Not Dabangg Enough

The Robin Hood Pandey returns with a new positioning as Kung-fu Pandey; and somewhere in that transition, the essence of Chulbul Pandey is smothered. Arbaaz Khan’s sequel to Abhinav Kashyap’s much-appreciated Dabangg is nothing but an ill-constructed amalgamation of the protagonist in Ready and the villain from Singham. By all means, the film is an outright entertainer; however, built on a carcass of the first film, Dabangg 2 fails to recreate the magic of its predecessor. The main defect in the sequel, without a doubt, is the direction. A lack of vision in terms of a standalone project, it relies heavily on the laurels of the first film and hence, falls on its face to some extent. A character driven story, Dabangg 2 has very little to offer apart from the charismatic cop Chulbul Pandey portrayed with excellence by the people’s favourite superstar, Salman Khan.

Following a similar narrative pattern, Dabangg 2 could easily have been an experience of revisiting Dabangg; like in the case of the Hangover franchise, which didn’t meddle with the plot in its sequel. However, in tampering with the narrative structure, the writers have added some ridiculous bits that are too stereotypical and ridiculous even by the standards of a regular mainstream entertainer. The bad guy harming the family of the good guy who then flares up to take revenge is something we unfortunately grew up on and don’t wish to see anymore.With action sequences that are literally going South (if you know what I mean) with every single film, and the line between the ridiculous and the real growing thinner and thinner, Dabangg was a franchise from which one expected some craftsmanship; but that seems to have left it along with Abhinav Kashyap.

Apart from Salman Khan, whose belt buckle sways automatically this time around, no other character leaves a lasting mark in one’s memory. Prakash Raj delivers yet another Jaikant Shinkre-sque performance and quite frankly, a great actor is being bound in the shackles of being typecast as the big eyed baddy with every single role. Deepak Dobriyal, who plays the bad guy’s brother, is under-utilised. A fine actor whose talent has been quite adequately realised only by a few makers, Deepak’s character, like most others, is simply used as a marker to establish the might of Chulbul Pandey. Sonakshi Sinha plays Chulbul’s wife Rajjo, a role that demands an able bodied woman to just exist, while Salman romances with it.

As everybody had correctly expected, Dabangg 2 is ‘Of the Salman, By the Salman, For the Salman’. With Wanted, he created a realm about himself that has been accepted and appreciated by everyone. It has grown with Dabangg, Bodyguard, Ready and most recently, Ek Tha Tiger. What these films have done is that they have made the viewer tolerant to a kind of absurdity, so much so that his actions are now acceptable. There is realism, there is magic realism, there is surrealism and now, it is safe to say, Salman has created a realm of his own, a Salmanic Realism, if you may.

He drives the wagon of the film and the franchise single-handedly and with his typical dance moves, giggles and punchlines; Salman keeps you entertained throughout and is a job well done. And while you put up a Salman poster in your room and stick it 'Fevicol se', the director needs to apply some 'Zandu Balm' for denting what could have been a good franchise.

Rating - 2.5 out of 5

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on December 22, 2012

Enter Salman, Exit Logic

The Central Board for Film Certification should have, by now, created a category to fit films like Kabir Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger. The U, U/A, A aren’t enough to tell what to expect from such a film. It requires a WSD rating. Willing Suspension of Disbelief – which hereby notifies the audience to buy the ticket if and only if they are willing to get popcorn into the cinema halls and not their minds.

The film tells the story of Tiger — a super-human James Bond-like spy who works for the secret agency RAW. Having very superficially shown to be a righteous, sincere, hardcore soldier, who hasn’t taken a break for 12 years, Tiger is sent on a mission to Ireland to find out what a nuclear scientist is up to. There, he falls in love with the part-time caretaker, who, as we would later find out, is an enemy agent. But the plot dwells so much in the romance that you forget that the two love birds are in fact spies.

The two then embark on a journey to abscond from their respective agencies and live together in peace. But this isn’t acceptable to the higher authorities, and the brightest minds within the agency trace the two protagonists in a pursuit that takes them from Istanbul to Kazakhstan to Cuba. But these bright minds, who apparently have nothing else to do but chase rogue agents, appear to act in the most ridiculous ways. They are hasty, unplanned and indefinite in their motives. But at the end of it all, who cares?

Salman Khan, whose aura is supposed to drive the film from start to end, just about manages to do so. He isn’t able to live up to Wanted or Dabanng, but he definitely outdoes himself from his previous two films. The suaveness of a Yash Raj film creeps in and dilutes Salman’s raw charm. Katrina Kaif is unimpressive as usual, but throws up a few surprises in the action scenes, which are mostly performed by identifiable body doubles. Ranvir Shorey and Girish Karnad play important supporting roles in vain.

The second hero of the film, after Salman, is the action. But after an initial classical Prince of Persia-like fight sequence, it is a gradual journey downhill for those who came expecting an adrenaline rush. The dialogues lack the conceit of Chulbul Pandey and the haughtiness of, “Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di, phir toh mai apne aap ki bhi nahi sunta,” from Wanted. The music isn’t the kind which you’ll keep humming, and the most anticipated song of the film comes only during the end credits.

Although it is a given that once you have entered the movie theatre to watch this film, you have surrendered the weapon of logical reasoning; but even on the scale of outright entertainment, Ek Tha Tiger falls short in places. The middle seems a little too dragged and you might find yourself occasionally drifting into your own world which is outside the dark room. Watch it if you don’t want to miss a Salman Khan film. If not, there’s a lot happening out there that you can do.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on August 18, 2012