Buddies: then & now

Dil chahta hai completes 10 years tomorrow even as it hands over the buddy baton to Zindagi na Milegi dobara. t2 rewinds to farhan’s classic debut and also celebrates zoya’s sparkling new film. can you add to these moments/lines? tell t2@abp.in

DCH: 5 BEST SCENES Just when it seems impossible for anything to come between Sameer, Akash and Sid, Sid’s “pyaar” for the middle-aged Tara fuels a fight. Sid slaps Akash and the two part ways. For months. [The Akhtars have become pros at changing the mood within a scene and suddenly creating deep conflict among buddies. DilChahta Hai started this, it carried on in Rock On!!, and has now reached Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Proof of the DCH boys having become men in ZNMD? Despite Arjun slapping Imran, their buddy trip does not come to an end.] Dil Chahta Hai It was perhaps the strength of the slap scene above that made the reunion scene between Akash and Sid at the hospital — again Tara is the catalyst — so emotionally charged. When Akash tells Sid on the phone: “Just turn around” and they meet after that fateful night outside Sid’s house, it is the ultimate climax of Bolly buddyhood. Sid is instantly infatuated with Tara and when she is okay with him painting her, he dashes to his house to get the canvas and his tools. Farhan captures this dash in a single take and uses the steadicam — rare in those days — to hold on to Sid’s excitement. If you google the images of DCH, besides stills and posters, you will see hundreds and hundreds of threesome buddies trying out the famous Akash-Sameer-Sid poses — the three shadows, the three trying to eat raw fish, the three looking out at the horizon (the one below is the original one), et al. Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s music + Ravi Chandran’s camera + Sreekar Prasad’s cutting + cool buddy chemistry = a flawlessly picturised song. lAkash and Shalini are having a good time in Sydney but she is engaged to another man. We get a glimpse of something brewing between them when Akash can’t hop on to the metro and the doors close, separating them. This leads to that scene when a vagrant frightens Shalini and Akash comes to her rescue by hugging the man and freaking him out. The look in Shalini’s eyes says it all. DCH: 5 BEST LINES Sameer: Hi Priya... haan main... magar woh... suno toh... tumne toh... lekin main... kab se kya... Sameer: Hum cake khane ke liye kahin bhi jaa saktey hai. Sameer: Ya toh yeh dosti gehri hai ya yeh photo 3D hai! Akash: Tum kahaan ja rahi ho? Shalini: Yeh flight Sydney jaati hai! Akash: Haan lekin tum kahan ja rahi ho? Shalini: Sydney... Akash: Achha kitni ajeeb baat hai ke hum teenon Sydney jaa rahe hain. Shalini: Hum teenon? Akash: Haan tum, main aur yeh flight! Akash: Kya kar raha hai yaar, mard ban, be a man! DCH: 3 THINGS WE WOULD HAVE CHANGED Akash’s long speech at Shalini's wedding. True, Farhan wrote it as an antidote to the graduation night club scene when Akash had spoken the exact lines to Shalini without meaning a word then. But somehow, it feels like a KJo scene in a FAk film. The Sydney Opera scene, of course, leads to that brilliant moment when Akash sees Shalini at the end of the visual maze. But the Troilus and Cressida opera goes on for so long and Shalini’s translation is so soggy that it’s now our cue for the fast forward button when watched on home video.. After Tara dies, Sid meets this new girl on the beach and in the round-table dinner sequence, the girl’s sitting next to him. As if the film couldn’t have ended with him single. That’s what’s changed about the Akhtars in a decade. In ZNMD, Kabir ends up single, while the Imran-Nuria pairing doesn’t have much of a future. It’s not a dream ending, it's more real. ZNMD: 5 BEST SCENES Bagwati is not a moment, she is a character! The 12,000 Euros Hermes bag, who gets a closing credit for herself in the film (terrific product placement), is a real LOL