Bollywood Double Feature: Dil Chahta Hai (2001) & Dostana (2008)

Movie reviews have been scarce on here and I apologize deeply for it.  Its just I’ve been trying to get a life outside of the internets going, like getting certain priorities straight.  Don’t get me wrong though.  I still watch movies and I have a ton backlogged.  I just can’t write as fast I used to.  But, the review for the first of these two Bollywood features have been sitting in the back of my mind for a little while (a few months maybe) and I just felt like they deserved a little review so here we go with a Bollywood double feature.

Bollywood or any Indian cinema takes time to watch.  Nothing short of 3 hours to spare in your schedule is needed and it really sucks when it doesn’t really even give the slightest of entertainment value.  That’s something that makes me hesitate to watch it sometimes but when the crushing deadline of Netflix appears threatening to expire them, I cozy up with some tea and clear out my schedule and that is how I ended up seeing these two: Dil Chahta Hai and Dostana.

Let’s check them out!

Dil Chahta Hai (2001)

Director: Farhan Arhtar

Cast: Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Preity Zinta, Sonali Kulkarni, Dimple Kapadia

Three inseparable childhood friends are just out of college. Nothing comes between them – until they each fall in love, and their wildly different approaches to relationships creates tension.- IMDB

Dil Chahta Hai is a movie on friendship and love, but mostly on friendship.  The beginning leads us into backtracking to how two of the three friends haven’t seen each other in a few years and now one of them is sitting in a hospital for some unknown reason.  It peaks the interest in getting us intrigued for one, who is in the hospital and in a seemingly serious problem and two, who is this third friend and why is he refusing to come even in an extreme situation.  What is the falling out so serious that could cause this, right?

This is a powerful movie if anything.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the songs themselves but other than that, the story was really well in developing each of the characters.  The friendship was something that was so strong and well-emphasized and it gives somewhat of a good look at how the dynamic of friends and each of them balance each other so that their friendship thrives.  Most of this is by giving each friend a good amount of their own time to tell each of their own stories and their feelings and that helps us to understand of each of them and connect deeper to the characters.

I don’t want to go too much into detail here but Dil Chahta Hai is an impressive drama about friendship and it was done so well that by the end of it all, I was pretty touched at the end and got a little misty. That was pretty much unexpected for me and in such a good way.

Dostana (2008)

Director: Tarun Mansukhani

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Priyanka Chopra, Bobby Deol, Boman Irani

Two straight guys pretend to be gay in order to secure a Miami apartment. When both of them fall for their roommate Neha, hilarity ensues as they strive to convince one and all that they’re gay, secretly trying to win her heart. –IMDB

 Dostana is a fun, lighthearted comedy done in absolutely the most hilarious ways.  I have to say, it charmed me quite a bit.  I personally don’t think Abhishek Bachchan is all that handsome but somehow I managed to even see some charm in him.  In fact, for the first bollywood movie EVER, I knew all the main cast.  Its something to be proud of, okay? Dostana had me laughing so hard throughout the whole movie plus as cheesy as some of the music usually is, and it has that whole opening song to start the movie (which usually is a sign of extreme cheese), this one redeemed itself really quickly.  John Abraham, Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra have the best chemistry and they are all extremely charming characters.   Plus, the whole pretending to be gay thing works out to make this even more laugh out loud and there’s just so many of those.

There aren’t enough compliments I could give this one because it swept me off my feet unexpectedly.  I truly expected it to be just a really ridiculous concept but the way they did it was quite smart.  I don’t have all that much to say about this one because it was just so fun and hilarious.  The characters are charming and it never gets too dramatic.  There is really no better way to spend 3 hours than to be constantly laughing and knows how to do just that 🙂 As much as this is about love, its also about friends so it makes this quite a memorable movie.

Overall, two very good Bollywood movies.  They are both worth your time.  If you’re looking for a good drama (with a few laughs), Dil Chahta Hai would be your choice and if you want to just turn off your mind and downright roll off your chair laughing at the hilarious situation two guys pretending to be gay while living with a pretty girl, Dostana is a sure fire! Its rare I get back to back winners in these double features but both of these boast a pretty great cast and a very well executed storyline.  If you cross paths with them, you should definitely give it a chance! 🙂

Have you seen either of these? If you have, did you like it?

