DOTW: Why is K-Jo still allowed to make films?

It was worse enough to sit through the torture of Dostana, and now he's making more shallow garbage on terrorism? 🤢 Why is this guy allowed to make films? He's ruined Bollywood's name in the international cinema by producing pompous, self-absorbed, garbage, a la Dostana and KANK.

The sad part is, no one realizes it. Dostana was the biggest hit of last year. Let's make carictures out of gay people and mock homosexuality... har har!

I was already aware of the theme before I went to see the movie, but to be frank I never expected such prudent matter will be used to literally make non-sense, what eccentrics the movie to deviate from it's theme is the way protagonists strive to make a run for their love interest but still not keeping the dignity of the social status attained unwillingly, absolutely horrendous.

Such a mature subject matter was handled with immense immaturity, and this has not only degraded the social stature of people belong to the stream but also embarrasses everyone while watching it alongside their pals.

Two straight Indian men acting gay......Ha! ha! ha!, and how long can you carry that as a joke? Apparently, enough for it to make a sequel for our naive Indian audiences. And I heard people saying that it takes a giant leap from the conventional Bollywood stories. 🤢 This movie definitely doesn't elevate Indian cinema to the "next level" but, rather drops Indian cinema below the great quality of some of the classical productions. This movie takes Indian cinema backwards, into a cultural cesspool of miss matched Westernized Indians trying to look cool, and hip.

And now K-Jo is on his moral crusade once again, this time, with terrorism as his victim. Such a sensitive topic should not fall into the hands of an amateur and juvenile 'filmmaker.' I can totally predict a contrieved and preachy mess of a film, with Kareena Kapoor giving a bhashan on how goras are so evil and sadistic, and in between, she'll probably start singing 'Sarey Jahan Se Acha'...K-jo takes himself way too seriously and tries to force a message that no one wants to hear.

It is the arrogance of people like Johar who produce such COMMERCIALIZED CRAP, which is WHOLLY disconnected with India that the main criticism must be directed against.

Talentless hack.

Discuss your views freely on this :)

Roxy, I couldn't agree more. Great post by the way. 👍🏼👏

Unfortunately, I do have to go. But I will post my further thoughts on this when I get back.

I wish he could stay away from subjects like this and not ruin them. If he wants to do cheesy love stories then fine, but taking serious subjects and then making a mockery of them is not something I particularly like when it comes to his recent films.

This article sums up my feelings about the claptrap that is Dostana:

Why take scraps from the straight table?

The recent Screen Awards mocked the gay community and yet was lapped up by several gay people. HETEROSEXUALS, in the Hindi film industry at any rate, are a jaded lot. The only way they seem to find some variety in their sad and pathetic lives is to dress up as their conception of gay men (which is only drag) and do what they think is the only thing gay men do (which is camp it up). Now, while I am not one of those innumerable femininity and women-hating gay men on guys4men and countless other such sites making clear that they do not want femmes, girlish men, swishy queens and that such types should keep away (what I say is 'Chhaa ja raaniyon!' which is what the supercool hijra in Welcome to Sajjanpur says), I can't help feeling this homogenisation of the gay subject by the Hindi film industry is a tad exploitative and tired.

Take the Nokia Screen awards that recently had the Bombay papers all agog. Hosts Sajid Khan and Shreyas Talpade donned the greasepaint and some hideous clothes and hammed it up. As if 'Dostana' was not bad enough in terms of squeezing the cheapest jokes out of bum-banditry (by the way Irrfan Khan uses this word in the opening shots of the equally unbearable Slumdog Millionaire and it is such a specifically British term of abuse that no Bombay policeman, however sophisticated, would know it and even if one did, would not use it on a Dharavi slum boy who would not make any sense of it anyway) and not knowing when to stop, these two went at it hammer and tongs as well.

Blockhead John Abraham obliged. He said he missed Abhishek's chest hair. We missed John's brain, as usual. Abhishek and John won the 'Best Couple' award in the cheapest gimmick, though not cheaper than the fake 'gay' relation ship and, most of all, the fake kiss in the film for which they won the award, and then it was back to Sajid's and Shreyas' bawdy jokes and bad make-up. Aishwarya plasticine prig Rai and Bipasha behnji buffalo Basu giggled and accepted the award on behalf of their men. These women think we gay men are silly jokes, to be giggled and chuckled at while they are the real thing, safe in their Symbolic stupidity.

But what's even more offensive is the segment of the LGBT community (or are they the neocon 'queers'?) who lap up this nonsense, who are so grateful for being mocked at in Dostana, who bleat to the media about how wonderful this award from Nokia is, who call this is a historical breakthrough.That they mistake their acceptance of this offensive s**t (as opposed to nice lover's s**t in an S/M deal) as an ability to laugh at themselves just shows their desperation to be in the limelight, and the depths they'll plumb just for a little visibility, even if it is only to have s**t thrown in their faces and on their lives.There is absolutely NOTHING positive or worth taking home from a film like Dostana, as several columns on this page have already shown. When will we ever grow up and realise that sometimes no representation at all is better than some utterly retrograde variety of it? When will we let straight people know that they cannot take the substance of our difficult lives and make some gossamer claptrap out of it? I guess one of the realities we are going to have to deal with is the large contingent of rightwing, neoliberal LGBT and 'queer' folk among us. Shallow, apolitical, feeding off the NGO monsterworld, these folk have no qualms about leeching off the market even if it spits on them and peels them off to stamp on them. They dig that stuff. They love the limelight even if it involves nothing more than having buckets of p**s thrown on them (so, not in the nice watersports kinda way) while in the charmed spotlight. Truly, with friends like this, who needs enemies?

