Dostana

You may not agree with its politics, but `Dostana’ is all set to do for the word `gay’ what `Taare Zameen Par’ did for `dyslexia’: bring it out of the closet.

On second thoughts, being political would have made it a deeper, complicated film. All debutant director Tarun Mansukhani, and producer Karan Johar want you do is to have a blast.

Accordingly, in order to rent a swish apartment in Miami, Sam (Abhishek) and Karan (John) are made to be gay. Note, not homosexual. Not queer. Just gay, the word that used to denote happiness in simpler times.

And why the leading men need to be pretend-gay is the only little wrinkle in the plot which is otherwise as straight as an arrow.

Two boys, one girl, and post interval, one more boy. So who gets her? Sam the male nurse, wearer of brightly flowered shirts? Or Karan, he of the golden bronze chest, and gleaming pectorals? Or late entrant Abhimanyu, shiny in his Armanis, and Guccis? The eye candy is blinding.

Designers Manish Malhotra and Aki Narula have clearly worked as hard on this project as the director.

Equally clearly, Miami has been chosen because where there are beaches, there are babes, and other hot bods. The stars get by on very few clothes, particularly John, who looks most fetching in his very brief briefs. Priyanka, with her collagen-ed lips and chic wardrobe, looking much better here than in `Fashion’, fits right in. Abhishek makes up for his fully-clothed appearance by being nicely goofy.

Only Sindhi aunty-types (Sushmita) and Punjabi mammas (Kirron) have the vapours at the sight of touchy-feely moments between John and Abhishek.

They are all over each other, and there is even, ohmigod, a lip lock. Everyone else seems to take their gayness very coolly, including the supposed couple. But the gallery is played too, as well, with lots of nudge-nudge wink-wink gay gags. A limp-wristed Boman Irani shows up to drool over the boys, and when a strangely understated Bobby Deol is added to the mix, the party is complete.

Only when Tarun gets emotion in, does the film start to drag. Mistake, because no one does tears like Karan. Ignore those bits, stay with the fun ones, and get laughing. And confirm, like we did, that John has the cutest butt in Bollywood.