete splits on the gabbar singh Joke and couple of more jokes.I don’t have any problems with it getting good reviews and three and four stars, but what pisses me off is that it being called as a bold movie and a movie which takes leaps ahead in depicting homosexuality, seriously , does it? How can jokes on gays and gays shown in stereotypical type in any way help to change the mindset of average Indian who treats homosexuality as a disease.
This is what Taran Adarsh – the box-office pundit writes in his review :
“Although DOSTANA is a mainstream commercial film, it dares to push the envelope in its own way. It brings homosexuality out of the closet, gives it respect and dignity and doesn’t treat gays as ‘abnormal’.
It requires courage to fund a project like DOSTANA. Karan Johar, the producer, deserves to be lauded for treading the untrodden path. It requires courage and conviction to swim against the tide in your directorial debut. Tarun Mansukhani, the debutante, deserves a few brownie points extra for not thinking straight. It requires courage for two A-list actors to go all out and risk their professional [and personal] lives. Abhishek and John deserve an ovation for not only agreeing to play these characters, but also infusing life in them, without making a mockery of the gay community.”
Someone please help me understand how and where does it pushes the envelope?? how and where does it gives respect and dignity?? Karan Johar should be lauded or Onir who sensitively handled gay relationship that too four years back and was performed brilliantly by Sanjay Suri and the very underrated Purab Kohli. From what I can see, Dostana is a brilliant idea of making a hit film and laughing all the way to the bank.Karan and guys knew that a comedy on gays would be a sure shot hit with the masses, they tested it with Kanta-ben in Kal Ho na ho and they went ahead in Dostana.I totally agree with Raja Sen when he says the following in his review :
“We in India haven’t yet matured to sensitive, normalised portrayals of homosexuality, and this film continues to paint them as freaks of nature. John and Abhishek play a couple of decidedly homophobic straight men pretending to be gay, and every other gay character in the film is a complete, flamin’ caricature. It isn’t wrong to show a stereotypically effeminate man, of course, but to make absolutely no attempt to balance this is to damage an already-fragile mindset.”
Most of the times , Comedy in our industry thrives on jokes on blind, deaf, dumb and now the recent hit jokes on Gays. Obviously it’s the creative liberty the filmmakers have to depict who ever they want in what ever way they want. It’s very debatable to say if its right or wrong. Like the dumb character played by Tushar Kapoor in Golmaal, I had a great laugh watching him but then now when I think, how will an actual dumb guy feel while watching this movie? It’s very difficult to draw a line, what should be acceptable and what should not be. I remember an episode from Seinfeld where Jerry is mistaken to be gay and all the time he keeps on saying “not that there is anything wrong with that.” Now that was funny without making fun of anyone.
Tags: Dostana, johar, karan, Karan Johar, mbn, my brither nikhil, onir, Raja Sen, Taran Adarsh
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
its just a big joke…except the gabbar one, it was a fuckall film. priyanka is looking hot!! as if lit from inside somehow. and m amazed how nobody dared to criticise john abraham…the most good looking piece of wood!! it was just butt act. ya ofcourse, he got frown lines n dimples too.
abhishek n john r not saying i am gay n he is my boyfrind..they r just making fun of the whole thing. it will convice more ppl to belive its a “funny” thing. i dont hav issue with ppl making fun of anything cz otherwise how do u crack jokes. but then dont pretend.
even kiron kher accepting them as couple was a joke. i thought chuck n larry was more funny! dostana was evrything that can be typical n silly ! for many critics, i feel they just cant/dont dare kill kjo.
very true.
It does push the envelope in some ways for sure.
1.Kirron Kher’s character is shown accepting her son, even telling her “BAHOOOO” to follow thw rituals.
2.The stereotype was only shown during the fake act in Venice that Sam puts up.(Hilarious…..)
3.There are men shown in the film, who are all manly and everything, but turn out to be gay as well(immigration guy).
Boman Irani was shown feminine just to add the humour quotient, as well as telling that some are like that too.
4.The relationship was shown really wonderfully between all the characters.
5.The Gay Kiss
Bach gaye they didn’t show it for real.
