- Release Date: – 28/04/2023
- Cast: – Saju Ahmed, Kaushik Nath, Dipjyoti Dutta, Jatin Das, Rupashree Phukan, Shruti Hussain, Rimi Deori, Kasvi Sarma, and Javed Akhtar
- Director: – Kenny Deori Basumatary
Kenny Deori Basumatary’s new film ‘Ki Kowa, Dosti‘ chronicles the journey of seven friends as they navigate through the highs and lows of living together in rented houses in Guwahati. Four boys and three girls have to deal with a plethora of different circumstances and minor challenges that not only test their friendships but also force them to make bizarre choices that not only impact their individual lives but also shape the overall fabric and dynamic of their friendship and the greater picture involving the friends.
Shruti, Tora and Pahi are forced to put up with an unwanted roommate, Preeti, their landlord’s relative whose forced Hindi influence on Assamese is as much a cause of confusion for the other girls as it is a source of irritation.
The arrival of this girl not only upsets their otherwise peaceful co-existence but also forces them to look for means of dislodging this unwanted entity from their midst. Rajiv, Ankur and Parvez, on the other hand, gleefully welcome Daniel into their circle. Daniel belongs to a rich family but his father wants him to learn to deal with life in the most basic manner possible. Hence, he puts him up with the trio of Rajiv, Ankur and Parvez and requests them to train him to tackle life like a true middle-class man. The rest of the film is about the stories of these boys and girls whose lives often crisscross leading to some interesting and hilarious situations.
I have always loved Kenny Deori Basumatary’s brand of humour and have always felt a freshness and earthen beauty in his storytelling and comedy. His writing of various situations and dialogues in his previous films has always been a source of inspiration and comedy for me.
Even in his serious film Suspended Inspector Boro, he wrote some hilarious situations that spawned from real-life circumstances that we often deal with living in the city of Guwahati.
In Ki Kowa, Dosti this very identifiable aspect of his writing needed to take center stage as the story was primarily about the life experiences and comedy emanating from it of a bunch of local boys and girls. He had to imagine and write elements and situations in the proceedings that were relatable but at the same time had a certain uniqueness to it. The dialogue needed to be crisp, witty, intelligent and above all, hilarious.
The performances could be somewhat over-the-top but couldn’t be caricaturish as that would very easily take the audiences out of the experience. The comedy needed to be incessant, fresh and impactful but also had to be tied together by an intelligible and coherent narrative.
It breaks my heart to note that Kenny Deori Basumatary has only partially succeeded in achieving the above. I have never felt sadder criticizing a film than I do now as I am forced to point out some of the glaring shortcomings in Ki Kowa, Dosti. It breaks my heart, even more, to note that the issues pertaining to the film are rooted in Kenny Deori Basumatary’s writing of the story, the characters and his direction of these characters.
His direction in his previous films has been impeccable and has always been about the little nuances that elevated the characters from the ordinary to extraordinary and brought something to the audience’s attention that whipped up some form of emotion in them. These nuances were mostly communicated through witty and wonderful dialogues and exchanges. This is something that I sorely missed in Ki Kowa, Dosti.
There was an overwhelming effort to make everything funny when that wasn’t necessary. This often resulted in many of the exchanges between the characters feeling forced and resulting in situations that begged the audiences to laugh out loud but never genuinely earned those laughs.
The dialogues in the film were pedestrian at best. There weren’t any memorable lines here nor were there any genuinely quirky moments that I could carry back from the theater with me. One of the funniest moments of the film is in the trailers and involves a character forcefully chewing a red-hot chilly to bargain with a certain shopkeeper. This scene is rendered hilarious not because of how it is written or what is said but because of the wonderful expressional comedy of Saju Ahmed who ends up being the core of the gag.
I had a major problem with an utter lack of clear direction in the narrative and the sudden change of course of characters. There have been films where there hasn’t been a clearly defined plot or the story hasn’t had a clearly demarcated beginning-middle-end format but those films have substituted the lack of a classical plot and absence of a McGuffin to drive the narrative with either scintillating action, rib-tickling comedy or something else that was so substantial that it negated what the film lacked in terms of plot. That is not the case here. I sincerely missed a proper plot and driving force in terms of something quantifiable. Many will sight that comedies like these don’t need a driving plot but only has to hook the audiences with its characters and the underlying comedy.
