What happened
They say your first film will be an unforgettable experience also because of the tremendous vulnerability debutant filmmakers face on their films’ release and sheer lack of means they have to deal with all that may get unleashed. Dil Dosti Etc sauntered out on 28 September, and I felt my tiny apartment in Versova becoming an island, exposed to come what may!
As I was beginning my ‘first’ Friday, I got a call from the production office, saying MSN has praised the film to the skies, saying, Dil Dosti Etc is a beautiful comment on the pangs of growing up… The small commune I live around with was online too, and my co-writer, Pawan Sony called asking, ‘did you sneak in and write this review yourself? I can’t think of a better one!’ Ten minutes later came a text message from Alankrita, ‘Rediff pans the film’. I forwarded the message onto Pawan who read the review for me. Rediff’s Rucha Naresh called the film a ‘brainless college flick, (where) the central character has some obscure philosophy on life and love and acting ability of a sleeping pill’. ‘Not to worry mate’ I said, ‘just because the best tailoring she’d ever seen is above her fucking appendix doesn’t mean a thing.’ A callous reaction to my first bitter pill, before I would start to know how to take them!
Regardless, the wheels were churning – the film was out there; was it finding itself an audience? Adlabs Delhi’s distributor, Ashis Pandey called to ‘share a surprise’. At PVR Spice, Noida, 240 people had appeared for the noon show! (Ashis was so surprised that he had traveled to the theatre and was calling from there). Through the day, more bad reviews and then a few good ones. And thus started the rollercoaster ride of my first Friday.
Saturday. Hindustan Times had titled its review, Bidi Jalaiyle (given the phrase is Gulzar’s, for a moment I thought Khalid Esq. is going to be kind to me; no ways) – he wrote that the film is littered with so much crude dialogue that your ears burn till you want to call a fire brigade (picture this! – two massive FB nozzles next to his head squirting every time Vaishali says something). And then he wrapped up his tiny one saying, the protagonist, Imaad Shah looks like a pomfret out of water… Now, that did hurt! Just the way Subhash Jha’s getting-personal-comment did – Dil Dosti has this dude (Imaad Shah) in an Afro hairdo, and a dehati (Shreyas Talpade) with oily hair. Afro has a roving eye. Oily wants to be a student leader… Ouch! Or Rajiv Masand who finds Imaad ‘too raw to tackle a part that’s so layered. He approaches his scenes with such a casual air that you’re convinced his heart wasn’t in it’. It is rarely helpful to explain a film; nonetheless a word here – it will be difficult to get Dil Dosti Etc if you can’t keep pace with its narrator Apurv, and you would be speaking out of your arse if you are not able to see Imaad Shah’s performance as one of the most nuanced performances that has come out recently.
However, I was fortified by the time I’d read these. Being a sucker for reviews, it was thus simply great that Saturday’d started fantastic. As I picked up newspapers at my door (I get the usual ToI/Mumbai Mirror), I found Mayank Shekhar had taken guard over the film. ‘Do the DU’, he wrote, ‘Tiwari’s [sic] medium-budget milieu is to the present-gen, what Sai Paranjpye’s middle-of-the-road Chashme Buddoor was to the ’80s. Well worth going back.’ Nikhat Kazmi too was kind in her review if not in ratings (Satre could be the reason why debutant director Manish Tewary (sic) chose to focus on the existential moorings of his young hero, Apurv). And there were others – Joginder Tuteja (Dil Dosti Etc could well be the middle-class Delhi setting for an up market Dil Chahta Hai setting in Mumbai/Sydney), Ranjan Das (DDE is like a rich mosaic that traces the journey of different characters in bits and pieces that gradually fall into place and coalesce seamlessly), and Ajay Brahmatmaj (pointing out in his review in Dainik Jagran how DDE is a political film and that it is necessary to understand the political subtext to better appreciate the narrative). Indeed, a week later, I saw that a number of Hindi reviews had several positive things to say about the film.