Dhoom (2004) & Dhoom 2 (2006)

Seeing as Dhoom 3 has really taken on quick with a lot of reviews coming, I intend to pull myself in to the farther away theatre to catch it (after the deep freeze temperature leaves Montreal).  Plus, I recently found that Netflix has Dhoom and Dhoom 2 but will expire (or may have expired once this goes up).  So why not give it a viewing, right? So here’s the review of my night of Dhoom 🙂

DHOOM (2004)

Director: Sanjay Gadhvi

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra, John Abraham, Esha Deol, Rimi Sen

Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) is newly transferred to Mumbai Police and takes over the case of various heists that have occurred in Mumbai involving a gang of motorcyclists that steal and then leave without being seen.  Employing the help of a talented motorcyclist and mechanic Ali (Uday Chopra), they try to track down the group of thieves and stop them before they complete their next heist.

How to describe Dhoom? Hmm…You know what this reminds me of: a buddy cop action comedy flick mixed with a bit of the later Fast and Furious concept but with motorcycles.  Seeing as I went into this completely blind, like I didn’t know the story much and I didn’t know any of the actors as I’m still new to the Bollywood world, this one definitely started in weird for a good half of it.  I wasn’t really sure if I liked Jai as the serious cop, who started with this very not so serious beginning sequence and for the most part, I wanted to punch Ali because it was really annoying. BUT, after exactly a half (one hour into the movie), it took a quick turn and actually ended in a pretty good way.   The second half after everyone was introduced and settled, the bad guy was in place and we’ve had a lot of random singing and dancing, the action came in and it turned rather gripping and fun to watch.  What pushed it forward was the chemistry between Jai Dixit and the head of the leader, Kabir (played by John Abraham).  Trust me, I’m not spoiling anything because the audience sees both sides pretty clearly but it still manages to keep it pretty intriguing to watch 🙂

Definitely a good start to the series.  I can see why a second one would be made 🙂

DHOOM: 2 (2006)

Director: Sanjay Gadhvi

Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Uday Chopra, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Bipasha Basu

Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) is now partners with Ali (Uday Chopra) as they work together to solve crimes.  However, when Jai’s old college friend Sonali (Bipasha Basu) asking for help in finding and arresting an international heist mastermind who calls himself by Mr. A (Hrithik Roshan). No one has ever seen his face and he never leaves any clues, however, with the help of Jai’s intelligence and another thief, Sunehri (Aishwarya Rai), they are able to track him and follow him to Rio de Janeiro where Mr. A is expected to complete his next heist.

Apparently, IMDB and RT disagree with me but I found that Dhoom 2 is better than the first one.  I’ll tell you why.  For one, we start off with a very much  more intense beginning sequence.  Second, our villain is awesome, smart, witty and oh so very hot.  Eye candy helps, ok? Next, the chemistry between Jai and Ali is better where I don’t want to punch Ali as much anymore and he actually does have some funny moments.  But not only that, Jai and Mr. A’s chemistry playing the cat and mouse is fabulous as well and finally, the love story in this is just awesome.  It adds a little something extra to the mix and makes Mr. A turn a little more human.  Plus, the action sequences in this one are way better than the previous one.  You still have a few fighting little bits that don’t quite make sense in my mind but I can ignore it because this movie is like Fast and Furious, it aims to entertain the audience and it does a really good job at it.

And I guarantee you after watching Dhoom series for a total of over 4 hours means this song is stuck in my head.

I kind of like it 🙂 Along with a whole bunch of pretty high energy songs and some pretty cool dance moves. I guess this is the extra point of why I like it also.

Seeing as you don’t really need to watch the first to watch the second and still pretty much understand, I’d definitely recommend the second one more than the first.  But, its like I said, they both have their redeeming traits that I’d still recommend both.  It was fun and I really can’t wait for Dhoom 3. I already have a girls night set with my best friend to go see it, even if it means a somewhat later showing on a week night, but so far, Dhoom series hasn’t disappointed me and the next one has Aamir Khan and I love the man.  I’m excited 🙂

Have you seen the Dhoom movies? How about the 3rd one? What did you think about it?