DIL,DOSTI, ETC

Prakash Jha, one of the 80’s NFDC art-film patriarchs who’s now making middle-of-the-road films on Bihar ( Gangajal, Mrityudand, Apaharan)- produces Dil, Dosti, etc. for first time director Manoj Tiwary. Funnily, this Low- Glam & Heavy-Atmosphere film’s title quite aptly explains itself. It starts off with the promise of poetry but peters off to nowhere, much like the future of all its testosterone laden, unstable, nakara characters.
‘ Et-cetera is a word
Used by more than a few
To make people believe
That we know more than we do.’
Shreyas Talpade is the typical collar grabbing, khadi clad Bihari student leader on the campaign trail in the DU campus who befriends a wimpy, city bred fresher (Imaad Shah) and strikes an innocuous bet with him before the opening titles of the film can roll. Shreyas has his eyes set on becoming the college President by hook or by crook and Imaad is sure that he can take three willing women to bed before that, in a single day. The film follows them around till D-day comes and all hell breaks loose-thanks to the bet that hung over them like the proverbial sword of Damocles.
The final ten minutes fracas is especially unforgivable after all the qurbani / camaraderie that is shown building up between the friends. Director Tiwary vainly tries to tighten the noose around his lead pair a-la Sam Mendes’ ‘American Beauty’ & Spike Lee’s ‘The 25th hour’ but falls flat on the dusty campus grounds. With no star cast to position correctly, this low budget venture does manage to re-create campus life for what it really is, minus spandex suited coy chicks on roller skates and forty plus superstars with six-packs prancing around them. There is no mention of the political parties that usually play a big role to at the Univ Elections but the rest of the run up to the big event ring true. The recollection and usage of everything from funny nicknames to the clash of cultures and values, eve teasing and ensuing gang wars inside the campus is accurate and telling. Its close in spirit to DD’s ‘Chunauti’ from 20 years ago. Who remembers that? (“Mun ek seepi hai, Aasha moti hai, Har pal jeevan ka – ek Chunauti hai…”)
Shreyas Talpade, in particular is good as the understated but ambitious neta who pines fors the campus queen but also expects her to turn into a ghoonghat bound sati-savitri bahu. But Imaad Shah, who the film banks heavily on, is one big disappointment. His curly hair and languid gait are reminiscent of the early Naseeruddin Shah but the similarities end there. To start with, he is miscast as the jaded, immoral and heartless Casanova who keeps running away to a brothel every other night to escape ragging at his hostel. What an excuse! Then, he’s also trying to ratofy the Periodic tables and corner a pretty schoolgirl somewhere in between the heavy metals, inert gases and tutions at home-without the aid of any of the tradititonal tools of the trade. He doesn’t sing, dance, pump iron, top his class, rescue damsels in distress, appear in intriguing double roles, beat up hoodlums, win tournaments, flaunt his wealth or appear as the silent, suffering, good Samaritan- but score he does. He also looks like Supandi from Tinkle comics and can’t act for nuts.
Hey-maybe, lineage does matter !!!