And then as they say, what matters is the ring at the cash registers. The collections had gotten only better: Delhi, Pune and Indore theatres were consistently reporting sold out on Saturday, and by Sunday there were house full reports from other centers too (Jaipur, Bangalore and several theatres in Bombay). We saw the film at Gemini buying tickets in black. An exciting experience just to see a hall full of audience getting the film (both subtle ones like hearing the audience chuckle at Apurv saying of his bidi, that it ‘comes very expensive’ and, frankly, even when people went mad at some of the jokes I have been less thrilled about, the Kintu-Parantu one, for example). DDE’s highest collection was on Tuesday, 2nd October, a holiday, showing the word of mouth was working well for the film. The film continued with same number of prints and shows in its second week, and recovered its costs before the week was over. Several online publications recognized its success and called it a hit (the trade magazines called the film an average or an above average grosser).
‘Are we making history?’, Pawan asked. ‘An offbeat film that was loved by the masses and hated by (some) critics. Didn’t it use to be the other way round? The audience could see what these critics were blind to.’ I was having another thought, why is it that this success was not being registered by the mainstream media? Why a film that went out on a small publicity vehicle and was now doing well in its second week getting so little attention in the print media? Is it a one-off success they want to ignore, or do they need the ‘right’ people to sound them off? (Imagine the overdrive of the publicity machine if Shahrukh Khan were to take up the challenge of sleeping with three girls in a day!) But all of this was sitting pretty well – DDE had found its bearing, its share of criticism and an audience.
Time to take a break! Went to my hometown in Bihar, where of course a sizeable number of mostly young guys who turned up to meet me had gotten Sanjay Mishra half of the film better (and Sonu’s); a student has written to the chief minister to give Shreyas Talpade and Dinesh Kumar the ‘Best Bihari Achievers’ awards; whatever that means!
Now I’m back to the grind. To quote what I said at Taran Adarsh show who had generously acknowledged Dil Dosti’s success and invited me to his show B-Biz: I’m here to tell certain stories in a manner that suits them. I hope that Dil Dosti Etc helps me to secure that space and these stories keep finding their audience and, indeed, the benign blessings of our critics.
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
Manish
Does one HAVE to read the reviews? Scary…….
The Bihari/DU gang here in DC is very very proud of you [what's with all of you !!]
Vanadana Das who was part of your/that circle told me a few moons ago:
“One of our friends from DU has made a film recently, please pata kar na…his name is Manish Tiwary….its called Dil something I think….”
Will tell them you are here…………
Congrats!!
K
Well, I liked Dil Dosti etc as it was realistic..just the casting of naseer’s son looked weird..He just didn’t look like the character who would sway a girl off her feet…plus it was set up in delhi..he didn’t look dilli wala et all.
Manish bhai,
Dum Laga was playing in my car for a few days and just last sunday was in New Haven driving around Yale to its beat… so, ur music played there too!!!
Was reading the reviews today of Dil Dosti and caught a few snips on Youtube. The movie did not release in CT but hopefully will get my hands on the DVD soon.
Bhai, Satre or no satre… what you did is brave. You made a movie and we are glad that it recovered its cost so a part of the job’s done… cheers to it!
Come back to make more, you can only go up from here… Actually I loved what i saw of Imaad in the few scenes I saw. That’s how the younger rich gen is… and I loved the concept of loving a girl by day and still needing someone older in the night… always had this conflict about one women and the works…
Keep em coming bhai… and keep writing more… have loads to learn from you!
Cheers!
Hi Manish ,
I am from Indore and sorry I went ahead and watched Johnny Gaddar and not DDE but when I went to PVR that day I was really surprised to see the Housefull Sign in front of your movie name and me and my friend thought that college students have came in to watch probably another Mp3 sort of movie .
But later I watched the movie , sorry again bcoz I saw it on a DVD , and I thought the movie was Good and different than other youth flicks but there was one thing that I could not relate myself to the movie as much as a student from UP side would have related to it . By the way one reason for the housefull would be this also bcoz there are many UP and Bihari students here .