No offense meant but i felt nauseating for half an hour after that.
Mind you, me and my friends were not able to look into each other’s eyes after that.
The Film was really fun though.
Especially the venice scene and the scene when priyanka feels that the duo have a crush on bobby as well;-)
hmmm … i dont understand why anyone was looking for a message in the movie. it was supposed to be a fun movie meant to entertain, and we shud be seeing it keeping this in mind. it was never meant to be preachy and educational.
in ‘rafoo chakkar’ rishi and paintal cross-dressed for a purpose thereby introducing humor; similarly john and ab had to lie to get into the apt…tats all. they were as uncomfortable playing the gay character, as rishi and paintal were while cross-dressing. the ‘gay’ angle was done in a goofy manner, just as rishi and paintal had to do lot of goofy stuff. rishi and paintal were not sending across social message abt how difficult it is for women to survive being eve teased, wearing such short skirts, being in touch with latest fashion etc; and similarly john and ab were not out their to defend the gay community or bring out their probs/issues.
Hey I like this review, it is by far the most balanced one I have read, and so completely true. Even I did not think it was a great film, the first half especially made no sense and had many a hammed act, irrational sequencing and scenes and that ridiculous maa ka ladla song! But the film was definitely an entertainer, Abhishek’s comic timing was right on the spot.
John looked too HOT to criticize, just watching him onscreen made the film such a lovely experience( hehehehe) how I wish he could act.
True, the gay community is definitely not going to be pleased at this one, unless they have a really tolerant sense of humour.
Karan johar shud be flogged in public…for serving such shit. But the public deserves it. All they want to see some nearly naked woman shaking her assets preferably with a hunk like john abraham.
Abhishek is totally wasted in this role. this “gay joke ” think is such an thing ..like comedy ke naam pe koi saala naya idea hi nahi hai….
johar’s idea of comedy in kabhi khushi kabhi gham was also so stupidly sterotypical…
I prefer a bunty and babli and bluffmaster to this any day.
movies shudnt be just bods, designerwear and a hummable song. kuch to hona chahiye…saala inni si baat iske bheje me nahi aati. He shud stick to his tv show.
Its so ironical that the public is lapping up this shit and not Dasvidaniya. Big banner movies are so overated.
On the gay theme, apart from the mainstream commercial, i recall Amol Palekars marathi film ‘Thang’(in english: The Quest).
It portrays homosexuality quite boldly in a serious manner.
It won the best feature in english national award for 2007.
Tarans review snippet is laughable.
crazyrals,
I was not looking for any MSG in the movie.
The prob i had was People calling it as bold step.
@satya,
I remember the movie the one with mrunal kulkarni ?
Yeah the public deserves it damn it
Remember the last time Pintu was stripped to his last ounce of self-respect just because he wore ‘pink in public’? Remember the last time Chotu was suffocated with questions of his own sexuality just because he happened to express his liking for George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” in full public glare?
Remember the last time we ascribed onto every seemingly incomprehensible concept the tag of homosexuality just because we could not decipher it?
“Is Technology gay?”….. “Is Trignometry gay?”…. “Is Animal right activism gay?”….”Is Dilip Vengserkar’s English gay?”.. etc. etc.
To all those callous remarks…
To virility…
To Health….
To seeming abnormality…
To a better perception…
Here’s presenting… …DOSTANA…
@ sreehari – that comment is so gay.
Dabba…. Thank u… Not that there’s anything wrong with it… Right???
not that there’s anything wrong with that.
@anand kadam [cmnt #8]: then y u blaming the movie; blame the media, the reviewers and of course the public.
but i wud still prefer this movie to singh is king and welcome and golmaal returns etc…
See what media can do to people!! A crap film that should have died a natural death is being discussed so much. Only because it was hyped so much. Only because media bombarded us with the messages convincing that it is something different, it is something worth sitting up and taking notice. It is an attempt at this and it is a take on that. It should be viewed like this and it should be enjoyed like that. That’s modern day film marketing and PR and all of us are falling prey to it.
1) The promos reminded me a lot of Baywatch.
2) I dont like Baywatch
3) So i have not even bothered to see this.
