Baby-Baba-Log ki dosti

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33 | July 1, 2009 at 9:06 pm | 98 views | NaachGaana Bol| Share

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The film starts with an inordinate amount of muscle emerging from the ocean and an aging Shilpa Shetty introducing the two male leads as she tells us to shut up and bounce on Miami beach. The song is visually and otherwise catchy but almost too much so – I forgot to read who composed the music for Dostana as all the rioting-with-color visuals were flashing by! The men are living on friend’s couches/beds and need to find an apartment, bump into each other, and visit that high rise apartment where they are told only Baby-log can be tenants, no Baba-log. Thus are two hunky males transformed into a gay couple – i.e. Baby-Baba-Log. They start to bond with the stunning Priyanka, and of course in a Deewana Mastana finale she walks away with another guy. Along the way in funny, crude, slapstick, and sometimes pathetic ways, the theme of gays is kept front and center.

The film was a barrel of laughs in the first half, slow paced, dragged-out, and sometimes ridiculous in the second half, full of music and color, and generally quite entertaining for me. It did not help that the Indian multiplex had an almost 30 minute break so people could spend money at the food counters. But in that break I listened to all the chatter in the theater and heard an older lady proclaim that the film would not do well in India as a majority of people there do not know anything about gays, others chimed in with their versions of gayness knowledge in India, and I was surprised to hear no condemnation of that lifestyle or anything about the film itself being unpalatable to them. This same group had two children under 12 years of age – but they seemed least concerned about the appropriateness of content. I suspect some of the raunchy humor might have escaped the kids, and schools in the Blue states are constantly talking of gay families to these kids. The laugh-out-loud moments were many and the laughter was very real in the almost 80% full theater (I had no trouble getting tickets 15 minutes before showtime). If even a fraction of this chatter happened in the Indian theaters then IMHO a baby-step was taken towards awareness that there are gays and they are people too. One wrong note – although such stereotyped gays are everywhere – was the character of Boman Irani, if one keeps a PC frame of mind.

The film itself was well written and and situations were deliciously concocted in the first half. ”Fell in love in Venice”, Beedi Jalayle, Maa da Laadla, Jhumma Chumma etc., the hilarious references to the gayness of Gabbar (a man walking around with a belt and always saying Kitne Aadmi thaaay!), and Munna Circuit, all evoked lots of laughs. The male leads had almost equal screen time and equal opportunities to hit on the girl, but Abhishek rose head and shoulders above John Abraham in the comic scenes and barring a few serious moments, John basically was eye-candy (clothed or unclothed, though for me clothed was so much better). Priyanka had the best written role in the film – that of an uncomplicated girl who is independent, and goes about her business in a non-judgmental way. She did justice to it and looked like a million bucks in the process. Kirron Kher was a laugh riot. Bobby Deol had as much charisma as a lamp-post and did nothing to enhanec the film. With a better actor in that role the film would have improved. The songs were already catchy as audio versions, but the framing of each one made them so much better on screen. The award goes to Maa da ladla and Desi Girl – and the choreography award is rightly given to Beedi Jalayle.

According to Karan this was Tarun Mansukhani’s story idea, and Tarun certainly did a good job with his debut film. As a comedy Dostana worked very well for me – it was illogical, lush and lavish (necessary? who knows, but still visually great), lewd-crude-slapstick funny, well acted (if we consider John’s abs, biceps and pecs as part of the performance and ignore Bobby), and maybe it did take a baby step towards highlighting the existence of the Baby-Baba-Log, and suggesting that families should make a move towards accepting them and their lifestyle/life-partner choices. A word of caution to Indian audiences -leave the kids a thome.

A solid 7/10 from me.

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There Are 33 Responses So Far. »

Som 16 November 2008
09:23:34 am

Good review here, Neelu!Keep it up.

”Fell in love in Venice”, Beedi Jalayle, Maa da Laadla, Jhumma Chumma etc.”

These were indeed some of the greatest moments in Dostana.”Fell in love in Venice” is my pick though.

jayshah 16 November 2008
09:27:51 am

“Keep it up”

Really a comment like this shouldn’t find its way into a review of Dostana!