element. From the time she arrives in Spain and Imran gets a whiff of her, it’s a riot. At various times on the trip Bagwati gets shades and scarves and even some fresh Spanish air. No wonder Imran sheds a tear when she flies back to London. “Tumhari zindagi badalne waali hai,” Laila tells Arjun before he dives deep into the sea. After he has played with the fish and corals and even done a ballet of sorts with Laila, he emerges from the waters in a trance. He sits on the boat in silence, looking into the distance, tears trickling down his cheeks. The moment is so real yet magical, captured with out-of-focus shots and asymmetrical fast cuts. The three friends and Laila settle down to enjoy a dinner cooked by Arjun. The table talk ranges from Imran ribbing Arjun about “wah bete, ek hi dubki mein zindagi ke saare raaz seekh liye” — a line Farhan Akhtar has later mentioned as a favourite — to Arjun turning the tables on Imran for once (“bas saans lete raho”) to Laila discovering Arjun’s shocking pink phone. Very easy, very enjoyable. She comes like a hawa ka jhonka and once the Tomatina festival is over, Laila’s tryst with the ‘bwoys’ is cut short. After the customary hugs, they go their separate ways. But she isn’t done. “Can I borrow your bike?” she asks her friend and takes off with racy intensity. She catches up with the gang, walks up to Arjun and kisses him with the wow words: “Mujhe aphsos karna nahin aata!” Way to go, girl. The second half is heavier than the rollercoaster first and things get a bit staid till Senorita bursts on to the screen. This is followed by a Little gem: the drunk Doordarshan scene. Arjun hums the tune that preceded the Sunday feature film and the other two join in. In buddy banter at its best, Arjun equates his worklife with school, refers to the three as “You (Kabir), me and asshole (Imran)”, goes on about how things are destined to be. In between, Kabir breaks out into the “you are in love” cacophony to tease Arjun. Precious. ZNMD: 5 BEST LINES Imran: Kya tum mantally challenged ho gaye ho my boy? Kabir: Boy nahin, bwoy! Imran: Bwwwwoy! Kabir: Arjun my bwoy tum iss uniform mein mantal lag rahe ho! Arjun: Meri zindagi toh jaise bandh dibbe mein kat rahi hai. Laila: Insaan ko dibbe mein sirf tab hona chahiye jab woh mar chuka ho. Imran: Kitni baar sorry bolna padega? Arjun: Tab tak jab tak yahaan se naa nikle. [Arjun thumps his chest.] Imran: Tune mujhe phone khareedne ko bola tha, kaun sa phone nahin bola tha. Arjun: Am I a Japanese schoolgirl? Imran: Moshi, moshi! Imran: Naam kya hai tumhara? Laila: Laila. Tumhara? Imran: Imran. Par dost mujhe Majnooh bulaate hain. ZNMD: 3 THINGS WE WOULD HAVE CHANGED One of the cardinal rules of scripting is that the characters cannot share with others information that the audience already know. Thanks to Kabir’s flashback, we know that he didn’t want to propose to Natasha and had in fact bought a Mummy ring. That really makes the rooftop scene where Kabir explains the same thing to Arjun and Imran quite redundant. It’s well acted, like most of the other scenes, but all it does is add some flab to the film. Zoya follows a strict script template for the film. Every adventure turns out to be cathartic for one of the three guys, one of the two who hadn’t chosen the particular adventure sport. That works but she also chooses a formulaic leitmotif for the other gag of the film — Kabir startling strangers by shouting. It works the first time in the roadside restroom and backfires nicely on him in the end at the bar when the other two guys choose to keep mum. But the one in the middle — on the winding street — looks forced. The closing credits song is thanda after the film has left you on such a high. Also, the Kabir-Natasha dynamic is a bit tricky in the way it’s shown in the song. And it’s ironic that the credits song doesn’t give credit to the Jill and Kevin wedding dance viral video on the web from where it’s been inspired.