42 years of Dostana
17th October 1980
Although a commercial success when it first released, the film itself appears to fall short of its potential considering the names attached. While Dostana’s plot more than qualifies to be fully ‘filmi’- childhood friends Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan), a cop and Ravi (Shatrughan Sinha), a lawyer, often find themselves on opposing sides of law – Vijay nabs bad guys and Ravi represents them in the court of law – they never let anything come in between till both of them end up falling for the same woman, Sheetal (Zeenat Aman) – it’s probably the only love triangle attempted by screenwriters
Salim Javed .
On the face of it, Dostana is typical 1980s film that packs in a little of everything in terms of standard Hindi cinema fare. Yet, beneath all this, Dostana has a few things going for it and perhaps this is why the film still continues to work its magic in a silent but resolute manner. Directed by Raj Khosla, Dostana is the first film that was produced by the late Yash Johar, who is today better known Karan Johar’s father. Yash Johar had originally wanted Vijay Anand to direct the film but incessant delays on the filmmaker's part to commit, saw Johar approach Raj Khosla through a common thread ( Navketan ).
The other thing that separates Dostana from all the other Salim-Javed scripts is that along with Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973) it might be the only other film where music plays a vital role in the narrative. It is not as if Salim-Javed films do not feature memorable music but almost every single script of theirs is chiseled to near perfection and this often makes the need for songs almost irrelevant.
Dostana is one of the few movies done by Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha together and both of them have done superbly. Alongwith the seasoned writers, the seasoned director (Raj Khosla) has also left no stone unturned in utilizing the talent and the popularity of the twosome to the optimum. Zeenat Aman was at the peak of her career at that time and she has completed the glamour quota alongwith some good acting too. Pran, Prem Chopra and Helen have also done exceedingly well. The character of Helen is such in the script that it takes you aback as the story heads towards its ending scene. All others are also perfectly in place.
Technically and production value wise, the movie is up to the mark. Editing is sharp. The fight and chase sequences have been executed very well the climax is superb. The narrator has not allowed the momentum of the movie to slacken at any place.The courtroom scenes involving Shatrughan Sinha (playing the role of a criminal lawyer) are quite impressive and the seasoned script-writers who are the dialog-writers as well have shown their class once again. Despite being too simplistic, the court-room scenes are just too good and must have been able to generate claps in the theatres when this movie was released. And keeping the angry young man image of the larger than life hero - Amitabh Bachchan, scenes have been written specially for him. The scene in which Amitabh slaps Prem Chopra's man (Amrish Puri) in his presence is highly effective and quite in line with the towering personality of the legendary hero of the Indian cinema.
There is a good balance between romance and comedy on one hand and action and thrill on the other in the script. The friendship of the heroes and its breakage proves to be the icing on the cake.
Amitabh Bachchan was outstanding and his equation with Zeenat Aman and Shatrughan Sinha is played with equal aplomb. A feast for his fans.
Seen in first week at Chitra Dadar .
I think main theatre was Eros.
Zeenat Aman played the sole heroine with two competing heroes in 3 movies in 1980. She played a role in Dostana with Amitabh & Shatrughan, Qurbani with Vinod Khanna and Feroz Khan, and Bombay 405 miles with Shatrughan & Vinod Khanna. Truly in Demand
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