My fav is Fell in love in Venice too. And yes Shilpa looked much older. But the bounce was still there in her.

johnnybrutal 16 November 2008
11:59:39 am

jay, whose bounce do you like more, shilpa or aamir?

satyam 16 November 2008
12:11:59 pm

Good stuff here Neelu.. more that I agree with here than not..

Jay: LOL!

Gabber 16 November 2008
12:23:39 pm

A lovely and engrossing stuff Neelu. This film looks like a winner.

BTW I am still confused why Aish walked out of the script citing ‘fitment’ issue despite getting a good role. Can anyone who has seen this film throw some light? On a hindsight and based on promos, I feel Priyanka was a perfect choice. I am glad she is getting glowing feedback.

Gabber 16 November 2008
12:26:13 pm

‘jay, whose bounce do you like more, shilpa or aamir?’

Is there any answer choice like – Both?

johnnybrutal 16 November 2008
12:35:09 pm

gabber, i’m glad ash walked about, she’s married now and all those scenes where the leads were looking at priyankas bum and other stuff would’ve been weird considering ash is married, plus, priyanka was perfect, ash would’ve screwed this up big time, comparing ash in d2 and priyanka in dostana, priyanka is the winner all the way with ash literally being disqualified, so priyanka is no.1 and no.2 in that race, she looked AMAZING.

Gabber 16 November 2008
01:28:46 pm

audience reaction on dostana:

http://www.bollywoodhungama.co.....stana.html

Priyanka is getting maximum applause, followed by John (who seems to be benefiting from ‘no expectation before the movie’) esp from female audience while Abhishek manages to retain his charm.
I am surprised that people on NG have given negative reaction to John’s perf, which on the contrary is going down very well with the audience. On John’s perf, I think his physique is definitely giving him a better look. I have heard from friends, who have seen and liked the movie, that he has looked awesome/out of this world in this film. In these kind of glossy films, this is more than enough imo. ‘Looks, Looks Looks and gay jokes’ – that’s what people are summarising Dostana as.

For Abhishek, I can only say that he meets the expectation and somehow makes people think that Drona was an aberration for him. Dostana without Drona would have looked better but sadly last performance is always remembered. Good thing is that Abhishek has Dilli6 as a followup and he will benefit maximum from that now.

Gabber 16 November 2008
01:44:01 pm

Thanks Johnny. Going by the appreciation that Priyanka is getting and her good looks splashing all over picture tube and plasma pixels now, she definitely looks to be in the top of the game for these kind of roles. Earlier Drona’s only silver lining, then Fashion and now Dostana, 2008 heroine of the year seems settled now.

Kunal 16 November 2008
01:54:42 pm

Now I asked the same question in SB last night, what was funny in Beedi and Venice scene? Those were bit too loud for my liking, I again have no problems with skin show, but JA’s slippery thongs were too much, luckily it improved after 10 minutes. Ms da ladla was funny, hands down. And Abhi is awesome, its hard for me to picture anyone else to carry this role with such finnese.

I like Southpark a lot, not due to their lewd comedy, but a higher ground they achieve in the story, watch imaginationland series if u doubt me, that hot dog scene was so not funny and awesomely crass. All I can say is thanks to Abhi that I saw half of the movie.
Performance-wise, Priyanka is hot, so she did what was she supposed to do, Abhi was effortless, Kiron Kher rocks, and JA shud get rocks and tomatoes and eggs, didn’t see any of Bobby but Boman was too loud for my liking.

satyam 16 November 2008
01:58:33 pm

Gabber: I think Priyanka was perfect for the part. Don’t think Ash would have been better. Or for that matter any other major actress.

I would’ve liked to see the original casting of Abhishek and Saif though. The two actors would have been great together. Of course Said wouldn’t have been ‘the body’ as John is but that’s fine! Fundamentally I still long to see the two in strong roles together. But it won’t be easy to get Saif to agree.

johnnybrutal 16 November 2008
02:17:40 pm

saif would agree, he is a secure actor, and 10 times the actor abhi is.

johnnybrutal 16 November 2008
02:27:44 pm

saif is justified in saying no to bluffmaster and dostana, he had issues with the climax of bluffmaster, he liked the script but he said it wont do well commercially, which happened!

dostana he had issues with the script, and karan is right that abhi and john have been brave, and you cant blame ANY actor for saying no to dostana!

its funny you keep trying to say that saif is scared to share screen space with abhi cause he might be exposed or something, atleast that’s what you talked about when i joined ng, my first conversation to you was about this.

johnnybrutal 16 November 2008
02:31:32 pm

abhi was the one who evoked the most laughter but to say john was bad is wrong, he was no match to abhi but wasnt bad, he was fine, priyanka was the best thing about the movie, beautiful!

kiron kher was amazing!

