Dosti Review

As commercial Hindi movie making is poised to move into 2006,  everyone's been chasing the 'hatt ke' themes like adult comedies,  stylish con capers, violent vendettas,  pre-marital relationships and what have you. And now, in a hark back to the days of yore comes Suneel Darshan's  latest film about an age-old theme that's about a basic requirement of  the human heart friendship. No harm in  a theme like that, for we've seen what the Rajshrees  and Mister Sippy have achieved with films dedicated to the theme of friendship. And Suneel Darshan's Dosti, with a good star cast of  Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Kareena Kapoor, Lara Dutta, Juhi Chawla and others,  also boasts of decent production values. But one was also  hoping to see where next the treatment of the friendship theme would go where would a  respected director like Suneel Darshan take it after the Dil Chahata Hai milestone?  Only by virtue of choice of storyline, Dosti turns out to be a very filmy kind of film that goes back in time.

Dosti is about two friends played by Akshay Kumar and Bobby Deol. Karan (Bobby Deol) has always been a loner, neglected and ignored by his rich supersuccessful careerist father (Kiran Kumar) and Socialite mother. Worse, even his kid sister doesn't seem to like or get along with him. So one day, as a kid, ticked off by both mama and papa who are too busy with a party in progress,  Karan rushes out of the house, kicking a football furiously, till he loses footing and  soon, in fully filmi fashion, is dangling from the edge of a  precipice,  screaming his lungs out for help. Until,  in fully filmy fashion again, a hand enters frame and literally pulls Karan from the jaws of death. Meet Raj, with whom Karan instantly bonds and becomes his best friend. OK, Karan is the rich kid, and hence, in fully filmy fashion,  Raj is  churchmouse poor, with a tyrannical mama to boot, in FFF again. And one day, when maniacal maama starts thrashing young Raj, Karan, who  cannot take it, picks up a rock and hurls it (yes,in fully filmy fashion again) at maama's head. And before long, young Karan, who's found  a soul mate in Raj, announces to his parents that henceforth, Raj stays with us! Rich parents make token protest, but Karan is determined, and so young Karan and Raj grow up to become Bobby Deol and Akshay Kumar respectively!

While Bobby is the quintessential extrovert philanderer in whose dictionary  a dalliance long enough to last a whole night equals commitment, and who ends up in women's hostel rooms more often than not, Akshay is his buddy who bails him out of  tight corners with hostel wardens by turning up in fully filmy fashion as a fake inspector in the nick of time and whisking his buddy away before the real cops can be called.

Bobby learns Akshay is in love with but cannot express it. So he plays matchmaker, and hey presto, Akshay's lady love, played well by Kareena, slips him the engagement ring. Oh sure, her brother and bhabhi object to Raj's unemployed, homeless and carless status, but  in fully filmy fashion dost Bobby quickly fixes that with some emotional blackmail with papa. Kareena and Akshay exchange engagement rings, and friends decide they will marry the women they love on the same day. BTW, Bobby still has to find the woman he loves. And very quickly does in the form of Lara Dutta, who, hold your breath, accepts him as a boy friend on probation, to be confirmed only if she likes him after the trial period. Hmmm

A large part of the rest of the film till the interval is devoted to some truly filmy tests Bobby's lady Lara puts him to, and his wooing of her. In the meantime, Akshay, who cannot tolerate anyone bad mouthing his dost Bobby, has actually slapped Kareena's brother (Mahesh Thakur) for speaking ill of his