Movie: Dostana (Friendship)
Director: Tarun Mansukhani
Year: 2008
Stars: John Abraham, Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and Bobby Deol

Snapshot of the Story

Dostana is story of Sameer (Abhishek Bachchan) and Kunal (John Abraham) looking for an apartment in Miami. Unfortunately they find a posh apartment, but they have to pretend that they are Gay to secure it as they share the apartment with beautiful and gorgeous Neha (Priyanka Chopra). But both of them fall in love with Neha and try to impress her. But here also they are unlucky and found that she is dating her boss. The story becomes very interesting as Neha comes to know that both Sameer and Kunal are straight.

Storyline

Dostana is first movie for the director Tarun Masukhani and before this he was working behind the camera as assistant director for movies like “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”, “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” and “Kal Ho Naa Ho”.

Dostana is a story of two friends Sameer and Kunal looking for a place to live in Miami. Unfortunately the apartment they find suitable has been shared by Neha, but in front of apartment owner they pretend that they are gay to gain access to this apartment. Not knowing the fact Neha stays very freely with them and feels comfortable in the inner wares. Both Sameer and Kunal fall in love with her, but cannot tell her as they are strangled in their own gay drama of their making.

Neha is an independent girl and works for a fashion magazine. She calls her boss Abhimanyu (Bobby Deol) at her place for dinner and try to impress her hoping that he nominates her for a high post as he is about to join another fashion house. However, that does not work well, but both Neha and Abhimanyu starts dating and falling in love. But both Kunal and Sameer also loves Nahe and they start playing dirty tricks with both of them to create confusion to break their relationship. However, when nothing works for them they play a prank and taste success in breaking up their relationship.

Their success has a bitter ending as Neha comes to know that both Kunal and Sameer are not gay and have been foolng her all this time and she wants them to leave the apartment. Now Sameer and Kunal decide that they will help Neha and Abhimanyu reunite.

Final Thoughts

Dostana is a mixed bag of comedy, emotions and romance that makes an engaging story to watch. The first onscreen gay kiss on Bollywood created a buzz and was the talk of the town shared by Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham. The entire credit goes to director Tarun Masukhani by showing a gay couple with such grace keeping in mind that Indian society is still at a very young age even to think of gay couple and such things are not spoken openly. Music by duo Vishal – Shekhar was the chart topper and they also bagged the Filfare award for bagged music. Abhishek Bachchan also got his best actor award from Filfare that is the one of the most prestigious award in Indian Cinema.

Rating

Dostana scores 8 out 10 for choosing such a sensitive topic and showing it with so much grace and comedy. Actors did a fantastic job specially Abheshek and John Abraham and Priyanka looked gorgeous as ever.

John Abraham is very comfortable in taking his cloths off in Dostana. Read the full interview with Rajeev Masand

Tags: Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Dostana - Laugh out Loud with First Ever Gay Onscreen Couple, Gay couple, John Abraham, Movie reviews and ratings of dostana, Priyanka Chopra

Movie: Dev D
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Year: 2009
Stars: Abhay Deol, Mahie Gill and Kalki Koechlin

Snapshot of the story
Dev D is the modern version of Devdas written by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, but the characters and situations are quite similar to the original Devdas screenplay. Dev loves his childhood friend Paro. But due to some suspicion on the character of Paro, Dev insults her and as a result Paro unable to bear the insult gets married to some other person. Now, heartbroken Dev becomes addicted to alcohol and drugs. One day he visits the prostitute named Chanda and then he falls for her. Climax of the movie was made different (intentionally) from the original Devdas.

Storyline

Dev (played by Abhay Deol) is a son of rich Punjabi businessman. He and Paro are childhood sweethearts. Later on when both of them grow up, Dev goes to London for his higher studies. But distance increases the love between them and their love blossoms. They try to be near to each other with the help of communication such as letter, e-mails, telephones, etc.

Dev returns to Chandigarh to meet Paro. Both of them express their love for each other with some dark romantic scenes. Dev comes to know that Paro has an affair with another person that turns out to be just a rumor, hurtful Paro gets married to someone else decided by her parents. Tormented by Paro’s wedding, Dev has started seeking solace in alcohol and drugs and becomes the regular visitor to hookup at Chanda’s place. Chanda has been disowned by her family after her port MMS hit the internet. Dev finds solace with Chanda and she also starts loving him, but due to her profession gets rejected by Dev. But after spending few months lonely he realizes that he loves Chanda and they both start living together.

Final Thoughts

Dev D is a modern version of Devdas the change in the story was expected, but there was not much change is the actual storyline and anyone who watched the old version would definitely get bored. There was only a change in the climax. Director Anurag Kashyap tried to make something different, but ended up doing something that was not appreciated by audience or critics. Music of the movie is also good and but never the talk of the town. Abhay Deol did a good job as Dev but that was not good enough to make it a hit.

Rating
Dev D scores 5 out of 10, it is very sad to see the good story is wasted like this. Having originated from the original Devdas movie, the romanticism of this version is let down on the big screen.