The best thing I liked about the movie was that you were very clear about what you were making and didn’t alter it for just commercial purpose and thats why it worked . By the way the song ” Dum Laga ” was also a good reason for its success .
Anyways keep making movies following your heart and not business and I assure you I would watch your next in a Cinema .
Bye .
Manishji,
Loved DDE… Really glad that it recovered its cost… and finally that is what matters i guess; your movie has found an audience.
And I loved Imaad
i think the best independent film to have come out in the last many decades and being succesfful has to be nagesh kukunoor’s hyderabad blues..no film can match its reach, simple yet effective storytelling and mass appeal..somehow dil dosti though was nice didnt have the lingering taste that a hyderabad blues has till date..congrats anyways….
Sir,
I liked ur film very much….
For a beginner ,it was a great start …
Dont pay much heed to the reviews….
These are the people who gave Swades a rating of 2 stars (**) and Dhoom (***1/2) …
Eagerly waiting to hear about ur new project …
Best of Luck …
hi manish
i jst simply loved your flick, first 20 min n i was into tears, jst bought its dvd it was wonderful to revisit my hostel days.
P.S. hope to make a movie like dat one day
all d best to you
First of all, congrats on your movie. Second, you should have been more careful about casting. This makes all the difference whether a movie becomes a classic or one more wannabe.
Shreyas “Talpade” as a bihari? yaar…His “chapta” mouth gets only smiles from people and when he acts like a “bhai”, everyone laughed! In fact people don’t even connect with his character.
And Imaad Shah…Seriously dude, who even suggested his name? Just cos people “behave” arty does not mean they know acting…Just cos people associate themselves with prithvi theatres or great dads does not mean they are capable…
You needed intensity in this movie which both the actors could not bring it out…In fact their body language is not capable of such stuff….Great Premise, Wrong Casting, Opportunity Lost!
I know producers say…Yaar, if we take new people kaun dekhne aayega…Well, No one buys a ticket cos Shreyas is in it or Nasiruddin Shah’s son is acting in it…So why not take new guys who are atleast capable and could have done justice to the role….
Remember Tezaab? The way Munna, Chunkey Pandey’s characters captured the hearts of the people. Everyone thought these guys really existed and actually fell in love with those characters. There should be a connection…That makes all the difference…
Sahi movie thi yaar. Being a bihari in delhi you see things differently and lotta people can’t understand why such a fuss made about sex. However lot of us think the movie could have been made better, especially if it had a talpade’s narrative or shown more of Bihari/Jat rivalry & politics the charater saying “hum paiso ki rajniti nahi karte” is not convincing. If my career as a film maker takes off (aameann), trust me you will see a remake (hope u won’t sue me)
All my friends (Biharis and UPwallas) loved the film
Saw Dil Dosti.. couple of weeks back. Decent attempt. congratulations.
finally a movie that shows a college campus and hostels the way they actually are.
Just a few complaints. I thought the end (Shreyas Talpade dying in the accident) was abrupt, could have been better. Shreyas Talpade didn’t look like a student leader and he has a marathi accent but inspite of that, I think, he did pretty well. Imaad shah was a let down.
Certainly looking forward to your next venture. cheers!
PS: I had been listening to ‘Dum laga’ before I watched the movie but after watching I have been listening only to ‘More baanke chhaliya..’. what a song!
Also the scene where this song plays in the background with Smriti Mishra looking at Imaad leaving early in the morning was beautiful.
Haasil dekhe ho kya…tiwary bhaiya.ekdam allahabad university thi..aapki DU country ka koi bhi college ho sakta tha. par delhi bilkool nahin laga.. ek to woh joker Imaad shah bahut zyada irritating tha..saale us jaise urdu baaz bahut pitate hai college mein…aur shreyas talpade.. hey bhagwan woh ek hi scene mein teen chaar accents ke saath dialogue bol raha tha.. comedy tha bilkul..ek scene mein fake bihari accent aur agle mein psued accent.. thori training waining dilwa dete apne actors ko..
too much philosphical mumbo jumbo..
