Here comes another melodramatic, over-sentimental and soppy fare from Suneel Darshan.
Dosti - Friends Forever has nothing new to offer except the realization that certain filmmakers are still stuck in rigid, antediluvian mindsets that firmly believe that emotions need to be over-expressed in order to strike a chord among the viewers. The mushy, rona dhona sequences that are woven around the so-called 'dramatic' twists in the story remind one of the cinema of the eighties. And here we are, about to move into the sixth year of the second millennium.
Dosti tells the tale of two friends Karan (Bobby Deol) and Raj (Akshay Kumar). They are childhood buddies who have gone through the thick and thin of life together.
The movie begins with a flashback, telling how Karan and Raj became friends. Raj, a poor orphan, saves Karan, a rich boy, from the face of death. Since then, the two become friends, caring for each other and putting the other's interest before one's own.
The two grow up together in Karan's house. Karan grows up to be a philanderer with an open attitude towards one-night-stands, while Raj is a straight guy who commits to one woman.
Raj is in love with Anjali (Kareena Kapoor) and wants to marry her. Karan loves Kajal (Lara Dutta).
It all looks hunky-dory and it seems that the two friends would marry the women of their choice. But then, the unexpected happens. There is a rift in their friendship and the ones who once seemed inseparable have to part ways.
As the story moves forward(?), it gets into the Kal Ho Na Ho mould in which the medical condition of one of the leading characters kindles some drama in the otherwise tepid plot.
Dosti abounds with clichés. The young Raj saving Karan from death and the two becoming 'friends forever' is a cliché seen countless times before. And the way the two are shown caring about each other is ridiculously sentimental.
Even the grown-up Raj, Karan singing and riding their bikes against the backdrop where something romantic is befitting, looks absolutely odd. Two grown-up, robust, heterosexual men in the prime of their youth harboring such strong sentiments for each other look quite queer.
The simple fact is that Dosti tries to throw in your face again and again the bond of friendship between the two heroes. As if the audiences are dumb enough not to get the point of their unshakeable friendship in few reels and need to be told repetitively about it. There is no subtlety and no nuance in the story and everything is open and overblown.
Akshay Kumar and Bobby Deol give credible performances despite the fact that their characters are poorly etched. The sequences of their confrontation and their parting are finely executed and enacted. Akshay gets to show some serious acting in the second half.
The movie's leading ladies, Kareena Kapoor and Lara Dutta, have little footage. Still, Kareena delivers well in few scenes, while Lara acquits herself by simply looking gorgeous.
In short, Dosti fails to stir any emotion despite the tear-jerking situations following one after the other. The movie's music and its songs that appear randomly every now and then, only dilute the impact the director tries to bring in through unexpected twists.
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