Dosti Dushmani

Dosti Dushmani review:

Noted South director T. Rama Rao's foray in to Bollywood production; Dosti Dushmani was a staple '80s multistarrer where three childhood buddies grow up to become a doctor (Jeetendra), a lawyer (Rishi Kapoor) and a police inspector (Rajnikanth) with a common enemy (Amrish Puri) to fight. Puri gets the cop's wife (Poonam Dhillon) raped and video-filmed to blackmail them later..

Rishi Kapoor joined the south bandwagon with jumping jack Jeetu and Rajini Sir to form the heroic trio here. Bhanupriya, Poonam and Kimi Katkar played their love interests. There was a shocking rape scene filmed on Poonam and Gurbachan Singh which somehow escaped the censors scissors. Wonder how these scenes would get passed then...

Bhanupriya was introduced opposite Jeetu and she was promoted as the next Sridevi by movie mags of that time. Incidentally, Sridevi was the first choice for her role but acted pricey. Surprisingly, the south production regulars Kader Khan and Shakti Kapoor appeared only in special appearances here as Amrish Puri's Singapore wale partners in crime.

Dosti Dushmani was a modest hit of 1986 which was otherwise a lean year for Bollywood with more flops than hits. The fact that it came during Diwali helped its collections considerably. Watch it to understand what 80's masala cinema was all about!!

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.