Watched it on Saturday, with family and friends. Morning Show, that costs a lot lesser than the sky-high weekend evening and night shows. As for the film, a bad newspaper review prompted me not to go to the theater expecting too much. It turned out alright. A few observations despite feeling fairly entertained. Many questions too. Am certainly going to stay far from doing a mundane film review.
The film definitely takes the urbane crowd's acceptance of gay community, a level up. It's not a comedy though its makers claim it is, but raises a few laughs. It does what a film must do - entertain. Plus, I did not find anything objectionable against the gay community. Such a relief! I was at no point tempted to run out of the theater.
In the first few scenes though, John Abraham casually flaunts his body while pulling his pants up a neat one minute after the scene starts filming. The Censor Board has been truly kind to the director. Another flaw was the irritably poor lip-sync in the first scene.
Several other aspects that I am bemused about in the film made me sit back and wonder about the Hindi films we Indians are getting to watch lately. When it comes to subjects that even slightly deviate from convention, our film-makers tend to safely set them overseas - in the oh-so more glamourous West. It happened with Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. Still, Karan Johar would like to call it as brave as Brokeback Mountain. That film surely did not need a body-toned Priyanka with her sexy bikini to sell itself!
Throw in a beach scene or two so you could show the heroine as hot in bikinis. A guaranteed ticket sale quotient. Throw in generous splashes of blues and hues, pinks and oranges for designer interiors. Make sure the protagonists are NOT poor. Wealthy middle-class, is just about fine. When I watch the Dostana songs, am reminded instantly of the beach song in Salaam Namaste. And the Rio beach rendezvous in Dhoom 2.
What I continuously feel enraged about is how anyone above 40 or in the 50s has to become either a respectable elder in the family (save Mr Bacchan Sr) or ends up as a caricature - read Boman Irani, Sushmita Mukherjee and Kirron Kher in Dostana. It was Kantaben in Kal Ho Na Ho. Dostana follows with her different avatars. But then, we have had so many Kantabens in our movies!
Having said this, I loved the fact that a parent of a possibly gay son is shown accepting the relationship, albeit in a comic way. I cannot fathom how a mother would get convinced in a matter of minutes and a heroine's soothing words, that she has to accept her son's gay reality. The mother has spent a few days with her son -- is there not a single occasion her son could use to spill the beans about their pretending gay for the house?
Colour can be used in its most creative forms in cinema. We have seen it in Dil Chahta Hai, where the same blue was used to show the different moods in so many frames. We have loved the yellows in Lagaan that brought in brilliance of cinematography. We loved the polka dots effect in Bunty aur Babli and even the amazing light play for frames in Yuva. But colours just to grab your attention!
Our ace film-makers have mastered it so well that it has become a stamp of quality!
Despite a shocker of a kissing scene between Abhishek Bacchan and John Abraham, the heroine goes to her hero in the end. The two are left to themselves - gay or not gay.
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