Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun Review: Homosexuality

In an informal chat with me a few months ago, after watching Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun at a private screening, director Sanjay Sharma enlightened me that his endeavour in making the film is to drive home the fact that there's nothing anomalous about being homosexual. "Through this film, I want to highlight and draw attention to the relationships between gay people. Their sentiments and emotions. The idea is not to poke fun at the gay community. In fact, the intent is to make a film that looks at the issue and the gay community in a very serious perspective," he remarked.

Very noble intentions, I must pronounce, but do the gracious objectives of the director that he sets out to achieve come across effectively on celluloid? Does the film come across as an emotional, sensitive and a ground-breaking experience? Let me attempt to examine...

Homosexuality is still taboo in India and Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun attempts to tell a story that's shades different from Fire and Girlfriend or even Brokeback Mountain. Engaging at times, but amateurish at places, the film has the courage to go where most Hindi films have not dared to enter. The writing [script: Kapil Sharma] holds your interest in most parts.

The storyline follows a gay model forced to compromise his morals for his career. He then forms an intimate relationship with another man, who is already married and lives with his family. It would be interesting to see whether our mainstream Indian audience is open to see a film on such issues, though the film also captures the multi-layered relationship within an Anglo-Indian family.

Director Sanjay Sharma has handled a few sensitive sequences well, but the writing, which should've focused on the main plot, drifts into plots of the numerous family members. The songs are melodious. The Lata Mangeshkar track is soothing and the pick of the lot.

Both Kapil Sharma and Yuvraaj Parashar come up with sensitive and daring performances. The film marks the return of Zeenat Aman [excellent] on the silver screen, besides an ensemble cast of Helen [good], Rituparna Sengupta [first-rate], Kabir Bedi [perfect], Maradona Rebello [confident], Aryan Vaid [okay], Tara Sharma [alright], Asha Sachdev [fair], Hazel [hardly there], Mahabanoo Kotwal [good], Viveck Vaswani [adequate] and Parikshat Sahni [wasted].

On the whole, Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun is an honest attempt. Sure, it's not a perfect film, but at least it makes a sincere attempt to highlight the issue.

Director: Sanjay Sharma
Cast: Aryan Vaid, Kapil Sharma, Maradona Rebello, Hazel, Zeenat Aman, Helen, Rituparna Sengupta