Saturday, September 07, 2013
Zanjeer
Plain Awful!
There are enough recent examples
to show that cult films should be left alone. But there will always be
foolhardy directors around, who think they can better a work that film buffs
remember with fondness.
Prakash Mehra’s 1973 film had a
Salim-Javed script that had given a fresh touch to what was even then a
formulaic revenge plot—their well-developed characters, crackling dialogue and dare one say, a
dash of the poetic to the unlikely romance between a troubled cop and a
streetsmart chaku-chhuri sharpener.
Apoorva Lakhia’s calamitous remake
retains the names of the main characters and some memorable sequences are
rehashed, but where he attempts his own
think, he makes an unholy mess. This
Zanjeer owes more to the loud Southern actioners that inspired films like Dabangg and Rowdy Rathore—all nuance flattened, all genuine emotions
jettisoned.
This Zanjeer has unforgivably
awful opening and closing credits with skimpily dressed girls gyrating, and
whenever the villain appears with his moll, some crass sexual innuendo follows.
If Lakhia had respectfully copied
Mehra’s film as it was, frame to frame, it probably would have been preferable
to this—and even then, a stone-faced hero (Ram Charan) with a a puff in his
hair is nobody idea of a man tortured by nightmares of his parents’ killing,
and Priyanka Chopra as the giggly Gujarati NRI is unmitigated disaster.
Inspector Vijay Khanna, who
smashes into criminals without fear of consequences, is kicked out of his home
state (Andhra) to Mumbai, where he runs into the oil mafia (they keep saying
mafias), led by Teja (Prakash Raj in a wardrobe worse than his
performance). On the way, he befriends
Sher Khan (Sanjay Dutt) and plays video games with him (really, now!)
Atul Kulkarni has the thankless
part of an investigative journalist almost always seen with a wide-eyed
assistant and a ‘Eureka’ expression. His murder in the film, and the burning
alive of a collector investigating the oil mafia, are inspired by real
incidents, but done very clumsily.
How can any director, with the old
Zanjeer as his template, ruin even iconic scenes like the Vijay-Sher Khan
confrontation in the police station and the fist fight in the street. Why on earth are Vijay’s idiot sidekicks
called Amar-Prem? Why did Lakhia reduce Ajit’s Teja to a clown? Why is Mona Darling (Mahie
Gill) so unappealing? A glimpse of the original Zanjeer being
watched by Teja and Mona on the television has more zing that this whole film
put together. Why, even the music is not a patch on the original
Kalyanji-Anandji soundtrack.
The next time any filmmaker thinks of
a remake, they must watch RGV Ki Aag and Apoorva Lakhia ki
Zanjeer, and halt right in their tracks.
Labels: Cinemaah
Shuddh Desi Romance
You Go Girl!
Strictly speaking Maneesh Sharma’s Shuddh
Desi Romance, is not really shuddh
desi by Bollywood standards. A world
in women are not devastated by break-ups, don’t pine for lost love, have
live-in relationships and initiate pre-marital sex, is not something Bollywood
is still comfortable with; India is just about starting to shed its
prudishness, but is not unapologetically promiscuous yet.
Shudh Desi
Romance is a lot like the director’s earlier film, Band Baaja Baraat; like so many other Yash Raj productions, this
one too has weddings as its backdrop. In BBB,
the lead pair were wedding planners, in SDR
they are rented baraatis, the girl
getting a good fee because she is smart and English speaking. The catering and fake baraati supplying business in Jaipur is run by the wise and
avuncular Goelsaab (Rishi Kapoor, terrific!).
Raghuram (Sushant Singh Rajput) and Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra) do
‘assignments’ with him.
On the way to his own wedding, with Gayatri posing as his sister, Raghu
falls for her. She is sharp, plain-speaking, smoking, drinking, unapologetically
independent (her family is in distant Guwahati). He feels instant attraction
and runs away from his wedding to Tara (Vaani Kapoor). Soon he has moved in
with Gayatri, pretending to the neighbours that he is her brother, though
nobody is fooled by the charade. Indian
double standards have already been deplored before—all characters speak to the
camera when voicing of opinion is required (a bit of lazy writing here).
No matter how sassy Gayatri may appear, she is damaged in some way by
past relationships—which is a bit of a downer, as if saying that women have to
pay for past ‘sins.’
After a happy period of togetherness, when they decide to get married,
Gayatri runs away. And then, Taara
reappears, not looking in the least traumatised by the humiliation of being
abandoned, yet she has been wounded too. She may stop her uncle from beating up
the runaway groom, but she is also seeking closure.
Even if the pangs of love in contemporary India (where traditions are
being upheld as well as being broken), are a bit flippantly dealt with, there
are some small town truths in Jaideep Sahni’s screenplay and Maneesh Sharma’s direction
that constantly escapes being heavy-handed. (The many kisses look forced
though, and the actors go about it with a marked absence of passion.)
The two lead actresses are wonderful, performing with a ease that makes
Rajput’s toothy cuteness a bit laboured. In the end, it seems the perpetually confused
boy-man gets the best of it—two women vying for him, even though a tourist
hustler is not exactly Prince Charming. The film has a loo as one of he chief catalysts-- funny! Don’t think too much, and Shuddh Desi Romance has its moments of
charm and some well-written lines. Could make for an enjoyable date movie.
Labels: Cinemaah