The answer to that in this case would be, Ki Kowa, Dosti doesn’t have enough genuine comedy or relatable drama to divert the attention of the audience from the lack of a coherent plot. Also, many of the characters are not engaging enough to not be connected and propelled by an intriguing and engaging plot.
Credit where credit is due, the young actors and actresses in the film have done a fantastic job. They have showcased a lot of the characteristics that reminded me of some of the best Kenny Deori Basumatary characters and they have been successful in transforming some of the half-hearted jokes simply by bolstering them with their respective performances.
Saju Ahmed is wonderful. He uses his mannerisms and comic timing to make you laugh in the most organic manner possible. Shruti Hussain gets to do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of acting among the girls and she is fantastic. Again, her natural reactions to many of the situations were what made me laugh. Rupashree Phukan and Rimi Deori are two of my favorite actors from YouTube shorts and they bring their trademark sweet and simple comedy to Ki Kowa, Dosti.
Their dialogue delivery and reaction to certain moments made me laugh. Dipjyoti Dutta had small roles in previous Kenny Deori Basumatary films and yet was always noticeable. I love the guy’s mannerisms and even though he was not let loose here like in some of his previous appearances, he did a good job.
The performances were consistently good and they gave a vibe of coming from a place of earnestness and honesty. That is something that I have come to associate with boys and girls who are acting because they enjoy doing it. The problem here was in Kenny Deori Basumatary’s direction of them. He needed to have directed them better and toned down some of their theatrics. He needed to have written them better. He needed to have given them better dialogues. This would not only elevate their performances but would have also made the film a lot more realistic, relatable and in the process hilarious.
It is also a fact that the characters, their motivations, their actions and their respective arcs are not at all convincingly written which creates some of the bigger issues that bring down the overall impact and likeability of the film. There are a few cameos that should have been hilarious but they lead nowhere making them inconsequential in the end.
Ki Kowa, Dosti was shot using a Blackmagic 6K camera. I was hoping that in terms of the visuals, editing and overall presentation of the film, this would be Kenny Deori Basumatary’s best outing to date. Unfortunately, that is not the case. This is definitely not a notch up in terms of the visual and cinematic presentation. A simplistic tale like this could still unfold a lot more beautifully. I also had some issues with the editing.
The editing suffered because of the storytelling choices as many of the sequences didn’t feel as lucid and organic as they needed to while transitioning from one portion to another. I was confused by the sudden change in dynamics of many characters and also how jerky some of the edits felt as the story moved from one plot point to another. The ending was uncharacteristically abrupt for a Kenny Deori Basumatary film. If this was a film made for YouTube, probably such an approach would have worked but in a full-fledged feature film, this proved to be a source of disappointment for me.
Dear Reader,
Every day, our team at EastMojo travels through rain, rough roads, and remote hills to bring you stories that matter – stories from your town, your people, your Northeast.
We do this because we believe in truthful, independent journalism. No big corporate backing, no government pressure – just honest reporting by local journalists who live and breathe the same air you do.
But to keep doing this work, we need you. Your small contribution helps us pay our reporters fairly, reach places others ignore, and keep asking the tough questions.
If you believe the Northeast deserves its own fearless voice, stand with us.
Support independent journalism. Be a Member.
Thank you,
Karma Paljor
Editor-in-Chief, eastmojo.com
All said and done, Ki Kowa Dosti is the first major misstep for Kenny Deori Basumatary but for all the heartwarming entertainment and comedy that he has showered on us, this is definitely one film that we can take in our strides. There are some genuine laughs that the film extracts and it does have great performances from the ensemble cast. It can be a light-hearted weekend watch if you are willing to look over the many shortcomings of the film. I will be waiting for Kenny Deori Basumatary to get back in form with his next directorial.
Rating 2.5/5 (2.5 out of 5 Stars)
The views expressed in this article are that of the reviewer and do not reflect EastMojo’s position
Also Read | Kenny Basumatary’s ‘Ki Kowa Dosti’ promises to be laugh-out-loud hit!