Mahie Gill’s hot kissing scene with Jimmy Sheirgill in Saheb, Biwi and Gangster

Tags: Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin, Mahie Gill, Movie Reviews and Ratings of Dev D, Nothing Much to Offer in Modern Version of Devdas - Dev D

Movie: Dil (Heart)
Director: Indra Kumar
Year: 1990
Stars: Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Anupam Kher and Saeed Jaffrey

Snapshot of the Story

The story is about a guy named Raja (Aamir Khan), who enjoys spending his father’s money engaging in wild parties and on a girl named Madhu (Madhuri Dixit) who is arrogant and irresponsible. Both of them meet each other in college and due to their big egos they do not see eye to eye and subsequently don’t like each other’s company. One the other side their parents think otherwise and want both of them to get hooked up and married. As a result of this, they look for every opportunity or excuse to avoid this from happening. Madhu gets and idea in trying to frame Raja from attempting to rape her. Unexpected for Madhu, Raja wants Madhu to forgive him even if he though he had nothing to do with this and this makes Madhu fall in love with Raja.

Storyline

Debutant director Indra Kumar made the mark with a big bang by creating an emotional love story and music by legendary Anand-Milind and produced a hit that is quite an achievement.

Dil is story of young couple whose parent want them to get married, but they oppose their decision and when they fall in love their parents come into their way. Raja (played by Aamir Khan) is a son of a businessman named Hazari Prasad (played by Anupam Kher).
Raja believes in luxurious life and spends his father money for his selfish interest. He doesn’t want to take on responsibilities and just keeps on wandering through life like a loafer. His father wants him to marry a rich girl and to get huge dowry.

On the other hand Madhu is a rich, arrogant, irresponsible girl who donesn’t care about others feeling and does what she wants in life. Madhu and Raja studies in the same college and both of them want to have the upper hand and want to be the talk of the college. Both Raja and Madhu do not like each other at all and play pranks with each other. But destiny has decided something else for them and their parents become good friend and want that this friendship turn into more than a platonic relationship.

Not happy with this Raja and Madhu searches for a way out of this and Madhu creates a plot and falsely accuse Raja in an attempt of raping her while on a college tour. Raja gets insulted in front of all his colleagues and friends. Shocked by these charges Raja wants to teach her a lesson and contemplates actually raping Madhu and teach her a lesson, but his ethics do not allow him to go this far. Madhu who until now felt that Raja is not a good guy suddenly falls in love with him. Kissing scene between Madhuri Dixit and Aamir Khan made lots of controversies during that time. Without their parents permission they marry each other, but their parent’s keep on playing dirty tricks with them. This is fascinating to watch on how they fight against all odds and come out of this situation.

Final Thoughts

Onscreen chemistry of Aamir Khan and Madhuri Dixit was very good and their college scenes and tussle between their groups were the highlight of the movie. Director Indra Kumar made a movie on a very usual subject, but his direction has put freshness in the story. Music of the movie was a class apart and a chart topper for many months. Anupam Kher and Saeed Jaffery was outstanding in their supporting role.

Rating

Dil scores 8 out of 10 points for the outstanding performance of actors, awesome music and very good screenplay and we give full credit for debutant director Indra Kumar who went on to make successful movies in the following year including Ishq and Mann that also did very well in box office.

Tags: Aamir khan, Anupan Kher, Indra Kumar, Madhuri Dixit, Movie reviews and Ratings of Dil, Saeed Jaffery, Superhit Romance of Aamir Khan and Madhuri Dixit - Dil

If two people of the opposite gender fall in love then it amounts to the usual vanilla equation as part of gender dynamics , but what if two personalities fall in love embodying with them two separate cultures from two completely different places.

That’s exactly what happened with Jawaharlal Nehru who was the first prime minister of India and Edwina Mountbatten who was the wife of India’s last Viceroy- Lord Mountbatten. Initially their relationship had this typical algebraic pattern called “ more as friends and less as lovers” Over a period of time their love mathematics stood the test of time till death did one of them apart as lady Edwina passed away in 1960.The testimony of their fondness and bonding was proved when Nehru’s letters were found all over her(lady Edwina’s) death bed, and equally proving Nehru’s love for the lady was the fact that Nehru paid tribute to the departed soul of his beloved by sending a naval ship all the way from India to offer marigolds to the ocean waters touching the English Channel where she was put to rest.

After all these years, the relationship between Nehru and lady Mountbatten finds an odd mention in the media to the extent that the very “congress party” which was once upon a time pioneered by Nehru and team recently had asked the producers of a film based on the above romantic relationship between Nehru and lady Edwina Mountbatten to rewrite certain depictions in the movie for it to pass censorship. It is just not only the romance between India’s first prime minister and the wife of the man responsible for breaking apart and causing the Partition of India. But it is about the nature of camaraderie that they shared. A lot many of Nehru’s letters to Edwina after she left India, sought her advice on matters of geo-strategic issues and concerns of the state and the sub-continent. It is said that it was because of this extramarital affair between Nehru and lady Mountbatten that Punjab and Bengal were partitioned and Kashmir illegally annexed by Delhi.