Kunal 16 November 2008
02:37:22 pm

well Saif said yes to Trrp and Tptm, with BM, may be playing second fiddle to Abhi was his concern, cosidering how Saif’s career was shaping up at that time. About Dostana, I agree with JB that you can not blame any actor to turn it down.

johnnybrutal 16 November 2008
02:45:21 pm

kunal, saif was offered the lead in BM and abhi was going to play the second fiddle (riteshs role) saif said no and abhi took on saif’s role while ritesh came into the picture later

Kunal 16 November 2008
02:51:33 pm

Then may be Saif didn’t have cofidence in the director and producer, because a guy who can see merit in TPTM, and skips BM is a fool.

goodfella 16 November 2008
04:19:43 pm

Abhishek and Kirron Kher were the best things in this movie. I was occasionally bored, but there were intermittent laughs throughout.

MG 16 November 2008
05:12:20 pm

IMO, John was just about OK in the movie, as an actor he is no match for Abhishek..Karan did a huge favor to JA by giving him equal screen space as Abhi even though in the end i think that kind of deal hurts him more than if Abhishek had hogged the attention..JA’s acting abilities (or lack of) were clearly evident.

About Saif not agreeing to the role, Karan probably wouldnt have pushed the envelope as much with Saif as he did with John

rks 16 November 2008
10:44:40 pm

My favorite scenes were.
**Spoilers
1. All three of us love same guy. And subsequent reasoning why Priyanka should get him.
2. All the Rice and Kangan rasam.
**End Spoiler.

Felt some of the scenes could have been avoided without diluting the movie.

jayshah 17 November 2008
01:28:25 am

Good picks rks, #2 also was good too. And Abhishek’s subsequent reaction!

Julie 17 November 2008
05:04:29 am

I am more with Gabber on this.

Abhishek clearly stood out in terms of performances, and the first half was a total laugh riot thanks to Abhi, Kiron Kher and Boman. I liked all three. The best Abhi moment was the slow motion pacing towards John in venice. I think he has done a fab job of emulating a gay character.

But net net this is a KJO film, and looks, hot bods made a lot of difference in attracting and generating appeal for the popcorn flick audience. Priyanka and John do exactly what they are expected to do which is look damn hot and good looking. So ultimately all the ornamentation and embellishment counts as much as good perfromnces do. Women would go ga ga over John’s looks and men would go ga ga over Priyanka.

It is a team effort and has paid dividends overall to KJO and the team.

satyam 17 November 2008
07:50:12 am

On the Saif bit I don’t think it’s rocket science. He didn’t do BM, Guru, Dostana. Guru is the most understandable. But remember if Saif had done this role it wouldn’t have been Madhavan’s exact role and footage. These things change depending on who’s being cast and any good director knows this. Similarly Saif in BM wouldn’t have done the exact Ritesh thing. There would have been adjustments for age and class (Saif let’s say is a cut above Ritesh!) and so forth. With Dostana Saif agreed initially and after reading the script and Johar confirmed this. he then developed cold feet. I am not led to believe it was because of the subject (though I am not completely discounting that this was part of the mix). With Ash the reasons were different. She certainly changed her mind.

Either way my main point here is that I’ve been waiting for some years to see the two actors together and it’s a pity this isn’t happening. I liked the moment they shared in HT but even moreso in LoC.

Similarly I’d like to see Abhishek/Akshaye Khanna together (less so than Abhishek/Saif) and Aamir/Abhishek. In Bollywood (both among filmmakers and audiences) people have forgotten how much a film is elevated when there are more competent actors than less. Take Dostana. Boman Irani has a short segment but he was great. He was especially fantastic in that scene where he shows up at the apartment and that entire sequence was really one of the highlights of the film.

