It wouldn’t be fair to compare Dunno Y…Na Jaane Kyun to the Hollywood Brokeback Mountain. And there are a number of reasons for this. For starters, the cultures are poles apart. The homosexual community in India is only now finding its standing in society while in the U.S., they are hardly ever discriminated. The west is more accepting of the gay lifestyle while India still chooses to believe that being “gay” is somewhat of a disease. So when Sanjay Sharma, director of Dunno Y…Na Jaane Kyun, comes out with a film that depicts the love story of two men, it’s almost by default that critics feel the need to compare it to the only popular gay film. Needless to say, the director is hell bent on deeming the film as “path breaking” but this isn’t necessary. In fact, at this point, the Indian society is dire need of awareness with regards to the gay community. And when the likes of Helen, Zeenat Aman and Kabir Bedi feel the need to be in such a film, then you know the film possesses something…dunno what, but something.
Dunno Y…Na Jaane Kyun opens up in an orthodox Catholic household where the head of the household and mother is Margaret (Helen). Her house is run by her daughter-in-law Rebecca (Zeenat Aman) whose has been abandoned years ago by her husband Peter (Kabir Bedi). With three children to care for, Rebecca finds herself having to fend for her family. Her son Ashley (Yuvraaj Parashar), however, is the source of her tension. His marriage to Jenny (Rituparna Sengupta) is on the rocks and the family soon realizes Ashley is in fact, gay. However, to Jenny’s luck, it is her brother-in-law who comes to her rescue as he expresses his love for her. As for Ashley, he meets Aryan (Kapil Sharma), a homosexual prostitute, with whom he falls in love. They decide to part ways after Ashley refuses to openly accept his sexual orientation. The film jumps a decade ahead and ends on a rather eerie note with a dead Ashley, a widowed Jenny, Aryan becoming an actor and Rebecca’s husband returning to her life.
Where do I begin with the film. For starters, the film has no head or tail with regards to its plot. I had to wrack my brain when writing the synopsis.
Overall, Sharma deserves a special mention for attempting to create a film such as Dunno Y. But he does a disastrous job with its execution. The point of the film is never actually diagnosed, the dialogues are OTT, clich