Hey manish:)
I saw the film in its second week at fame malad on thursday evening with an occupancy of around 20 percent.It was a good attempt and a novel idea but my problem with the film was that after a point the story really did not progress further.
Actually one should not care about the reviews b’cos u never know with what fucked up frame of mind the so called ‘film critique’ is watching a film.But i would not differ in my opinion with a few critics who didnt like the picture.
All the best for your next outing…
i totally agree wth praneet’s post
movie was a novel attempt…smthing new…though it didnt evoke strong emotions in me at all like haasil did….but good to see that such attempts are made…apart from the casting mishap..i believed there was too much on the script,dialogues which could not be translated on film….sometimes i felt the premise was good but direction could n’t match that…
still wanna congratulate u for this im”perfect” novel attempt..requires courage n conviction to come up wid something close to heart when parodies like oso rule the roost…
…we all saw that u r a nice story teller…jus come up wid smthing better”casted n directed” next time..
..n hey congrats on ur film’s successs..
I disliked the film. and wanted to mention the reasons but seeing what the review writers said and how (quite understandably) you felt, it seems incorrect to do so.
so i shall only say that someone in the audience didn’t like the film (er…at all!)…
it’s helpful to recieve the brickbats too, isn’t it?
Guess what, I changed my mind.
1. It was a boring film. now that is a subjective thing i know. the story is not spectacular…so you hope acting would be…shreyas as a sexist,corrupt bihari? ummm…seems he couldn’t make up mind between being sweet and vulnerable and a bastard wannabe politician. which one did you want? Emaad/Imaad might be a good actor, sure. but he had NO clue what he was in the film. so in the end it seemed like the film was about all these ‘ameer baap ke bete sleeping around and a poor bihari with massive dreams got his heart broken’. That i hope wasn’t the premise of this film.
2. Nothing wrong with wanting to sleep with 3 women, if you feel like it. sure, go ahead. and if that is what wakes him up from his bored stupor, why not (it didn’t, he still looked spaced out) but seducing a 16-17 year old girl? that is irresponsible!!! Class 12 students are 17 and i don’t remember what class your Kintu was in. umnmm…was it an attempt to show the PATAN of the SAMAAJ? whatever!
3. so shreyas’s character is a misogynistic, sexist, insecure, small brained (btw i know a lot of liberal minded biharis, so that stereotype was like so convinient) boyfriend who had issues with her girlfriend wearing a bikini. it’s always so refreshing to see a girl who for some inexlicable reason fallen for this dude, okay fine, we all were 19 and hormones were raging, so she is in love. and she is SO clueless about his male chauvinism. okay, that ALSO happens. but what kind of a masochist tells her friend (Emaad) the next day that she STILL loves him. hello? why? she wanted a career in domestic abuse, later on? that fellow said nasty things and threatened you with a pistol and you still like him? that was DOWNRIGHT offensive.
4. so in the name of realism everything goes…even dialogues like ‘ woh hamein holes dengi hum unhe kapda’( i am paraphrasing but you know which dialogue)…and shreyas, our HERO smiled at that…he deserved to get shot THERE, right at THAT moment. so the logic is perhaps but all DU boys talk like that.
Thank god, despite spending my ENTIRE life in a DU college and then studying there for 5 years i didn’t come across such creeps. and then why we wonder why there is so much of sexual harassment in delhi…because of these DU students!!!
5. and pray how did the screenplay that follow justify, trying desperately to sound like Manto but sounding like Mithun chakravarty instead, dialogue of Apurv ” kothe aur college mein koui farq nahin hota’ .
just because your apurv was a nymphomaniac doesn’t mean that colleges are like kothas.
okay what do we think of when we think of kothas. smelly, tiny bylanes, women trying to cover their scars and age with layers of make up, abuse-emotional, sexual, physical.
is that REALLY how you saw your college Manish. I am truly sad for you…
Hey man! Very good job.
