Saturday, April 16, 2016
Fan
SRK vs SRK
If the weird idea of Maneesh Sharma’s Fan sounds
like something out of a Stephen King novel, it’s probably because the gist
about an obsessive fan comes from Misery. Also, Tony Scott's film, the Fan. However, the film
has used the ingenious device of making Shah Rukh Khan play his fan, and pay
tribute to his own great stardom.
In the film, 25-year-old Gaurav (SRK
who is made to look like himself as he was when had just started his career) is
a crazy fan of the star Aryan Khanna (SRK—as he is now). He makes use of
the resemblance to win a star lookalike contest—egged on by his adoring
parents—and hopes to meet the star on his birthday and gift him his trophy. He
copies the star’s journey to Mumbai, deliberately travelling without ticket and
staying in the same room in the same decrepit hotel as Aryan had when he first
came to the city.
It’s strange that Gaurav’s resemblance to
Aryan is used when it suits the script and ignored when it doesn’t. In the
train, hotel, or when he is with a crowd of other screaming fan outside the
star’s bungalow, nobody notices. Gaurav’s scheme to meet his ‘god’ ends
badly. Probably used to intrusive admirers, Aryan refuses to acknowledge the
intensity of Gaurav’s love for him and treats him with cool indifference (“Why
should I spare even five minutes for you?”)
Stung, Gaurav acquires the resources and
cunning to follow the star abroad and mount an insidious attack on the star’s
reputation, using that resemblance. During these episodes, everybody
simply believes that Gaurav is Aryan, because that’s the only way to make the
fan’s plan work—and all he wants is an apology.
As this vengeful Gaurav, Shah Rukh Khan
channels his own youthful avatar in films like Baazigar and Darr,
The scenes are not too convincing, but they lead to the inevitable showdown.
Khan plays the star with a kind of weary resignation, so his real challenge is
to make Gaurav likeable, devious and tragic at the same time, and he does that
brilliantly. Shah Rukh Khan does not
need to prove that he still has a true actor’s fire in his belly, but Fan does that anyway, even if that means
no other actor in the film has much to do.
Labels: Cinemaah
Monday, April 11, 2016
The Jungle Book
Mowgli And Friends
The Jungle Book, based on the stories by Rudyard Kipling, has had multiple film and TV versions. What’s new about Jon Favreau’s new film is the fantastic use of CG technology that makes it possible to create a dense jungle in a studio and a cast of meticulously created wild animals, with Neel Sethi as Mowgli being the only real human in the cast.
The film has an international version voiced by stars like Ben Kingsley and Idris Elba and a Hindi version with shuddh desi voices and accents. The translation has some oddities—raktphool for fire, for one-- but kids would love it for its humour (sometimes rather forced) and the breathtaking visuals.
Mowgli, as generations of kids have read, is a man cub (insaan ka bachcha), who was found by Bagheera the panther (voiced by Om Puri) and raised by a pack of wolves. Shere Khan (Nana Patekar) sniffs out the human in their midst and wants to devour him—his burnt face only adds to his hatred for humans. Later, a flashback reveals how Mowlgi’s father was killed by Shere Khan, and also explains how the kid has on a red loin cloth in the jungle.
Mowgli is a hyper energetic kid, loved by his wolf mother (Shefali Shah) and cuddly cub brothers. But to protect him from Shere Khan, they send Mowgli towards the “insaanon ki basti” outside the jungle. On the way he is attacked by Shere Khan, saved by a bull stampede and ends up romping around with the honey-guzzling Baloo the Bear (Irrfan), who speaks with a Punjabi accent.
The film has fun with accents—the porcupine speaks Bambaiya, King Louie, the giant Gorilla speaks with a Goan accent. The language could have been lighter though—kids, who are the target audience would not get words like sandhi and raktphool, nor would a kind raised in the forest say something like “aati utaroon.”
But all little flaws—it does gets tedious in places-- are eradicated by the magical visuals plus the incredible cuteness and energy of Neel Sethi.
Another version of The Jungle Book directed by Andy Serkis is under production right now (to be out in 2018)—it will have to match or better the CG achievement of this one. A tough task.
Labels: Cinemaah