4) And so i have nothing else to say.
Just a do take ki opinion, from ek do take ki insaan.
Well Ratnakar, I would’ve appreciated it if I had the dimaagh of a ‘do takke ka insan’ as that would’ve helped me make a wise choice to not go all the way to see the film whilst coughing my lungs out!
I’ve already spat out my ‘Dostana’ gussa on the other post here.
How I aspire to be like a ‘do takke ka insan’!
Karan Johar has officially taken over as the trash king of India. But the guy knows how to manipulate the media, he is all over NDTV and other news channels. He has done his best to corrupt the Indian society with his crappy offerings, ‘Kabhi Alvida…’ and now this shit. Wish his films get banned and wish the censor board would wake up.
Hmmm Raj, granted the fact that Karan Johar makes crap of the first order. Bur i am not sure how his movies have corrupted Indian society, and neither am i sure why his movies should be banned, just coz they are crap. KANK was crap for me, not because of its topic, but because of the extremely ham handed way he handled it. But don’t think that is reason enough to call a ban.
Ratnakar, the guy (Karan Johar) glorified infidelity in his earlier crap offering and is now encouraging homosexuality. KANK undermined the institution of marriage. He is tryng to propogate his personal views using cinema as a medium. There are number of young girls and guys out there who get influenced by movies. I think there is a strong case for banning not only the trash king’s films but even some of the Yashraj offerings (Neal and Nikki for eg.)
Raj, as far as infidelity and adultery is considered, it is an age old issue. And there are many factors why persons cheat in a marriage. I can tell this from personal experience. Yes, i hate what KJo has done in KANK, is that he has taken a sensitive topic and turned it into a Raj Meets Simran story, in real life adultery and its fallout is very painful. But still i am not sure KANK could cause the break up of marriages. Having known some personal experiences of people whose marriages have broken up, i could say one thing for sure, adultery is not the common cause of marriages breaking up.
Now if some one gets influenced KANK, to indulge and cheat in adultery, well send him/her to the nearest loony bin to get their head checked.
Again persons dont get into a gay affair by watching a movie, its something personal. Gays have been there since time of Roman empire, and i am not sure what movies they watched then.
Infidelity and homosexuality are sensitive personal issues, and there are many factors in play.
Its simple we have been given a brain to think. If you cant use that to distinguish between movies and real life, well time to go get ur head checked.
Ratnakar, yes I accept your point. My point is there are a number of young impressionable guys and girls in our country who are completely infulenced by the movies, the stars and their lifestyle. They wear what their favourite actor wears on screen, follow his/her mannerisms, talk like the star etc. These kind of kids would soon start thinking that infidelity/gay relationships are cool.
@ Raj you have a point there. Every one goes through this impressionable age phase, including u and me, where we find it cool to do whatever our hero does. Some grow out of it, some dont. And the latter need to understand they are accountable for their actions. And i don’t think its all kids, there are enough number of level headed kids, and for those who are not, well they just need to understand its survival of the fittest.
@ Raj
Hey!come on,we cant use moral policing for everything.Tell me something,technically speaking prostitution, drugs etc are illegal in the country.But arent these aspects thriving in India?Similarly infidelity or gay relationships are also a part of the world around yes- not just in Mumbai or Bangalore but also in Tirunelveli & Saharanpur ( just random names of places).So why put a lid on everything?As it is we are reeling under the weight of so much of moral policing.
The censor board would rate a movie as “A” but would still cut out almost all the nude scenes- why on earth?And if you want to say nobody ( including Karan Johar) must make movies on infedility or gays then khuda bachaye tumhe ( God save you).
Ratnakar, point taken. I am only scared for my kids – the kind of society in which they will grow up. Crappy filmakers like Karan Johar do not help.
@ Raj
Going by your POV you must oppose even movies like Sorry Bhai ( which hints towards incest ) & Dev.D where the protagonist is a druggie ( or kind of).Now these are two examples of movies keenly awaited by people on PFC atleast.
No no I am not slotting Karan Johar’s movies with the 2 above mentioned movies & neither am I a fan of Karan Johar.I agree with Karan Johar that the treatment in KANK could have been better.But it was still a bold theme within the commercial circle.