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Why+take+scraps+from+the+straight+table?&artid=czPOP9cbVGk=&SectionID=f4OberbKin4=&MainSectionID=f4OberbKin4=&SEO=Hindi+film+industry&SectionName=cxWvYpmNp4fBHAeKn3LcnQ==

Great post, Roxy!

I also never thought Dostana was 'pathbreaking' in anyway rather had MANY cringeworthy moments where humor was derived from tacky scenarios....especially the bg music in some bit....I don't recall it clearly now but I remember being really pissed off about some music that had this booming 'GAY' or 'MACHO' sound to it :S LOL....can't remember....and I found those bits with Boman Irani and that random gay immigration guy doing ballet in the middle of the apartment REALLY weird :S

And I really shouldnt' get into how the sole female lead in that movie was objectified into a bimbo....

Moving on, I'm also extremely wary of the fact that KJo is now attempting a film on terrorism....I'm not expecting anything good to come out of this....the man should stick to his candyfloss romances....he can't make anything other than that....everything else has always turned out to be a disaster only.....

dang, i thought i was the only one who thought dostana was completely overrated

Koodos for posting this truth. I have waited a long time for someone to come up and say it out loud. When i went to watch Dostana on theater after watching it I was stunned. Its a shame how Karan Johar has lied in the movie. He claimed that in US gay marriage is legal and immigration laws are soft on letting gay people become citizens, this my friend is an utter lie. United states of America does not permit gay marriages and they dont have any rights protecting gay couples and certainly not for immigration. Karan johar not only mocked gay people but he also mocked NRI's who have worked very hard overseas to acheive whatever they have and not by pretending to be gay. Before making a movie it is Kjos duty to cheack the facts and not make a fool out of himself and others.

Originally posted by: nureat01

Great post, Roxy!

I also never thought Dostana was 'pathbreaking' in anyway rather had MANY cringeworthy moments where humor was derived from tacky scenarios....especially the bg music in some bit....I don't recall it clearly now but I remember being really pissed off about some music that had this booming 'GAY' or 'MACHO' sound to it :S LOL....can't remember....and I found those bits with Boman Irani and that random gay immigration guy doing ballet in the middle of the apartment REALLY weird :S

And I really shouldnt' get into how the sole female lead in that movie was objectified into a bimbo....

Moving on, I'm also extremely wary of the fact that KJo is now attempting a film on terrorism....I'm not expecting anything good to come out of this....the man should stick to his candyfloss romances....he can't make anything other than that....everything else has always turned out to be a disaster only.....

Thanks for the support, Anu. 😛

I agree with your post, especially with the bolded part. He seems to do that a lot in his films: objectify women in such a way to make it seem like they're without substance. Oh, and not to mention how he always makes the 'western' world look like it's full of vice and corruption, while India is pure and should be used as a benchmark for all other cultures. What a ridiculous notion!

I'm looking forward to all the terrorists and goras joining hands, and singing 'Sarey jahan se acha, Hindustan humaraa...; 🤢😆

Originally posted by: gugly

Koodos for posting this truth. I have waited a long time for someone to come up and say it out loud. When i went to watch Dostana on theater after watching it I was stunned. Its a shame how Karan Johar has lied in the movie. He claimed that in US gay marriage is legal and immigration laws are soft on letting gay people become citizens, this my friend is an utter lie. United states of America does not permit gay marriages and they dont have any rights protecting gay couples and certainly not for immigration. Karan johar not only mocked gay people but he also mocked NRI's who have worked very hard overseas to acheive whatever they have and not by pretending to be gay. Before making a movie it is Kjos duty to cheack the facts and not make a fool out of himself and others.

Ah yes, I totally remember complaining about the lack of consistency with the facts, but then again, am I really surprised? I'm just shocked that K-Jo has escaped without a scratch. He has, intentionally or unintentionally, demeaned the minorities with his over the top, craptastic jokes, and everyone hails him as if he's some sort of God amongst insects.

The sad part is, that he actually BELIEVES he's a good director. As a filmmamker, he's totally uninspired, unoriginal and lacks any vision whatsoever.

As usual, amazing post Foxy! They made a complete mockery out of such a sensitive subject and he thinks he has done some great deed for the Indian community (he actually seems to think so). I really hope he did not ruin Qurbaan as well, but you never know with him..

Originally posted by: roxthefox

The sad part is, no one realizes it. Dostana was the biggest hit of last year. Let's make carictures out of gay people and mock homosexuality... har har!

Exactly. See, the question is, why is Karan Johar able to make these movies? Because the audience supports them.

If you put something like A Wednesday vs. Dostana in a theater for one week, I'd guarantee that 60-70% of the audience would flock to the later, just because they prefer watching a brainless comedy. Entertainment is a means of escape for people and they'd rather watch something that gives them a dance and a laugh, no matter at whose expense, rather than something with material and meaning, which'll give them a thing or two to think about. Same with television --- everyone whines about how inane and repetitive Ekta Kapoor's shows are. Yet, these are the shows people prefer watching over other new concepts or comparatively saner counter-parts, just because they want to see the same old, cliched "romance" and lovestory from la-la land, even with their ridiculous portrayal of such a subject matter.

It's the audience that serves as a foothold for the churning of such crap, and IMO, that's where all the blame lies. At the end of the day, the audience herds towards such foolishness over other reasonable material and someone like Karan Johar accomodates them.