After a million firewalls had been set up around to build curiosity around the next YRF-SRK mega Diwali release, we saw the firecracker fizzle out with an unimpressive title inspired from a Sholay song. YRF’s next – Jab Tak Hai Jaan, brings back SRK to the era of Dil To Pagal Hai, romancing two leading ladies, in and around London, and even playing the “Maati ke Laal deshbhakt“, as he vrooms around in his army uniform, and even walks away from an explosion – #LikeABoss. One of the other selling points of the promotion campaign has been the first time collaboration between Yashraj Films and A.R.Rahman. There is always a level of anticipation surrounding every Rahman project , as fans wait for his tracks with great levels of expectation. The first track released from the soundtrack – Challa, on a whole doesn’t hit the note quite right, and rather than being a straight boundary, feels more like a dot ball. Sorry about that cricket analogy, but Challa didn’t quite deliver the Rahman magic that we’ve grown to get used to. Neither does it bring home the SRK charm of say – Mitwa (KANK), or even Kyon Hawa (Veer Zara).
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To borrow one of the dialogues from Heroine, Madhur Bhandarkar, over the years, has become a brand in Bollywood, albeit a fading one. His movies, often serving as an outsider’s look into the world of socialites, corporates, fashionistas and roadside beggars, have been praised, discussed, criticised, and laughed upon too. With his latest offering – Heroine, he takes us on a ride into the world of super stardom – the dirty picture of the price of fame. Sounds familiar? There is an overwhelming feeling of deja vú throughout the movie, of scenes from Bhandarkar’s previous works. And at this point, the shock value has worn out, and the novelty of moral code speeches just gets reduced to a display of the sloppiness and lack of originality of the director. Heroine almost feels like a continuation of Fashion (which seemed like a continuation of Page 3), and in not a trilogy kinda way, but in a rehashed shit kinda way.
There’s a few points I’d like to discuss, which are quite spoiler-ific. And hence, they are tucked away safely after the jump. If you’re after the star ratings, just skip to the end bit.
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I’m back from the dead to write this, because the roar of the TIGER woke me up. The last time I felt such a rush of adrenaline was this morning at work, at breakfast when I had a big can of Red Bull just after my latté. YRF has been quite desperate it seems to get itself the membership of the so called 100 cr club. And in true Bond style, they seem to have went all in for the big kill. No bluffs, just full house. Ek Tha Tiger (ETT) is possibly the best “non-YRF, YRF” movie, if you know what I mean. You cannot help getting charmed by this movie, over and over again. There are no physical hair-tearing dumb jokes which stare at you cueing for laughter. Neither do we see Rohit Shetty style stationary jeeps blowing the shit up. In fact, ETT is a pure case study of Bollwood 101, created by the pen of Aditya Chopra and captured on camera by Kabir Khan.
I have a lot to discuss after the jump. In case you’re here just for the star rating – skip right to the bottom to the FINAL THOUGHTS section. If you have not seen this movie yet, let me warn you- there are a ton of spoilers waiting to pounce on you on the other side. So, continue only if you have let the TIGER out of the bag.
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Thanks to the generous Asim Burney (Upodcasting), I managed to get to some of the screenings of the London Indian Film Festival 2012, including the opening night. Now in its 3rd year, the festival had a wide range of selection of movies to choose from. The festival opened with Anurag Kashyap’s gangster magnum opus – Gangs of Wasseypur Part I, and boy-oh-boy, it couldn’t have had a better opening than that. (Check out my interview with Mr.Kashyap here).
The purpose of this post is to serve as an introspective “note to self” of the things I observed in the course of this festival, and also, where I find myself in this crowd of bloggers/writers (whatever you’d like to call me, I prefer blogger).
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