The film Dostana was directed by Tarun Mansukhani. Dostana tells the story of two men who fake their sexuality and pretend to be homosexual 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 so because Neha's aunt was only willing to rent to women. Using their relationship, Sam applies for a domestic partnership and problems ensue. Sam's conservative mother arrives to confront him about his sexuality, and Neha ends up dating her boss. However, the two men have already fallen in love with their new best friend and thus begin their mission to separate Neha and her boss. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As seen through its plot, Dostana touches on several sensitive issues to engage its audience. One topic introduced was homosexuality. In the past, homosexuality was never a part of Indian culture, largely due to their conservative attitude, and religion also played a role. In the film, the two male protagonists, considered the "heroes", posed as a gay couple. This causes several conflicts in the film, the main one being Sam's mother's fainting reaction and Neha's aunt's initial reaction of disgust. Making use of comedic elements, the film portrayed the fake couple as strange and unnatural, in line with the mentality of Indians. These comedic elements included the scene where Sam's mother found out about the couple. Through the use of song and dance, they represented his opinion that being homosexual makes one more feminine, with scenes in which he prays, blesses and exorcises his son to free him from the "disease". The song lyrics also played an important role with a line stating "Your son rides the wedding palanquin", indicating that Sam is now less of a man. Apart from this, Neha's aunt made several comments expressing her confusion about boys' sexuality. Some of the comments were "Since when are you a hero and heroine?" and “In our days our boys liked girls.” shows how upset Neha's aunt was towards the current generation and the juxtaposition with her generation when it came to love. He sees homosexuality as something new and never happened before until now. This could further highlight the “misperception and misconception that Indians have that homosexuality should be considered an alien thing” that came from the West due to the typical Bollywood-style dance scenes, but males instead wore Western-style clothes and performed Western-style dances. Another stereotype that the film heavily focused on was gender stereotypes. In the initial scenes of the film, women appeared dressed only in bikinis and were thought not to be allowed to stay in the same apartment as men, as mentioned by Neha's aunt. This then started the pattern of the two male leads pretending to be a couple. However, despite such scenes which only prove that women were considered modest, prim and proper, always submissive to the desires of men, Dostana once again breaks the stereotype. Neha, although she agrees with her aunt's desire to live only with other women, is still portrayed as an opinionated, strong and independent woman. Neha is very career driven, shown by how she expected a promotion at work, and she wasn't even afraid to voice her opinion after finding out about Sam and Kunal's role in typing to separate her and her boss. He expresses his honest and non-honest opinion.
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