I have my reservations thoug. I felt that you had a great story, good script and an interesting cast. But I felt that Imad the performances was your weakest link. I felt that quite a few of the new actors weren’t upto the mark. Barring Shreyas Talpade who was literally carrying the film, the others were just passable. A special mention for Imad, he has a certain cool and languid attitude about himself which brought a smile to my face, but the problem was he didn’t know when to turn it off and dung into whatever he brought to the table.
Apart from this I am eagerly waiting for you next movie!
Adios then
To Nandini
yaar tum to bechari film ke peeche haath dhoke pad gayi:)
Ya nandini I guess A guy born again to take revenge of past life of om shanty om is great story! were you taking cats nap when the school girl was trying to seduce
manish tiwaryji I liked ur film and came to actually write this that saw the film on dvd.
i went to so many schools and college isnorth India you cant count
I agree with Nandini on few accounts especially on the 3rd point and 5th though Apurv saying someting like that does not imply that it is Manish’s point of view but yeah pathetic dialogue, doesn’t make much sense to me.
Nandini, coming to other points you made, I think there was nothing wrong in trying to present the character of Shreyas Talpade as Manish did. A bastard wannabe politician can be vulnerable when it comes to dealing with girls. If that was the idea, I don’t see anything wrong with it, but perhaps it did not come off that well.
“…woh hamein holes dengi hum unhe kapda”, Yes, guys talk like that in college and as Srinivas says, they can do worse. They grow up (at least I hope they do!). And no, these are not the people who are responsible for harassment. I don’t know about Delhi (never lived there) but I know that half of these college guys are not capable of harassment, all they can do is just sit in groups and crap like that.
A school girl having sex, seducing or being seduced? yeah that’s reality but the point is was it portrayed in a way that would encourage school girls to venture in to that territory? may be!
but portraying it in a right way….hmmmn…that’s tricky, it is perhaps easier (better?) to leave it untouched.
And DDE boring? As said above, we may not agree with the way women were portrayed in the movie but that doesn’t make it boring (besides that’s all coming from a college going boy’s point of view).
Have you watched OSO, it is the very definition of boring!
girls let gang up! the truth is when i saw the film and heard the holes dialogue and some one else
I mean there are very good writing by the director on how the film came to him and role music role
Mr.Tiwary, Let me just say here that you made a good film. I thoroughly enjoyed film, the film didn’t do well..Yes the film didn’t do well at the bO but you can atleast be happy that you made a GOOD FILM. That’s a big deal in bollywood these days
And Of course, you can also be proud of finding the brilliant Imaad Shah.
Arun, Imaad was already “found” ;)
Manish,
I heard 1.5 yrs back from your younger brother ( we are friends since our Pilani days) about u making movie for Prakash Jha. I am really impressed as I know the struggle and efforts you took to reach where you have made your first mark in mainstream cinema.
Keep up the good work..more than the critical success, its more important if you can reach to audience who give their hard earned money to allow you to unfold your dreams in those 150 mins.
Take care…
Bhavesh
Manish Plz let us know more about ur struggle and how u got to make it …… that would b highly appreciated by all of us
Hi Manish,
Just finished watching dil dosti etc. Its a very good movie. the movie has a lot of soul in it. The dialogues are very good. very well written….
I dont understand how critics can pan this movie.. beats me completely…
vinod
Well after reading your article here. I went to see the movie.
Movie was disjointed, often lacked continuity. Shreyas death was uncalled for, or wat it meant for the story failed to understand. The time period of the movie unspecified. I didnt like the movie. Shreyas made me watch the movie, but his character was also half baked.
When i ran out of all the movie options, I thought of trying out some lesser known flicks in last few months, then came dil dosti etc.. I think its definitely on par with happy days (recent telugu blockbuster). Though I am not too happy with climax. Very well written, and one of the best performances of the year.. Imad and shreyas are so natural.. Looking forward to your next movie Manish.
