Good Heavens!!! I can’t believe it......I really can’t believe it...Director Shankar who gave us the SUPERB Mudhalvan has made a MEGA mess with NAYAK...
No one knows what happened, but there is ONE HELLUVA difference in the Impact created by the original and the remake, which has supposedly cost almost TWICE as much as the original did, yet doesn’t even deliver even 1/2 of the original impact. I am so shocked after seeing this version, I can’t explain thru’ words.
Nayak is WEAK in the 3 MOST Important aspects of a SUCCESSFUL film: Dialogues, Direction and the the ability of the director to extract talent from the actors. As a result of these shortcomings, NAYAK only ends up as a DEAD FISH....something the viewers will never accept. Shankar must realise his flaws ASAP and make amends before the audience starts losing their confidence in him.
The Story by itself is BRILLIANT and it showed in the original...coupled with the Dialogues which were Excellentand very good direction, the Tamil Version delivered the required Impact and cast its spell on the viewers. Alas, here it fell FLAT on its face!!!
The Story and screenplay are much better than Many Bollywood movies but it is Shankar who goes Crazy with all the financial freedom from producer A.M.Rathnam, and spends lots of money on huge sets rather than embellishing the movie with the requisite Touches.
As a result of POOR Direction, none of the actors impress in their roles and are under-utilised to the very brink! Anil Kapoor, who did a splendid job in Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai, as regards to his dialogue delivery, emotions and other aspects, a result of being moulded by the director according to the needs of the role, only disappoints here because of the inability of Shankar to exploit his potential. Same applies to Rani Mukherjee and Amrish Puri, who seem completely out-of-sync with their roles, neither conveying the naiveness of a village belle or the maturity/temperament of a CM. Only Paresh Rawal seems to be in sync and does his role with utmost conviction, realising the potential of his role.
Another BIG Pothole on the road to SUCCESS for Nayak, is the dialogues by Anurag Kashyap.Dialogues are the backbone of ANY film after the story and screenplay, hence need to be powerful, like in Sarfarosh, or Border. A Complete contrast compared to the Tamil version dialogues by the Renowned Sujatha, here it completely lacks the BITE and Wittiness which was required in AMPLE amounts in such a film. Being the biggest shortcoming after the Direction, it really saddens us and even makes us wonder if Anurag was sleep-writing the dialogues. Yawwnn!!
This movie only re-iterates the truth that Huge Budgets are not the key to Successful films. U need a good story, dialogues, screenplay and most importantly DIRECTION!
As a result of these 2-3 shortcomings, the story and screenplay take a back seat, maybe even go unnoticed..a shame considering the goldmine it was. Well even after reading all this, if u wanna know what the story is, here it goes:
(Explained in brief)
Shivaji Rao(Anil) is a reporter who climbs the ladders of fame, courtesy his coverage of the riots in Mumbai. Next, he is promoted to the designation of political interviewer and guess what, he’s gonna interview the CM(Amrish Puri)! No wonder, he slams the CM right and left, and tears his reputation into shreds. Unable to gape with the reality, the CM challenges him to be CM for a day. Anil accepts and does marvellous things in his 1 day as CM. Even gets the original CM arrested and screws his ministers up!!!!
CM vows revenge and tries to kill him, rather unsuccessfully. Shivaji gains popularity and the whole state pleads in front of him to become CM and do something good. He finally agrees and cleans up the system. But Amrish is not going to keep quiet. Again he tries to have the CM killed, after the plan fails, he orders his pople to place bombs thru’ out Mumbai and tear Shivaji’s reputation to shreds. At the end, Shivaji kilss Amrish like a mosquito and goes on to make Maharashtra a MINI USA!!!!