Fly-by thoughts on Dostana

[lobelia321]

Some quick thoughts about this film before I have to go to bed.

Dostana. Directed by debut director Tarun Mansukhani. Produced by Karan Johar. Starring John Abraham (the hunky dude / Kunal) and Abishek Bachchan (the dorky dude / Sameer). Oh, and some woman.

There is a plot but all that one needs to know is: two dudes meet in Miami and pretend to be gay in order to be able to rent rooms in the apartment from Heaven because the girl who lives there (and her auntie) refuses to live with men for reasons of propriety. So they say, hey, but we won't be any threat to your virtue, we're gay! Whee!

The film is a comedy and the gay thing is played for laughs. Still, considering this is Bollywood and this is India, where homosexuality is illegal, the very fact that the gay thing is 'out there' is remarkable.

Still, I had some moments of feeling odd at the more stereotypical gags. At one point, Abishek prances towards the camera in slow motion, with mincing steps and swaying hips, in 1970s 'Are you being served?' or Benny Hill style. This is just one example of the tired clichés of pussy-boy with silk neckscarf and limp wrists being trotted out. So, at one level, the take on homosexuality is not exactly subtle.

On the other hand, and what redeems this film for me, is the evident enjoyment that the actors got out of camping it up, and the way they are so physically comfortable with one another. In fact, they camp it up so much that ultimately the stereotypical campiness gets itself camped up, so we have irony within irony, and somehow that produces a sweet kind of sincerity.

I have a friend who watches gay porn because that way at least he knows 'that sex is going on'. And pretend or not, these two guys are being touchy-feely, and although plot-wise that is supposed to be 'pretend', and film-wise, it is pretend because they are actors pretending to pretend to be gay -- still, still: they are two real men really and for real touching each other and batting eyelashes at each other. We see two men in tuxedos dancing together. We see one man snuggling up to another man in bed. We see two men kissing. (Yes! Yes! Yes!) All this is happening!

Because it is a) comedy and b) 'pretend' (in a Shakespearean mistaken identity kind of way), the film can get away with a lot that it couldn't have got away with if it had played the theme 'straight'.

There is a very fascinating dream sequence in which we are asked to imagine what if these two actors pretending to pretend to be gay were actually two actors pretending to be really gay? Yes, they would mince and camp it up but also, they would just show it and ultimately, what you get is shots and scenes where two guys look sweetly at each other.

After about 20 minutes, the chemistry between the two guys was so all-pervasive that I completely forgot that they were a) supposed to be straight and only pretending, and b) that there was a girl in the movie as well. This film is about them, and so it is a film about two mates. A buddie movie with some explicit homoeroticism thrown in.

I am not surprised that Karan Johan was involved with this.



I am convinced that Karan is closet-gay (or perhaps not so closet?). Just watch the campy Date with Dostana especially part 2. Much lap-jumping and flirting taketh place therein. And if he is or not: he knows a gay sub-vibe when he sees one, and he's put and left them all in this film.

Comments

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am pretty sure Karan is gay (and has a giant thing for SRK) but yes...the movie was delightful!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I am totally convinced of Karan's gayness based on the incredibly reliable evidence of internet pics and youtube interviews. And his propensity for always smuggling gay kisses into his films (remember the SRK cheek kiss on the truck on his way to the children's holiday camp?).

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this film yet?

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Dostana? Yes:

http://dangermousie.livejournal.com/1388467.html