And as for Dostana- I’ve written elsewhere too that I went there to get entertained & I did get entertained.Just like I found what I wanted with the movie , there are others who also felt the same & are hence happy with it.But there are others like Steve who didnt really like it or like Ratnakar who wouldnt watch it as it doesnt appeak to them.
There’s nothing wrong in what Steve or Ratnakar feels about the movie.But in your case I think you are just taking it too seriously buddy.Chill yaar chill!!!
hmmm…nice interesting debate is going on. if we really think tat young minds are so vulnerable and impressionable then howcome they dont get influenced by ‘vivah’ or ‘hum saath saath hai’ or even ‘hum apke hain koun’???
i have always wondered y ppl come up with this logic of impressionable minds. if the minds were so vulnerable then we wud have broken caste barriers long back coz every raj wud have found his simran. every other movie is a romantic flick where boy meets gal and gets married/elopes, then howcome we see tat lots of ppl r still toeing the line and going in for arranged marriage. howcome, every other boy did not become a rebel like vijay and arjun.
while i do concede tat movies do have some impact, but y only the wrong message spreads around while the right messages are suppressed :(
Sethumadhavan,
I haven’t seen Sorry Bhai or Dev D. But I’m sure these movies would realistically portray the issue/problem without over-stylising/glamourising it. I’m not taking Karan Johar seriously but he, his decadent values, and his crappy movies are bad for the society and the country.
@ Raj, in that case up to you, how you guide your kids around. Yeah it can be a tough ask, considering how they can be influenced and all, but then i guess we are entering into a totally different arena there.
But Raj, if you are asking KJo to be banned for his misleading movies, then there is a huge list out there
India TV- For all those misleading news items it keeps giving.
Any ad that says you can get a better wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend/job/career, just by applying some brand of fairness cream. They are plain disgusting and misleading.
Most of Vijay’s movies in Tamil.
Most of Vijaykanth’s movies that leave me stone deaf.
@Raj
No one becomes gay by seeing a movie or two ,with the amount of persecution gays in India face ,why would anyone choose to be gay if it was something you had a control over…..
I can understand what you mean when you say kids minds are impressionable ,for that we need strong censorship ,where children are not allowed to see such movies and such rules should be enforced strictly.
When I was watching Dostana I saw the hall full of kids ,and the movie had such a large number of adult below the belt jokes that I felt kind of nauseated ,just imagine what would happen to the kids.
Going with Vineet, i feel the best way is to implement a rating system the way its done in West.
U-Universal
PG-Parental Guidance
PG13, R, NC-17
I feel this makes more sense, than just imposing a blanket ban.
Raj Balakrishnan, I believe ur vocalising every parents fears.
Afterall, who wants their kids to grow up being in a broken marriage, or to face the wrath of society for being gay.
U care for ur children.
It’s only natural to feel that concern.
If u feel K.Johar is a crap director, introduce ur kids to who u believe is a good influence.
We can’t watch our kids 24hours.
They will be influenced by many things in life, especially at school.
I’m sure u already know this…
….Aslong as a parent will provide that solid foundation, trust and support for a child, he/she will hopefully communicate with u any fears or influences which may bother them.
I personally don’t see how two badly made films (Kabhi Alvida, Dostana) could possibly influence anyone!
And may we see a difference between infidelity and homosexuality??
They are poles apart.
U could be straight, yet cheat on ur spouse.
Or u could be gay, and be in a faithful relationtionship.
I hope I am making sense?
banning is never an option…they more u ban the more u genreate curiosity…i was around 14 when i watched Fire and obviously not in theater….there are other means out there where you can watch banned stuff …..i think the rating system mentioned by Ratnakar seems one of the options ….
Raj,
and please no matter how crappy anyone makes a film…he has every right to make it and on any subject..its upto you if you want to watch it or give it a miss …and no one becomes gay by watching a gay film…you talk like Raj Thakeray …
Arre, padhaariye, padhaariye, dekho aap ne kya shuru kar diya Anand saab!
Can’t believe we’re getting so worked up about a film in which two guys fall in love with the same girl!
