The eagerly awaited SRK film hits the screens tomorrow (12, Decemebr 2008) and the anticipation has been built up by showing selective clips from the film. Like most Hindi films the bare outlines of the story can be guessed from these clips but who cares really if the story is known well before you get to the multiplex. You go for a SRK film for reasons other than that of a mystery script.
Having been lucky(as usual) to see the movie a day before (11 December 2008) it hits the screens in India, here is my take on the film; its wonders and its blunders.
Let me give it as it is without any sugar coating.
The wonders
The new girl Anoushka Sharma is a pleasant surprise. She fits the role perfectly and has a lovely, radiant smile and a simple understated grace to her acting. The Golden Temple is as mesmerizing as ever and I wish Adi’s camera man had done more justice to it and to the magnificent Khalsa College where the dance classes are supposed to have been held in the movie. That is it. I can not find anything else nice to say about this latest offering from Yash Chopra studios.
*The blunders
Music: Hummable but not really in the same chart busting league as Adi’sDilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge or Shahrukh’s **Om Shanti Om. It fits the film well though. The viewer will forget it as soon as they forget the film!
Direction:
Aditya Chopra needs to come out of wherever he is hibernating and take a look around Mumbai and around India to get a hang of what is happening and what people want to see when they pay good money for the cinema tickets. He has almost no script to operate from and an improbable story idea of a wife not recognizing her husband simply because he shaves his moustache and wears incredibly bad clothes. To this Adi has simply added bits and pieces randomly, like the dance sequence fashioned after stars of yore, a ‘surprise’ appearance by Kajol and Rani, and an endless sermon about ‘pure and true’ love that is ‘divine’ in its concept but is a very real pain for the viewers.And what was with the badly filmed sumo wrestling sequence and the song which seemed to be a government funded video about communal harmony (Tujh mein rab dikhta hai...)
*Acting:
This is a film made to showcase Shahrukh’s penchant for over acting and hamming that was so much a part of his early career and one that the viewers had hoped he had left behind. He is loud and unbearable and looks haggard as Raj. I don’t think he is going to win any fans in Amritsar for portraying the Amritasrites as caricatures. In all honesty Bride and Prejudice and more recently **Bachna Ai Haseeno showcased the city and its warmth much better. The fake looking sets and stereotypical montages of gol gappas and fat sardarjis are as far from the reality of the city as the film is from credibility.
Vinay Pathak is wasted in the film although he tries hard to put some zing into this flat fare.
The first 30 minutes are okay but once the novelty of SRK’s ’cuteism’ wears off it is tedious fare all the way to the end.At the beginning I liked hearing the dialogues peppered liberally with ‘haan ji’ and ‘nahin ji’ and ‘thank you ji’ for the nostalgia they evoked in me but by the end of the film all I wanted to say was ‘bas ji’.
The only takers for this film might be in small pockets of Punjab or kids who love a loud joke.
Haule haule ho jayega pyaar jhaliye, haule haule, croons SRK in the film but the viewer is unlike to fall in love haule, haule( slowly, slowly) or otherwise with this latest collaboration between Aditya Chopra and Shahrukh Khan. See the film if you are a hard core SRK fan and would like to keep your record of having seen all his films or if you like to treat yourself to some form of torture on your weekends.
P.S: One look at Aditya Chopra’s picture on the internet and you know where this story idea originated from (regardless of whatever spin Shahrukh puts on it). Adi seems very much the prototype for the Surinder Sahni of the movie.(Psst Psst, is he trying to send some message to apni Rani Mukherjee?)Just kidding.