Dil Dosti Etc

Coldness of the lead actor (Imaad) really makes up for this movie who perfectly lays the foundation of undertones and implicit scenarios woven by this script. Each character whether its schoolgirl (Ishiita) or the prostitute (Vaishali)or even aspiring model (Nikita) is a built-up for the single question raised and rediscovered in the end of the movie. Provocative yet to the ground reality are the high features, but as usual tapping the best out of Shreyas Talpade would have lead to an archetype(...bollywood cinema...did I say that correctly??). This movie gives you a breathing space but the question remains.... Are you aware of it and seek that space?? I was and I liked the movie till the end.

Not always a title will blend in everything to a discussion/monologue. The title above may not be suitable to other viewers. But I think Dil Dost Etc does have a social message which is targeted on an individual basis. This film portrays college days of Apurv (Imaan Shah) and Sanjay (Shreyas Talpade). Sanjay is a student from a middle class family in Bihar who is trying to run election and also win it by all the means he can. Apurv is his fellow mate who is born with a silver spoon. These two students have a totally different background but currently they face almost same situations in the college and they have almost opposite perspective on moral/ethics background. These two students bet to each other and that initiates a series of events which connect them together in the end.

I must say that this film is a great blend of psychology and philosophy of college students who are religious towards timely pop culture and matured audience who perhaps are competitive enough to exercise any and every means towards their goal. Debutant Manish Tiwary has written a clever script that from the first minute ("River of White Water") till the end of the film initiates and propagates various thought processes and live it open to individual comprehension. With humor as a positive ingredient his protagonists speak a language which is definitely thought for. The educational institute seems to be a perfect place to place two characters with different backgrounds and mentality. Though I have seen Sanjay at other occasions but Apurv shocks me. Not only his philosophies and self-ethics bother me but when he talks he seem to have understood a much about his surroundings. He does not apologise for a failed kissing attempt to a school girl (Ishita Sharma) and he survives a great deal of endeavor in the end. "A glimpse of the goal clears away some paths" as he utters this line I wondered where is this movie going to end. Manish Tiwary has ended this film with a social message which has to be self realised and self applied.

Imaan and Shreyas both have acted well. Shreyas as usual is very natural. It was good to see him in a matured serious role. I have never seen Imaan before but I wonder about his courage. Whether I should appreciate his ability to focus on the goal or the goal itself is a mystery. Smriti Mishra as the prostitute is also a great portrayal. The direction and screenplay are running at the same pace. For a debut this is a remarkable film. This is perhaps the best college flick since Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander (1992) though I doubt I would watch it as many times as I watched Sanjaylal Sharma and the cycle race.

My rating: 8/10.

Set in modern Delhi(Delhi university to be precise), the movie juxtapositions many oddities together. To begin with, the character Sanjay Mishra(Shreyas Talpade), is your quintessential hinterland hero, emotional, with his earthy middle class values, providing a background for his (very ruthless) ambitions. Quite a contrast to this is the aimless Apurv, spectacularly portrayed by Imad Shah...He's cold, aimless, aloof and his mind operates in a space which is distinctly gray, but at the same time colorful. He exemplifies the new liberal man, who's defining character is his ability to negotiate in that ethical never land...Although I should add that though Apurv comes across as cold, he never appears calculating or Machiavellian....Sanjay's girlfriend Prerna is what I would call a perfect example of misplaced western-ism in the garb of modernity, the kind you encounter most in the metros...Ishita Sharma, who plays Kintu, symbolizing the next-gen teens...at the verge of sexual liberation, but still consider it important to cloak their expletives in a hogwash of codes(if you remember Juno, and the scene where her friend goes 'Phuket Thailand'...)....

Overall the film portrays precisely the kind of societal changes going on in India...An urban elite who are too cocksure about their 'modern' values, a small town guy who holds on to his imagined traditional values, ambitious but often confused by big city people and their elitist habits...And in the end of it all, the intellectually ambiguous Apurv reducing everything to 'Sanjay is dead, and I survived'...So at the end it all boils down to cold facts, and nothing else....

True, its pure reality. This movie shows the exacts things in today's teen life / college. It has mixed feelings, sex, violence, politics, prostitution ETC. The college life, for rich students its about exploring life and girls for the poor ones its about trying to establish the power, taste the power. Two characters in the movie follow this motive, Apurva is rich and polished, he smokes bidi, visit prostitutes on daily basis, try to make out with girls, try to get laid with anyone, He has less attention towards the college, study, leadership. On the other hand, Sanjay is more focused an middle class from Bihar, tries to be popular among boys, shows & grabs the power like a gangster in college. He has no interest towards girls, sex or prostitution.

Two has different emotional sensitivity. Apurv is not emotionally attached to family or anyone. Doesn't show sensitivity towards any of it. On the contrary Sanjay show family values and attachment towards family, friends and girlfriend. Also he is sensitive about it.

Watch it for Indian college youngster's situation. Nice detailing of Delhi's life, if you are familiar with that city you would more enjoy.

Dil Dosti Etc was picked up by my two sons who were very enthusiastic about the film on seeing it. There was a guilt pleasure they took and I though this is a private joke between them. However, I decided to watch the film and see what my sons are up to… the only thing I had heard when the film got released was that it had Nasiruddin Shah's son and made by Prakash Jha with a new director.

I was greatly surprised to see the faces of my favorite Shreyas Talpade a small time actor who has got the talent and the incredibly talented Smriti Mishra who has apparently returned to the screen after eons.

The greatest feat is the casting and the credit goes to the producer and director for doing so. It is a novel story about young people in modern India. The story is around a challenge of a boy being challenged by his friend to have sex with three women in a day… it is difficult to pin point how but this challenge is able to put across the loss of direction the young people face today. It is one of the subtlest film I have seen on ambitions of youth, of cultural diversity we live, and the anxiety these young kids have away from their parental quarters.

Nasiruddin Shah's son Imaad Shah gives a very understate performance against more vocal character portrayed by Sheyas Talpade. A great delight is to see Smriti Mishra as the colourful prostitute in red light area of Delhi. Other characters have done a great job too – I'll always remember the schoolgirl, her lover, the loud school teacher and the setting of this film. This must have been a film on small budget and one looks forward what the film makers give us next.