In Munnabhai we’ve seen how well Arshad Warsi and Dutt and Boman Irani work. We saw Maddy in Guru. He was outstanding. But overall we just don’t see enough good actor combos (in major roles) in films these days. I think for example that had Saif been in Dostana (even if John had good chemistry with Abhishek) the film would have been a lot better even if everything else had been exactly the same. And by the way I am not saying ’stars’ but ‘actors’. We saw the results of having something like a fine ensemble cast (for the most part) in RDB. These things are important. Of course good directors give even the smallest parts to actors who really fit the bill, or who can be very good at least for that given part. A great example is TZP where all the teachers in that boarding school seem perfect representations of certain types. One could produce gags by not doing this (or by having Satish Shah spit evidently!) but it’s not the same thing. The great Leone would even go through actors endlessly to select people who’d only be around for a minute or less in his films! A famous example is the guy early on in Good the Bad and the Ugly who’s lost his legs and is providing info.

satyam 17 November 2008
08:07:32 am

On Dostana in terms of Johar and so forth I have forever made this point. genre matters. Johar has his pulse on the multiplex audience more than anyone else probably (except when it comes to SRK these days because here I think he’s burdened by other things.. haunted too much by Aamir for example and wants the film to be a critical success as well.. this is where he failed with KANK and on paper the next project with an autistic SRK isn’t something I’d bet on.. with SRK you have to keep it simple.. audiences don’t want more and frankly this late in the day SRK isn’t the ‘thespian’ type..) and with Dostana you have every star being a multiplex favorite at one level or another. Plus all the other stuff he puts in.

But this leads me to the actual point. It is relatively easy to deliver successes in this genre because the bar for audience acceptance is really low. For example Abhishek could do (as I’ve said forever) films like Dostana or BM or even Dus (stunts, hot women, item songs) once a year at the very least and have close to a guaranteed success. This is what SRK did most of his career. And it wasn’t a very high volume either. DDLLJ in ‘95, DTPH and Pardes in ‘97, KKHH in ‘98, Mohabbaten in ‘2000, K3G in ‘01 and so forth. It’s not as if he did dozens of films this way but those were his bread and butter films (and really between Karan Arjun and CDI he has nothing that really works outside the romantic/family film genre). This is not a knock on SRK. Not every star would be as convincing in this genre as he was. He had a certain spontaneity for it. But the point is that stars once they identify genres that are winners keep repeating themselves for the most part. Abhishek hasn’t done this. A positive in one way (after Drona you get a totally different Dostana) but also a negative (after a Dostana there’s no followup). Now imagine if Abhishek could promise a Dostana at some point next year. And so on. That’s how you maximize initials. D6 will get a good initial for sure but that’s a different deal altogether. You don’t get exactly the same audience for that.
This is what’s happening with RNBDJ. Everyone will show up because this genre still has enough legs left. Whether one is excited about the film or not is immaterial. if it’s just passable it’s a hit. It has to be really hated to tank. And that’s a high bar.
but no other genre has this comfort zone. Barring of course comedies these days.
And yes Karan Johar is a big deal here. His banner means a great deal to his target audiences. But this is exactly the deal SRK was running all these years. Was SRK there first with DDLJ and KKHH? Sure! But people didn’t see KKHH as a ‘first’ film. They saw it as a DDLJ sequel much as DTPH was one. Karan Johar later became a brand. But then again Mohabbatein and K3G had very important ‘other’ stars. DDLJ is the one where the equation is most symmetric in this sense but no one could deny this is a superbly directed film.
Again all of this not a knock on SRK but an example of how much a star can capitalize just sticking to a winner genre. Can anyone really doubt that Abhishek would have prospered doing straight up films like BnB or BM or Dostana or whatever? JBJ was different just as Tashan was different. What Johar does is he satisfied certain instincts in his base. Everyone dresses well and looks good. Everything else plays to urban multiplex and NRI ‘desire’. So on and so forth. Let’s not kid ourselves because most of us belong to the same group. With this genre the audience behaves like lemmings as much as Akshay’s does with his comedies. There’s no difference. people like the films in each instance and ‘want’ to like them. The bar is really low.
This is by the way what Aditya has done with RNBDJ. He knows it’s hard to sell that dorky SRK look throughout the film. So eventually he gets back to the regular guy and the big song sequences and so on! So much for Hrishikesh Mukerjee!

goodfella 17 November 2008
08:08:09 am

I’d actually like to see Abhishek and Irfan Khan cast together.