Isn’t that the same old, same old???!
Two STRAIGHT guys, may I add!
Kya zamaana aageya hain, do ladke, ek ladki se pyar nahin karsakte! Lol…
Oh well….
Vineet, Steve, agree with most of the points you guys make. Steve, personally speaking,I do not approve of homosexuality. Therefore I would consider movies which glamourise homosexuality as bad as movies that glorify infidelity. And guys, believe me, I am from Chennai – I know the impact that movies have on youngsters!
Ratnakar, Vijaykanth movies however bad atleast glorify values like nationalism, patriotism, respect for parents, fighting for justice etc.
dekhiye Steveji mujhe kuch problme nahi hai ….i dont even have that much problem with the movie …i got pissed when the makers of the film and some critcs and media ppl starting calling this as a bold step in Indian cinema …
Gosh!!! Its just a movie ppl! Why analyze the heck out of it!? Watch it, enjoy it, forget it! Or watch it, hate it, forget it! Its really that simple. Personally I liked the first half, was damn entertaining and the second half bored me with its predictability. But good TP.
Raj Balakrishnan, I see where ur coming from.
U don’t have to accept homosexuality, affairs etc…
I too, used to have very ‘black and white’ images of the world.
This is good. That is bad.
But whenever I would feel strongly against something, i’d be put in a predicament in which I had to accept that there are not only just black and white’s….
There are grey’s too.
I’m glad that I was challenged when I was.
I believe it’s helped me grow and become more tolerant, patient and understanding.
Oh definitely agree with u Anand!
Kya ‘bold’?
Nonsense!
And Ritik??
Yes!
Forgotten! Erased!
Done! :-)
@ Anand
Shayad aapne yeh kabhi socha nahin ki aap ke baaton se kya kya shuru hoga, lekin yeh zaroor sach hai jo bhi shuru hua usse Karan & Tarun to bade khush honge
Well I guess all of us have seriously got into a trap & we seem to be going on & on about this movie- looks like a classic case of” kya kare, control nahin hota “:)
Sethumadhavan ,
kya kare, control nahin hota
Can I just add here, fellow PFC’ers, that when I mentioned how there are grey’s in life, that by no means indicates it’s inadequate to the white’s, black’s etc!
Political correctness and all!
I was refering to the area’s I found grey, by my own standards.
Phew!
But Sethu, this is so irritating!
These profound, deep conversations have nothing to do with those silly people behind the film na?
Khush to honge, as yes, we do fall into that trap.
Myself included!
That too after my ’saughand’ of keeping ‘moo band’!!
The same happened when ‘Alvida’ came, and people would say, ”Oh, Karan’s shed light on this hush hush subject”
Grrr!
They obviously hadn’t seen ‘Silsila’, ‘Arth’ or even ‘Astitva’!
Kya bakwaas!
And guys, correct me if i’m wrong, but why wasn’t there this rage last month when we had ‘Fashion’ which actually had gay characters in??!
Like 50 of ‘em?!
Kahan thi woh aag??
Soya sher tab kyun nahin jaaga?!
Kya hum itne mazroof hain?!
Humne yudh pehle kyun nahin shuru ki?
Sharm se doob maro, sab ke sab!
Haha haha haha!
well said Steve…i still remeber when KANK was released and initially it got few bad reviews , Apne Adarshji wrote something like that its about time when we shld accept these bold films and enough of those typical romances …..
Steve mere bhai , bina kisi ke lalkar, sher ko kyun khamakha jagane ka?
And if you are asking me whats the connect of this discussion with all the people behind the movie- simple logic mere bhai, Anand saab kuch shuru karenge, main ,aap & aur bhi log kuch kahenge, Raj bhai saab kuch aur kahenge & yeh vaad vivaad chalta rahega.Kya paata kitne aise log honge jinhone PFC par yeh vaad vivaad ya kahin aur chal rahe vaad vivaad ko dekh kar picture dekha ho?
just wanted to post this rather amusing letter to Baradwaj Rangan, which he has published in the comments to his review:
http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/2008/11/15/review-dostana-dasvidaniya/#comments
“Dear Baradwaj,
Your review in the Sunday Express today, thankfully, has reinforced my belief that I am, indeed, a normal heterosexual person! I must hasten to explain.
