A friendship legend. Review on Dosti - Friends Forever

(As pointed out by someone in the comments section, my review below is lacking a plot summary. I tend to avoid a plot summary in my reviews because I worry about giving away too much of the story and spoiling twists. However, I can see why it would be useful. I suggest reading fenil_seta's review for more description of the story that still avoids major spoilers.)

Rating: An enthusiastic 8.5/10!

Director Suneel Darshan's take on male friendship looks great, engages the emotions, and, despite being largely formulaic, still feels original enough.

I saw Dosti on Sunday and it is far and away my favorite movie in 4 months, ever since The Rising. This makes it better in my eyes than the okay-to-good movies which I've seen from the last four months -- Deewane Huye Paagal, Taj Mahal, Barsaat, Salaam Namaste, and Dil Jo Bhi Kahey -- as well as better than Garam Masala (which I didn't like).

Dosti's opening scenes with child actors are compelling and endearing. A similar use of child actors at the beginning was also effective in Barsaat. Some elements introduced in these opening scenes are addressed and repeated again later in the movie -- a sign of strong writing. It's too bad the movie could not have followed the kids further though. This is because their older characters are less likable, not because of bad acting by Akshay Kumar or Bobby Deol.

The sheer, unadulterated innocence of the opening ten minutes, alone, puts this movie head and shoulders above most movies I've seen this year. The rest of the movie retains much of this innocence, thankfully -- though not as much of it as it perhaps could have and should have.

The production values are excellent, and the feel of the editing is very much 2000s, not 1960s as some reviews have accused the movie of. However, the movie is an emotional melodrama, and makes no apologies for being so.

Suneel Darshan gets the best out of Akshay Kumar, who is tremendously effective in dramatic scenes in the second half. Even Karan Johar and SRK could probably take some lessons from this on how to be subtle without being boring.

The music just screams ''classic Nadeem-Shravan'' -- a real delight. The picturizations are all effective, with the dance-y ones much better choreographed than they looked in the trailer I saw. The songs all have meaning at the point at which they are used, just as in Barsaat and in Suneel Darshan's brother's Bewafaa. Excellent. The only song I would say is on the weaker side is a nightclub song, ''Let's Boogie Woogie.''

What Anjali does for Raj in the second half invokes iconic, memorable love symbolism. Wow.

Later, a certain dance, which is undertaken for a specific purpose rather than randomly wedged into the movie, is gutwrenchingly effective. One writhes in pain along with a certain charcter, and marvels at what he has done for his friend. This fulfillment of a promise, this ''marriage'' and ''divorce'', will not soon leave my mind.

When comparing Dosti with another great movie that it draws a little bit of inspiration from in the second half, the vaguely similar scenes make more sense -- they are more integral to the plot, to characterization, to creating a sense of timeless romantic love between a male and a female, and also to creating, if I may be so bold as to make this claim, a timeless FRIENDSHIP LEGEND. Nearly every one of the few scenes in Dosti that could be considered parallel to this other movie, is something that is somewhat justly criticized in that other movie (which seems to end three different times -- not a problem with Dosti), but fits right in in Dosti because of being used for different effect and purpose, and being portrayed with different emphasis and order.

There is also much in Dosti that is not in that other movie at all.

Kareena Kapoor does wonderfully throughout, particularly in two dramatic scenes and when certain things are happening in song sequences. Her character's pain at the end of one of the songs is almost unbearable in a haunting-you-after-the-movie way -- exceeded only by the pain one can feel when Raj fulfills a particular promise. Her screentime is adequate, but there could have been more.

Lara Dutta's Kajal suffers from somewhat self-conscious (self-mocking) writing. Lara Dutta does her best to be both serious and comic, as expected of her character when she is introduced -- but doesn't quite pull it off.

Juhi Chawla lightens up the screen whenever she appears. Her character is important, but does not appear until the second half.

Bobby Deol is okay. A drunken monologue he gives fell a little flat for me, but his other dramatic scenes are good. Also, there really is ''friendship chemistry'' between him and Akshay. And, his comic timing and expressions are great when he is wooing Kajal.

Akshay delivers what I believe Suneel Darshan has justly called a ''career-best performance.'' One can feel every emotion of his character, most particularly at the end.

I cried twice during this movie, including at the end. Also, the scenes still linger four days later. Some such scenes include:

-Funniest moment of Dosti: Melting on the 18th floor ...

-Sweetest, most innocent moment of Dosti: When young Karan's wounds are being tended

-Strongest dramatic moment of Dosti: Too many to choose -- but I'll pick what happens in two of the song picturizations (again showing how well integrated the songs are into the story). I won't say what picturizations these are because that might give away too much of the movie.

But on the other hand,

-Weakest moment of Dosti: The matron's finding the lovers, and then the encounter with the ''policeman'', especially in contrast to how strong the movie had been before it. These scenes are too awkward and ''trying to be funny.''

Something else I have to gush about is how much thought was put into the writing ... Points shown or mentioned in one scene seemingly in passing or as comedy, are often picked up again later -- from a defense of a friend, to a yellow plane, to an irate parent of someone spurned, to a ''boring line'', to a group of something mentioned by someone (I'm being deliberately vague so as not to give this away either.)

SUMMARY

CONS: Lara Dutta's ill-defined, serious-yet-caricature character; the awkward scenes in the hostel; an obligatory nightclub song