Film Review: DOSTANA: Hardly a gay film

BOLLYWOOD REVEALED!

I saw Dostana the day before. And I laughed my guts out! Well made flick. Kudos to the director for doing a good job. The real hero of the film is the script (an old cliche, but very true. The soul of a film is the script. When will all the Bollywood wallahs understand this?).

Dostana is the the first mainstream Bollywood gay film or atleast the first film to handle homosexuality. It is cleverly portrayed as comedy so that it is palatable to the Indian cine goers (and many in the west too). In India, everyone laughs at pansies, a chakka (I don't know the exact word for gays in Hindi). So Dostana shows gays in a funny way, so the janta is happy. So are we. I don't think most of us would go see a serious flick on gays.

But Dostana clicks also because, the basic theme of the film is friendship. Frienship between a gay and a heterosexual, between a man and a woman, and also between two guys (not gays). It has been delicately handled by Tarun Mansukhani. Hats off, man.

The two stars of the flick are Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra. Abhi's acting as gay is great. Only he could have carried it off. John Abraham couldn't have done it so the director has wisely made Abhi do the most of the gay mannerisms. Priyanka is flawless.

The two main leads of the film are not gay. This is made very clear when they are shown sleeping with girls in the beginning of the film.

The deeper issues of being gay have not been dealt with too deeply. That would have put off most of the regular audience.

I repeat, Dostana is not really a gay film. Homosexuality has been used to get laughs, nothing more. I don't blame Karan Johar. Anything more would have been suicidal. Indian films are not ready for a Brokeback Mountain. But Dostana is a start.