Saturday, September 12, 2015
Hero
Sing
The Old Song
Bollywood’s nepotism dictates that every star
kid who is halfway good looking (the rest can be ‘fixed’) be given a bash a
stardom. The grooming probably means some instant acting lessons and much more
time spent in the gym and tattoo parlour to get a designer body. That done, the
star offspring can be unleashed on to the public, already hit on the head with
the high-powered publicity. (It doesn’t
seem to matter that this kind of training and styling means that they end up looking
just like everybody else.)
Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty have that
little extra push because the industry’s current godfather or ‘Bhai’ Salman
Khan has co-produced Hero (with Subhash Ghai, maker of the original Ding dong,
O baby sing a song romantic adventure) and has been personally promoting the
new fledglings more than their own parents possibly could.
Anyway, the story is the the same, villain
Pasha’s (Aditya Pancholi) henchman Sooraj
pretends to be a cop and kidnaps the IG’s (Tigmanshu Dhulia) daughter
Radha. The episode’s a picnic for her,
since she does not guess that she has been abducted, and the two complicate
Pasha’s plot by falling in love.
The original wasn’t such a classic either, but Ghai managed some
of his own flourishes like picking tuneful songs and picturising them with
panache. Nikhil Advani brings nothing of
his own to the table. This Hero could
have been directed by a bot. And if it
works, it will be because today’s audiences are also mainly bots.
Labels: Cinemaah
Monday, September 07, 2015
Welcome Back
Why Bother?
It’s been eight years since Welcome; if a poll were to be conducted, the makers of Welcome Back would not be able to find a single person (outside of the unit that is), who would say, they were missing the old movie, so why not make a sequel?
Instead of Feroz Khan’s stylish RDX, is Naseeruddin Shah playing Wantedbhai with a junkie son Honey (Shiney Ahuja). Meanwhile Majnu and Uday have been targeted by a pair of con women (Dimple Kapadia and Ankita Shrivastava) who pretend to be the queen and princess of Nazamgarh. (Really, in this net-connected age, such a worn out con!)
It’s been eight years since Welcome; if a poll were to be conducted, the makers of Welcome Back would not be able to find a single person (outside of the unit that is), who would say, they were missing the old movie, so why not make a sequel?
It’s true that there are people who go to watch a film just to pass the time, and are quite happy if they get a mix of comedy, stunts, glamour and picturesque locations. So Welcome Back is a package, not a film. The same old characters and situations dusted off and rehashed, with some new actors and glittering UAE locations.
When Welcome was released, the review stated, “Our mainstream filmmakers never believed in brevity being the soul of wit; in fact any subtle humour is thrown overboard, and a loud, hit-on-the head approach easily adopted. Leave your brains at home is the dictum – as if brains come in the way of enjoying comedy…The formula is the same, pick up a Hollywood (Mickey Blue Eyes) or regional film, add some extra masala, line up a star cast, and the entertainment-seeking masses will be beating a path to the ticket window!”
So it’s same old, same old-- Majnu (Anil Kapoor), Uday Shetty (Nana Patekar) and Dr Ghunghroo (Paresh Rawal) return. This time they are trying to pair up a half sister Ranjana (Shruti Haasan) with the doctor’s stepson, Ajjubhai (John Abraham), who substitute for Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar. How did a half sister turn up? Apparenly Shetty Sr. married thrice. He is told, by his rueful son, “Yahan bachche bhookhe baithe hain aur baap teen baar lunch kar chuka hai.”
Instead of Feroz Khan’s stylish RDX, is Naseeruddin Shah playing Wantedbhai with a junkie son Honey (Shiney Ahuja). Meanwhile Majnu and Uday have been targeted by a pair of con women (Dimple Kapadia and Ankita Shrivastava) who pretend to be the queen and princess of Nazamgarh. (Really, in this net-connected age, such a worn out con!)
It’s funny in bits, not because of stream of laugh-out-loud gags, but weird dialogue. Like Paresh Rawal discovering a stepson and wailing, “Jab mane chunav mein vote nahin daala, mera mukhya mantri kaise ho gaya?”
Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar and Paresh Rawal are such fine comics, they manage to keep the film afloat. About John Abraham’s Ajju, Majnu says, “Lagta hai yeh gym mein hi paida hua tha."
When there’s all this mayhem on in the desert, one thinks of the best thing about Welcome Back… it makes some people nostalgic for Welcome.
Labels: Cinemaah