Hindi movies & I are poles apart. I usually get to watch a few that have received critical acclaim, much after the hysteria has died down. On Friday (14th Nov) night, I was to drop the little lady at Satyam Cinemas and was unwittingly roped in, as there was an extra ticket. Entering the premises was a nightmare, the traffic snarls and mass anxiety, which then makes a mockery of the little social graces that human kind seems to offer now, to get in on time to see the movie was something I have not seen at Chennai (at least amongst, the supposedly educated elite).
I was fortunate enough to miss the opening sequences of the movie. For the next hour or so, until the intermission, I was treated to such puerile claptrap that offended my sensibilities. Portraying gays in the manner that Abishek was made to, at least in the “ Venice ” scene, left me wondering, if this is all, that we as a society, can offer, to bring in these marginalized lot, into the mainstream. Not only are our laws on homosexuality draconian, if Hindi Cinema which is acknowledged as the medium of mass public opinion, has this ludicrous offering, we Indians have eons to go before, they we look beyond our parochial noses!
The humor, at best, can be termed as cretinous! And the way the audience was lapping it up, honestly made me believe that there was something really wrong with me. The group of youngsters sitting in the row behind me was uncontrollable in their response to every innuendo. For the life of me, I could not see the funny side of the movie.
It did not take much for me to get up at the intermission and go home for a well deserved night’s rest. I missed nothing, especially after reading your critique of the later half of the movie, which to me appears to have been a mish mash of Hindi movie melodrama and a plot that had lost its way!
Do publish this as a response or a view, if your Editor deems it worthwhile.”
Nahiiiiiiin!
Yaani ke hum bhi utne hi gunehgaar hain, jitne ki Karan bhai, OOPS, Karan ‘dushman’?? :-)
Oh bloody great!
Well, seeming as we’re boosting the ticket sales, who’s gonna ask Karan for our ‘hissa’?!
Surely we deserve that na?
Ab yeh hissa ka kissa jaari rahega!
(God, this is crazy!)
:-)
Karan bhai, agar aap yeh padh rahe ho ( ya kise se padhva rahe ho) to suno- hame hamara hissa de do!!!
Warna maa-kasam, hum dostana ko dikhane wale har theatre par hungama macha denge!!!
Steve-lekin aisa karne se phir yeh international news banega na?Phir hamari maange bhi badenge!!!
( Aur yeh silsila jaari rahega!)
Arre! Kya super dimaagh hain re tera, Sethu raja!
Chal, tu udar halla macha de, aur main yahan angrezon mein protest shuru kar ta hoon!
Waise bhi Karan zyaada waqt toh idhar hi bitaata hain!
Mujhe mera hissa pehle milega!
Par ghabraana matt.
Main Western Union se tera hissa bhijwaadoon ga!
Steve mere dost badi kripa hogi, agar aap Western Union ke zariye mujhe mera hissa bhijwaden to
Actually mujhe ek picture ka bhi idea aaya hai but dont wanna put it here.Warna phir se yeh kahani lambi chaudi dastaan ban jaayegi!!!
What? It’s possible for this post to become even more lambi chaudi?!
Baap re!
Phir tu rakh apna idea apne paas!
Bahut huwa yeh Dostaane ka silsila.
Well, we’re not exactly talking about that are we?! ;-)
whats common in dostana and KANK
Big lack of storyline.
KANK – showing infedelity was the GOAL kaise…ram jaane…
so badly done….throw in designer wear,,,good music disco songs VOILA …movie tayyaaar
Dostana – movie banaani hai…thoda gay humour use karenge. girl in skimpy clothes..item number….hire shilpa shetty(million $ figure only)…some cool music…. movie tayaar….history repeats itself.
Thanks Anand, you have given me more reasons to hate people like Taran Adarsh. And anyway, talking about Karan Johar’s stories and concepts is an utter waste of time and effort.
I think that our anger is misplaced and directed at the wrong person ,everyone knows that Karan Johar is obviously out here to make money and he knows the formula so he repeats it time and again and strikes gold at the box – office ,so why blame him ?
