Dil Dosti etc

DIRECTOR: Manish Tiwary

And what do we have here? Another slice-of-life, coming-of-age film set in Delhi University — the DU of U specials, seedy hostel rooms, Bihari boys roaming around the corridors of their college, looking for votes and 'respect' rather than degrees, and smart English-speaking lads looking for love. And if you believe Tiwary, sex.

Oodles of it. All Apoorva (Imaad) wants is to get as much as he can, as fast as he can, whether it's from a overused G B road resident (Smriti Mishra), or from a school-girl (Ishitta) who thinks people who read Sartre are 'pseudo-intellectual'. As opposed to Sanjay (Shreyas), who thinks marriage is the first step towards the bedroom, and whose views are violently opposed by his rich girl-friend who wants to be a model (Nikita).

Modern, westernised youth vs traditional, feudal mindsets: even if it's been done before, there's space for films which are about the young, and talk to the young. But Dil Dosti etc doesn't quite get where it wants to.

Jha has some of the characters down pat, particularly the Bihari sidekick of Sanjay; even, to an extent, Sanjay himself. That's because Shreyas is an earnest trier. But the director gets lost with Apoorva: maybe there are some young men who walk into college and hostel desperate to notch up numbers on their belts, but Shah is trying to be so cool and so laidback, that he doesn't really register.

Neither does the film.