By Subhash K. Jha

Film: Dil Dosti Etc; Cast: Imaad Shah, Shreyas Talpade, Smriti Mishra, Nikita Anand; Director: Manish Tiwari; Rating: **

One is a cool dude and the other is a rustic who wants to be a student leader. But the twain do meet in writer-director Manish Tiwari’s maiden venture, Dil Dosti Etc.

One wonders why Tiwari, for all his cinematic resources — including authentic locales, hip music and credible actors — couldn’t come up with a film that compares favourably with other movies about college life and coming of age.

Tigmanshu Dhulia’s power-driven film Haasil on campus politics, Goldie Behl’s Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai, and Farhan Akhtar’s Dil Chahta Hai seem to be the reference points about youth gone astray in a film that loses it’s path in delivering one homily too many on a direction-less generation.

Delhi University and other Delhi locales are sought out by the camera with a self-congratulatory flourish. Not once do we get the feeling that this film knows its mind any more than the youngsters whom it tries to take into its grasp.

Tiwari’s portrayal of love and politics on the campus ends up being more wheezy than wondrous, nor do we come to grips with the uncertainties of the characters.