Saturday, October 12, 2013
War Chhod Na Yaar
Comedy of Platitudes
It claims to be India’s first war comedy, which it does dare to be when
every other film in the list is either bombastic, jingoistic or boringly
melodramatic. Unfortunately, Faraz Haider’s War
Chhod Na Yaar, is a juvenile effort, with a script that seems to have been
written in a college canteen by dopey teens.
It doesn’t quite make the grade as a satire or black comedy, but it must
be the only war film ever in which no one dies.
India’s Captain Rana (Sharman Joshi) and Pakistan’s Captain Qureshi
(Jaaved Jafferi) are at a desolate border outpost, passing the time trading
insults or playing antakshari. They don’t want war, because, as the dialogue
pedantically explains several times, Indians and Pakistani are bhai-bhai. The fault lies with war-mongering superpowers looking for arms sales, and
corrupt politicians on both sides, getting their cut. All four slimeballs are played by Dalip
Tahil, an amusing if obvious touch.
A TV reporter called Rut Dutta (Soha Ali Khan), inspired by you-know-who,
comes to the desert army camp to report on impending war. The Indian minister
has leaked information to her, in return for a fudged story that makes it look
like he was on the spot when the war broke out.
But Rut and Rana fall in love, they want to stop the war, and take the
help of the 'enemy' to pull the plug on the politicians’ evil plans. It is
the media, if you please, that acts as peacemaker.
Haider tries hard to extract laughs—like the unrelated track of three
clueless Afghan infiltrators, as a running gag. It’s okay to make fun of the enemy
in a comedy, but surely Pakistani soldiers are not starved and forced to fight
on an empty stomach! China gets a
battering too, as the instigator of war and producer of substandard
goods—including bombs that don’t go off.
No noteworthy performance, except for Jaaved Jafferi trying to do his
bit dutifully. Tacky in every way, this one’s headed straight to the home
viewing rack.
Labels: Cinemaah
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
Besharam
Shame
Shame!
It’s a sad
but inescapable fact that Bollywood cinema is getting so desperate for
commercial success that it will stoop to any extent to get those crores. But if today’s hottest star Ranbir Kapoor,
and Abhinav Singh Kashyap, the director of Dabangg,
from whom better films were expected, can only come up with a crass and
embarrassing Besharam, then it’s time
to worry.
The hero
as stalker has been a staple of mainstream Hindi films, but now, with the
increasing cases of violence against women—and many attacks by stalkers—it is
disturbing to see a man harassing a woman in the name of ‘love’. (Raanjhanaa did it earlier, but at least
the guy was not a sleazeball). The man
is a good-for-nothing thief who justifies his life of crime by taking care of
an orphanage; the woman is a manager high profile enough to afford a Mercedes.
But she is made to apologise to him for her “khadoos” behaviour before she falls into a clinch. So if a woman
spurns the advances of a roadside ruffian, she is “khadoos”?
Besharam’s plot is
paper thin—thief steals car of the woman he loves, then goes with her to
retrieve it from the villain. In between you see thief, Babli (Ranbir Kapoor)
chase the reluctant girl Tara (Pallavi Sharda--insipid). When he is not fooling
around—and the gags are crude—there are two Chautala cops Chulbul (Rishi Kapoor) and Bulbul (Neetu Kapoor), who
squabble at home and at work. Rishi Kapoor goes through the indignity of
sitting on a toilet—constipation and childlessness being his fault, according
to the nagging wife. So not funny!
Ranbir’s groin and butt crack gets as much footage as his face, so
obviously Kashyap’s sense of humour is of the vulgar variety. Add to that
Ranbir’s garish wardrobe, lascivious expressions, and lip-smacking at the sight
of Tara, and it’s an invitation to every lowlife to imagine himself a besharam hero. (Watching the film in the stalls of a single
screen moviehall can be illuminating.)
The
casting coup of getting the Kapoor parents and son in a film is used for some “Ma hogi teri” kind of in-jokes, that
only the film’s unit must have enjoyed. Finally,
the villain Chandel (Jaaved Jafferi) is hardly menacing. The hawala king of Chandigarh who collects
stolen cars—can he be taken seriously? If some inspiration had been taken from Mr India (the orphans and their Babli Bhaiya), then the baddie had to be of the calibre of Mogambo at
least.
It’s
possible that Ranbir Kapoor’s current most-favourite status will carry this
film through, but better taste was expected from him...and his parents.
Labels: Cinemaah
