Dostana/Biwi Aur Makaan

Tarun Mansukhani's Dostana is about two guys who pretend to be gay in order to rent an apartment in Miami. Way back in 1966, when the word 'gay' (to mean homosexual) probably wasn't coined, and in any case, gays preferred to remain in the closet, what did men do when they couldn't get an apartment to rent because they were single? One of them got into drag and they pretended to be a couple. In that sense, Hrishikesh Mukerjee's Biwi Aur Makaan, made 42 years ago, was a precursor to Dostana, which, made in today's relatively liberal times does not just use the word 'gay' so casually, but also joke about Sholay's Gabbar and Munna-Circuit being gay.

Back then, getting into female garb was daring enough and nobody cast aspersions on actor Biswajeet's sexuality. Though it must be said, he made a rather beautiful woman. In Biwi Aur Makaan, four young men who move to Mumbai, cannot get accommodation because most landlords prefer to rent to married couples and not to bachelors. In desperation two of them disguise as women and pose as wives to the other two and get room with the Mishra family, which did not want single men, because there were two young girls in the house.

As can be expected two of them (Biswajeet-Mehmood) fall in love with the girls (Kalpana-Shabnam) and the whole charade eventually gets out of hand.The film was reportedly a remake of Bengali film Jaya Che Kali Boardingand was later made into a Marathi film called Ashi Hi Banwa Banwi by Sachin. It was a hit in both versions, but the Hindi remake, admittedly not one of Hrishida's best, did not do too well.

The film was produced by singer-composer Hemant Kumar, and the music was far more memorable than the film, and Gulzar, in the early days of his career wrote the lyrics. The hit numbers were Jaane Kahaan dekha hai, Aise danton mein uangali dabaao nahin, Saawan mein barkha and Dabe labhon se kabhi jo koi salaam le le, but songs like Rehne ko ghar do chhat pe ho farsh ho and Jab dosti hoti hai, were written keeping the situations in the film in mind.