DIL DOSTI ETC. has turned out to be a sweet little success for it's makers.
Amidst a plethora of releases in the month of September, a small film like 'Dil Dosti Etc. has thrown a pleasant surprise. All India collection figures reveal that 'Dil Dosti Etc.' is on way to being a sleeper hit.
The first week collection for this small budget film was well above Rupees 1 Crore 50 Lakh mark. It has now entered into a strong second week with approximately the same number of prints and shows (the total weekend collection is above Rupees 50 Lakhs).
The film is now very close to recovering its production costs. Made by debutant director, Manish Tiwary, 'Dil Dosti Etc.' has successfully found its audience and several very positive reviews (excerpts of some are as below).
This is what some of the leading critics had to say about this Shreyas Talpade, Imaad Shah, Smriti Mishra, Nikita Anand and Ishitta Sharrma film:
"Tiwary's medium-budget milieu is to the present-gen, what Sai Paranjpye's middle-of-the-road Chashme Buddoor was to the '80s. Well worth going back." - by Mayank Shekhar
"How many films do we see targeted explicitly at the youth/students/college kids? Prakash Jha has found his audience and in director Manish Tiwary manages to tell a decent tale. It's shocking at times yes; but so is reality. ...college students are going to identify with this flick and I suspect there will be mass bookings in the days to come." - by Martin D'Souza
"Debutant director Manish Tiwary's 'Dil Dosti Etc' is a beautiful comment on the pangs of growing up... Set against a silly wager that two men engage in- (that) Sanjay will win the elections and Apurv will manage to have sex with three women... Tiwary manages to show two divergent views. There are two Indias here in his movie. One is the India that lives in the metros, pampered existences and the other is the small town mentality. As a first film, Tiwary has proved that he has a story to tell and that he also has the ability to tell that story well." - by MSN
* "He is one Di#$head..."
* "Wo Uski Nahi Teri Le Raha Tha..."
* "I will (...) make a whore out of you..."
When you hear dialogues like these, you know for sure two things.
- That you have entered into the youth zone. A zone where statements like these are common and mouthed not just by guys but also hip-n-happening urban girls.
- That the Censors have become much liberal. No more annoying beeps here since profanities are let go as long as they are in the realms of a film and are justified.
Well, this indeed is justified as DIL DOSTI ETC could well be the middle-class Delhi setting for an up market DIL CHAHTA HAI setting in Mumbai/Sydney." - by Joginder Tuteja
"Peppered with punchy dialogues and witty one-liners... Dil Dosti Etc is like a rich mosaic that traces the journey of different characters in bits and pieces that gradually fall into place and coalesce seamlessly. Dil Dosti Etc does indeed mark an impressive debut by Manish Tiwary" - by Ranjan Das