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Star cast: Yuvraaj Parasher, Kapil Sharma, Zeenat Aman, Rituparna Sengupta, Helen.
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What’s Good: Hardly anything.
What’s Bad: The theme; the pronunciations in the English dialogues; the acting; the music.
Verdict: Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun… well, dunno why this film was made!
Loo break: Plenty!
Movies Masti Magic Studios and Shantketan Films’ Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun.. (A) is the story of a dysfunctional Christian family comprising Margaret D’Souza (Helen), her son, Peter (Kabir Bedi), daughter-in-law, Rebecca (Zeenat Aman), and their three children – Ashley (Yuvraaj Parasher), Sam (Maradona Rebello) and Linda (Hazel). Ashley is married to Jenny (Rituparna Sengputa) and the two have a little daughter.
Although the family pretends to be close-knit in front of the world, there’s a lot of tension between the members. Rebecca and Jenny hate Margaret because their ideologies don’t match. Peter had, years ago, given up the material life and had left the family to fend for itself. In a bid to raise her family, Rebecca, therefore, sucks up to the passes made by her boss, Kanhaiyalal Deshmukh (Vinay Apte), whom she keeps calling by the abbreviated name of KLD, and Malkani (Vivek Vaswani), a rich businessman, only so that she can provide a comfortable lifestyle to her family.
While Ashley works in an MNC, Sam is still on the lookout for a paying job. Sam loves his sister-in-law, Jenny, and wants to settle down in life with her. Suddenly, one day, Peter returns as he is dying of cancer and wants to spend some days with his family. Rebecca refuses to accept him back in her life while the other family members are more welcoming. Almost equally suddenly one day, Ashley is shown to be gay. Under a new identity, he has an affair with Aryan (Kapil Sharma). Then, one day, Ashley and Jenny have a fight and the latter walks out on the former. Sam makes the most of the situation, woos her and has a relationship with her. Sam wants to take Jenny with him abroad where he has landed a good job.
What happens to Aryan and Ashley’s homosexual relationship? Do Jenny and Sam get married? What happens to Peter? What happens to Rebecca’s unusual relationship with KLD and Malkani?
The film deals with the happenings in the D’Souza household in the first half but it changes track at interval point so that the gay angle of the story takes precedence over all else in the second half. The film tries to justify homosexuality, which will not be palatable to the majority of the audience. Not just that, even the scenes of love-making between males will repulse the orthodox audience no end.
The first part about the dysfunctional family is also depressing to watch because everyone in the drama seems to be having some problem or the other. Rebecca’s proximity to two males will also not make much sense to the orthodox audience because it appears that she is trying to buy her children luxury items rather than items of basic necessity, due to her proximity to the two men. It is for this very reason that Margaret’s outburst, towards the end, against KLD who tries to make fun of Rebecca giving in to his demands, doesn’t gladden the heart of the viewer. For, it is not as if every helpless woman opts for what Rebecca has chosen to do. The track of Sam trying to brainwash his own sister-in-law into marrying him, and of the two having a brief affair is also too bold for the Indian audience and doesn’t leave a good taste in the mouth.
Watch More: ‘Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun..’ Movie Posters
All in all, the story and screenplay seem to have been written just to shock the audience rather than with conviction. The Christian backdrop and the language of communication between the characters being mainly English (and only sparingly Hindi) will make matters worse for the viewers. What’s irritating is that the dialogues and pronunciations are so pathetic and sometimes even so incorrect that they will be simply put off by the entire facade to make it seem like it’s been made for a very educated audience. Note, for instance, the dialogue, ‘May your wish comes (not come) true’. Or when, ‘leave’ is pronounced as ‘live’ in the dialogue, ‘Just leave me alone’! The film has been dubbed in Hindi too.
The ending is unnecessarily sugar-sweet. Everybody seems to be in a forgiving mood for no rhyme or reason but such an ending is far from impressive. In short, Kapil Sharma’s script doesn’t have much to offer. His dialogues are commonplace.
Kapil Sharma doesn’t impress. Yuvraaj Parasher also does a very ordinary job. Rituparna Sengupta is earnest but she should’ve taken more care of her pronunciations. Zeenat Aman is most at ease with her English dialogues. She acts fairly well. Helen is okay but her Hindi is terribly bad. Kabir Bedi does an average job. Asha Sachdev and Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal lend ordinary support. Vinay Apte and Viveck Vaswani are nice. Maradona Rebello, Hazel and Jennifer Mayani pass muster. Sonam Arora (as Tulsi) is okay. Ganesh Yadav acts ably as the police inspector. Parikshat Sahni (unrecognisable, as Joseph) makes his presence felt. Tara Sharma gets almost no scope in a special appearance. Aryan Vaid also gets as good as nil scope.
Sanjay Sharma’s direction is hardly better than the script. The film seems to have been written and made for the festival circuit audience only. His editing should’ve been far more crisp. Nikhil’s music score is functional. The title song has some melody. Lyrics (Satya Prakash and Vimal Kashyap) are ordinary. Camerawork and other technical values are average.
On the whole, Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun.. will fail at the box-office. Its dubbed Hindi version has also been released simultaneously and its box-office fate will hardly be any different.
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