satyam 17 November 2008
08:15:55 am

The banner and genre in short cannot be an argument used only for certain stars. It’s true for everyone which is why certain hits count more than others. Is JA more creditable or D2? Is CDI more creditable or OSO? Is Guru more creditable or Dostana? This is why some of us keep privileging Aamir. He’s had very few of those obvious winners. I keep talking about Abhishek impressive variety but I also note than in this multiplex age he nonetheless works with some very prestigious outfits that get him a great deal of buzz and multiplex attention (Rathnam, mehra, and another one after D6, even Rohan Sippy after BM, SR, Dostana, and so on). Hrithik does one film at a time but makes sure that it’s either a genre one for him or a big film even otherwise (JA, potentially the Bhansali). SRK’s doing the same. But Aamir’s the one guy where a number of films wouldn’t be even credible if he weren’t associated with them. These days most people overcome their doubts about a subject if Aamir’s associated with it. No other star is currently in that position. Lagaan was a big risk at the time. Farhan became big with DCH, Mehra with RDB, TZP was of course a total Aamir deal. Fanaa is the exception (Yashraj). MP didn’t work but again without Aamir where’s the film anyway? Ghajini speaks for Aamir once again. With Hirani you again get an exception. But most of these films are really just Aamir. This is why all hits have to be evaluated differently. Many stars do ‘different’ films these days. But it’s one thing to do this with D6 (where after RDB Mehra has arguably the most prestige in town and an initial is guaranteed) and quite another to do it with TZP (where it’s either Aamir or nothing else). All films have to be good narratives to work but the initial interest, especially these days, is a big part of the deal.
And yes it is certainly a very important part of stardom to make judgments that guarantee success at regular intervals one way or the other. But this doesn’t mean we can’t analyze how much each hit of a star means.

satyam 17 November 2008
08:18:16 am

Goodfella, that would be a good combo except that it would really take a Mehra or a Bhardwaj or some such director to do it since an author backed script would really be needed.

goodfella 17 November 2008
08:21:45 am

Satyam, don’t need to twist my arm too hard to agree to that!

Kunal 18 November 2008
11:34:47 pm

Sorry to say Satyam, but Abhi did follow up the genre he thought working for him. After Yuva’s success, critically if not BO wise, may be got Abhi to realize that his forte lies in intense roles, and along came Sarkar, Guru, BM, Drona, and may be even D6…
So its not that he has not been working on the genre he thought he suits better. Aamir also did the same in 90s, lets start counting now
QSQT, Love love love, Deewana mujhsa nahin, Awwal number, Tum Mere ho, Dil, Dil hai ki manta nahin, Afsana pyar ka, Daulat ki jung, Parampara, JJWS, Hum hain Raahi pyar ke, Akele hum akele tum, Rangeela, Raja Hindustani, Ishq, what was so different in these 16 odd movies? out of 22 movies he did from 1988 – 2000???
Whereas SRK’s filmography in 90s boasted off, Maya Memsahab, Oh Darling yeh hai India, Darr, Anjam, Dil Se… and since 2000 he has, Heyy Raam, Asoka, Paheli, Swades, CDI, Shakti…
He has always been mixing it up, some worked for him, some didn’t, but what you can not accuse Shahrukh of doing is, not trying.

Aarohi 19 November 2008
12:00:11 am

kunal: I think it’s a bit odd to say that Yuva, Guru, Sarkar, BM, etc. belong to the same genre.

Kunal 19 November 2008
12:09:36 am

Would you deny a certain repeated intensity in the roles of Abhishek over there, Aarohi? and I don’t mean beard, but his mannerisms were repeat in these movies. May be not so much in Guru, but Yuva, Sarkar, Sarkar Raj, BM, even fantasy film like Drona, he was still being the same old intense Abhishek.

Correct me if I am wrong, I might be wrong as well, but thats what I observed.

neelu 19 November 2008
12:15:19 am

Certainly the intense serious roles were of a type. What is so different about them?

Aarohi 19 November 2008
12:47:06 am

Similarity in enacting a role is debatable. My personal opinion is that there is similarity between Sarkar and Sarkar Raj roles but Lallan in Yuva, Gurukant in Guru, and Roy in BM were very different.

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