Same with SRK ,he obviously knows which movies sell and which don’t which is why he refused AK’s script ,are we the fools who don’t understand such a simple thing and direct our rant at these guys for the same reason again and again.
This debate is not going anywhere. It stopped being about Dostana lonag back. IT’s KJo and co. By the way he is the advisor of some NDTV channel (Good Times or Showbiz). He does a show on star TV. He has high profile contacts all across the media and so has Shahrukh Khan. That’s how their films get hyped and that’s how they keep getting positive press all the time. Full fledged PR agencies working exclusively towards this is an addition to this. Just FYI.
@above
agreed ,this discussion has turned into KJo bashing ,don’t subscribe to your second point ,hype alone cannot make a movie hit ,if you want examples then take last few moview of Yash Raj.
These guys know the pulse of audiences and are good at improvising and adapting.
@60,
Hype helps till movie release after that its review time. In that case contacts dont really matter even if you want to believe otherwise.
If that would have been the case, KANK would have been lapped up by media big time or even Paheli would have been appreciated universally. Tashan got a huge drubbing in media so did Thoda P Thoda M or R Romeo were not really appreciated a lot.
No harm or nothing wrong if you can get your movie hyped positively. Don’t friends of PFC try to hype the move which are made by people who are associated with PFC.
Note: I am using hype in the sense of publicity and awareness about the movie. No way I infer that substance don’t matter.
@62
Absolutely right! Review time is the time to redress the balance and put people in their places after the hype.
Unfortunately most reviews by the Indian press, in my view, are biased and random. They reflect personal preferences as with regard to actors, directors and producers.
I am amazed by the double standards and hypocrisy. Although the public are the final judges some movies have been crushed by malicious reviews. Even level-headed people can be brain-washed by them – positively or negatively. I wont give examples – there is no need.
As regards our movies (bollywood) apart from a few notable exceptions they are pretty much of the same standard – self-regard and cinematic – snobbery prevents most from accepting this truth.
@anand 9
Yes its the one with Mrinal Kulkarni.
Dostana is just about the worst movie I have seen in recent times. Generally I stay miles away from such kitsch but this time I was fooled by Rajeev Masand. Most of the scenes, dialogues just didnt make any sense. Apparently, there’s no such thing as story flow. If the director thinks something is funny, just insert it, doesnt matter if it does not make any logical sense.
The basic premise of pretending to be gay, that auction scene, the scene towards the end in a bar where the two have to kiss, faster residency permit for gay couples, Abhishek suddenly appearing at the stage of a male strip club, I can go on.
Jokes were the worst I have seen in some time – staring at Priyanka’s ass and saying “bum” instead of “dum” is funny/ When will these guys grow up and realize that just having caricatures like the priyanka’s aunt character doesnt get the laughs.
Only two genuine laughs in the whole movie – the venice story and Kiron Kher accepting John. Thats it! The rest is trash! Cant understand so many good reviews.
Just finished watching Hera Pheri(old)–what chemistry man! Always loved “dostana” of 70s…Amitabh-Vinod Khanna, Amitabh-Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh-Dharmendra…man-to-man macho dosti among them. AAh!ab na woh zamana raha na woh dosti rahi…ab to same-sex ke doston ko shaque ki nigah se dekhne lagenge log!
“Dostana is just about the worst movie I have seen in recent times.” Obviously you have not seen any Akshay or Salman movies in the last two years. LOL
Completely agree with the review. its just an attempt to cash on where kal ho na ho left. In the moview one abhisek bacchan attempts to act, and guess so he went away will all the emotional dialogues. Priyanka does good in looking good. Regarding this whole bold movie crap, taran adarsh is seriously retarded. Initially i use to think he just write reviews to please directors or producers but here he crossed the line by not doing justice to his job of being a critic. Somebody correctly said ” Dostana has pushed back gay movement in India by 10 years”
As I said Lee, I stay away from this “genre”. But decided to give this a go based on all these positive reviews especially from Rajeev Masand. Later I saw some Dostana promo programs in CNN IBN. I guess that explains it.