Keep it up!
hi manish\
i personally liked the film very much,and hats off to u for showing the real campus life, especially of delhi ,which is almost the same way u shown in film,but i personally feel the film could have done much better if some money can be spend on th e publicity of the film,especially when the film was having a normal average cast,exept shreyas..,
Hi Manish,
Watched DDE ’bout a fortnight back………..a different attempt no doubt.
First things first – Kudos for having the balls to let the characters mouth dialogues as we actually face them daily( though i’ve never been to delhi, don’t have any reason to believe duds are diametrically opposite in other cities !!)…….let the hypocrites cry hoarse :((
The Vaishali episode could have been legthened a bit more (minus Apoorv’s explanations – college n kotha analogy), as that was the only undiluted emotional angle that i found in the whole story……(love emotions….whotsay ??)
I felt u could taken more care to make Shreyas’s character as much dimensional and layered as u marvelled with Imaad’s.:-?
OK enough……….
i’ll definitely be waitin for your next film, with more expectations……….
http://chavannichap.blogspot.com/2007/09/blog-post_1877.html
its from dainik jagran,reviewed by ajay brahmatmaj
Good movie, Manish. College public is loving it! I am 10 year past college but managed to enjoy it. Fresh story and storytelling… However, some of the scenes missed out on giving the expected jolt: Imad sleeping with Shreyas’ GF; Shreyas’ death etc.
Must say you extracted fine performances from most of the cast.
Deletion of few songs and tighter editing would have helped further.
hi -since the last comment was posted 8 months ago -guess u won’t be coming back to read this. i only watched the movie couple of months ago – and was absolutely floored. it was awesome – i’m not from delhi -but i spent my college yrs in a highly politically charged kolkata campus and hostel – and it was a going back journey for me. i think the casting was perfect – inspite of shreyas’ problem with the accent -he did brilliantly .and who ever said imaad didnt act well – is speaking through his/her arse . i think it was wonderful the way he brought out the totally detached , disinterested and cold character he was portraying. to say his hart was not in it is pure stupidity. loved the ragging sequences , the jokes and the slogans -mother father sanjay nadar (or was it nagar) is the present rage with self and wife.
keep churning out stuff in the same vein – and don’t bother about critics -subhash k jha and rajiv masand suck so bad its not even worth hating them.
partha
Hi Manish,
Being a DU-ite for 6 years of my life….i must congratulate you for bringing forth what truly goes on there.I just saw the movie since a friend recommended it..Its like real life on screen….keep up the good work!
Sunayna
hi manish
dde was an interesting movie.very few movies have been made on student/youth politics a subject i really fancy.shiva and haasil are particular favourites.so i was eagerly awaiting ur movie.the take was fresh and entertaining.shreyas was good and imaad a charming rogue and ishita really cute.i was impressed by ur presentation.however the climax for me was a huge dampener and i feel did not do any justice to such a good film[just my personal opinion].i have always wanted to ask u what were ur line of thoughts while deciding how the movie should culminate.sanjay died for absolutely no purpose.all his ideals wasted for nothing and apurva let of the hook so easily.why didn’t sanjay’s friends react. upto the climax i was enjoying thoroughly but the ending left me confused.u must be having a reason for giving the movie a dreary end.i would be interested in knowing your take on the movie’s ending.
Your movie was fantastic, i mean you are urself such a brilliant director, it was your debut movie and you did your best after all you have studied both in oxford and du , you know colleges better than other people does. Great movie , heard about ur next movie casting carry on.
i watched movie to my fullest and scene by scene and whenever pass by Jai Jawan tea stall can feel the scene no comments about the peoples mixed response but over all movie was good and a brilliant effort to put in a easy way . And if no one have been to Mukharjee Nagar , Vijay Nagar , North Campus he cant feel the movie so it was GOOD one …