Although the relationship has been off late speculated by close associates of Nehru and Edwina, as being more than platonic and the narrations in the book “Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire” written by the historian Alex von Tunzelmann highlights the point that the relationship also had a physical angle to the entire romantic episode between Nehru and lady Edwina Mountbatten, which invariably has been justified by the French author and Social thinker Catherine Clement, who has written a novel on the romance titled ‘Edwina and Nehru’ published in 1993.

The author had said Edwina had confessed that her relationship with Nehru was “mostly platonic so why are people so misinformed? Both (Edwina and Nehru) were past their middle age and as adults they had a relationship that bears testimonial to the letters and eyewitness accounts. I have myself interacted with close aides of Nehru,” she said, adding that they knew intimate details of Nehru’s life as a prime minister. More over during the time her book was launched, Catherine said she has had a hearty discussion with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and had given her a copy. When asked if the script had got Sonia’s nod, Clement said, “She (Sonia) said it was al-right to be published and did not display any shocking concerns.

Sadly in today’s modern times if a love affair had to happen with such leading personalities then it would simply be termed as a scandal or better still would amount to power-play romance, inviting media attention as every tabloid or TV news channel would be spinning various versions of the affair in order to create a media hype. I am sure whatever happened between Monica Lewinski and Bill Clinton could have been handled more gracefully but today’s media does not pardon people falling in love or being in a relationship as it did a few generations back .

Today people hardly have the freedom to fall in love and no wonder couples these days have started to isolate their romantic life which again is not fulfilling or satisfying to the heart but may surely fill the pockets of many.

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Tags: A Blend of Romantics (Romance and Politics), Edwina and Jawaharlal dating?, Edwina Mountbatten, Independent India, Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, Jawaharlal Nehru, lady Edwina's, Love life of Jawaharlal and Edwina, Romantics: A Blend of Romance and Politics, Sonia Gandhi, Viceroy- Lord Mountbatten

Movie: Mohabbatein
Director: Aditya Chopra
Year: 2000
Stars: Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bacchan, Uday Chopra, Jimmy Shergill, Jugal Hansraj, Kim Sharma, Shamita Shetty, Preeti Jhangiani and Amarish Puri

Snapshot of the story

Mohabbatein is an emotional but an unsuccessful love story. The college going guy Raj Aryan (Shahrukh Khan) falls in love with the principle’s daughter- Megha (Played by Aishwarya Rai Bhachchan). He gets expelled from the college when Narayan Shankar – principle (played by Amitabh Bachchan) come to know about their affair. It has been said that once expelled from Gurukul no other college will give him admission. Heart broken by this decision Megha commits suicide.

Storyline

Yash Raj camp is from the most prestigious camp in Indian cinema and made some of the best romantic movies in the past and came up with Mohabbatein. Mohabbatein is the story of Raj Aryan who gets expelled from the college on the charge of loving the principle’s daughter. The principle of the college Narayan Shankar is very strict and wants every one to follow his dictatorship rule and regulation of the college. Loving someone in Gurukul is equal to crime in his eyes.

With the start of the new session there are three young guys Vikram (Uday Chopra), Sameer (Jugal Hansraj) and Karan Choudhry (Jimmy Shergill) who get admission to the college. There is a girl’s hostel in the vicinity and Vikram goes there where he meets Ishika (Shamita Shetty) and falls in love with her. Sameer has a child hood friend Sanjana (Kim Sharma) whom he loves so much but could not manage to tell her his feelings for her. Karan finds a young window in town. Her husband goes missing in the war with Pakistan and everyone believes that he is dead, but she can not believe it and still thinks that one day he will come back.

Now all of them are in love but they know the rules of Gurukul and think that it is better not to express their feelingss as this could lead to their termination in the college. The situation is well poised and here comes the Raj Aryan who has been appointed as music teacher, but Narayan Shankar does not think that he will get enough students. Surprisingly he gets quite a good number of students and starts his music classes. Here all three tell Raj Aryan about their love story and he promises them that he will help them to be successful and history would not repeat itself.

The clash between Narayan Shakar and Raj Aryan is the most interesting part of the movie and the on screen clash is great to watch as the two legends in Indian cinema battle it out with powerful dialogs.

Final Thoughts

Movie runs very smoothly in the first half and there are some good scenes that can make you laugh. Director Aditya Chopra looked to be in complete control and able to extract the best out of every actor. Shahrukh Khan in the role of music teacher looked good. Amitabh Bachchan was phenomenal in the Narayan Shankar’s role and was by far the best in the movie. Duo Jatil-Lalit looks like becoming a household name in music team as every movie in 90 minutes was jewel to behold.

Rating

Movie scores 7 out of 10 purely for the story and performance for the star cast. It could have been better with good screen play and therefore looses grip. Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan bagged Filmfare awards for best supporting actor and best actor.

Tags: Aishawarya Rai Bhachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, King of Romance is Back with Mohhobatein, Movie reviews and Ratings of Mohhobatein, Shahrukh Khan