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  • Essay / Dostana Movie Analysis

    The movie Dostana was directed by Tarun Mansukhani. Dostana tells the story of two men who fake their sexuality and pretend to be gay in order to rent rooms in Neha's (played by Priyanka Chopra) apartment. The two men, Sam (played by Abhishek Bachchan) and Kunal (played by John Abraham), did it because Neha's aunt was only willing to rent to women. Using their relationship, Sam asks for a domestic partnership and trouble ensues. Sam's conservative mother arrives to confront him about his sexuality and Neha ends up dating her boss. However, the two have already fallen in love with their new best friend and thus begin their mission to break up Neha and her boss. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay As its plot shows, Dostana tackles several sensitive issues in order to engage its audience. One of the topics discussed was homosexuality. In the past, homosexuality has never been a part of Indian culture, largely due to its conservative nature, with religion also playing a role. In the film, the two male protagonists, considered the “heroes” of the film, pretend to be a gay couple. This causes several conflicts in the film, the main one being Sam's mother's fainting reaction as well as Neha's aunt's initial reaction of disgust. Using comedic elements, the film portrays the fake couple as a strange and unnatural couple, matching the mentality of Indians. These comedic elements included the scene in which Sam's mother discovered the couple. Through the use of song and dance, they depicted her view that being gay makes you more feminine, with scenes of her praying, blessing and exorcising her son in order to rid him of the "illness" . Even the lyrics of the song played an important role with a line stating "Your son rides the bridal palanquin", indicating that Sam is now less of a man. Besides this, Neha's aunt also made several comments in which she expressed her confusion about the boys' sexuality. Some of the comments were “How long have you been a hero and heroine?” and “Our guys liked girls these days.” show how Neha's aunt was dismayed by the current generation and the juxtaposition with her generation in matters of love. She sees homosexuality as something new and something that has never happened before. This may further highlight "the misperception and misconception that Indians have that homosexuality should be considered a foreign thing" that came from the West due to typical Bollywood-style dance scenes, but the men instead wore Western-style clothing and performed Western-style dances. Another stereotype that the film focused heavily on was gender stereotypes. In the initial scenes of the film, women appeared wearing only bikinis and it was believed that they could not stay in the same apartment as men, as mentioned by Neha's aunt. So this gave way to the pattern of the two male protagonists simulating a couple. However, despite such scenes which only prove that women were considered modest, neat and proper, always submitting to the wishes of men, Dostana once again breaks the stereotype. Neha, although she agrees with her aunt's wish to live only with other women, she is also portrayed as a headstrong, strong and independent woman. Neha is very career-focused, as evidenced by.