New Delhi: In his 1977 American classic Annie Hall, Woody Allen, playing the role of comedian Alvy Singer comments, "It was the most fun I ever had without laughing." Ten minutes into Anees Bazmee's 2011 mega-successful film Ready confirms what Allen says of sex with Annie, played by Diane Keaton.
Two of the biggest 'paisa vasool' films of 2011, Ready and Bodyguard, are gift vouchers for hardcore Salman Khan fans, complete with physics-defying stunts and Quixotic dialogue. The major money churners this year validate a formula producers have tested and perfected. Khan's fans ask very little of his films. Let a logical plot and good acting not get in the way of an entertainer. The Khan trilogy - Dabangg (2010), Ready and Bodyguard - has established the actor as a hugely bankable star producers are ready to do business with.
Some of the most expensive films of 2011, the year the film industry did unprecedented business both in India and overseas, can proudly claim the title of the unlikely heroes by proving the critics wrong.
While Dabangg, with the dogged tenacity of an insurance salesman, draws reluctant smiles, Ready and Bodyguard appall for their complete lack of charm, homophobic characterization and lazy plot.
Critics pan both films as agonisingly boring and puerile. The reviews, however, do nothing to dampen the first week collections of both Ready and Bodyguard. Both the films are among Bollywood's highest earners of all time. Earning 253 crore, Bodyguard is the second highest grosser ever after 3 Idiots (375 crore). According to trade analysts, Ready grossed 179 crore worldwide, give or take a few, and remains one the highest earners of the year.
As a brash cop in Dabangg, Khan endears himself to even his harshest critics for completely uninhibited acting and personal style. He bullies a girl into falling for him, routinely prods his half brother and in the end converts a stone-hearted stepfather. Dabangg is a one-man show that leaves you dazed. Here's what worked for Dabangg; simple story, inspired acting by Dimple Kapadia in the first half, self-derisive dialogue and a fast-paced narrative that peaks off during an over-the-top climax.
Ready tries hard to maintain the pace but soon degenerates into a shadow of Dabangg as Khan tries, film after film, to recreate the alpha-male 'I Tarzan, you Jane' routine. There is no denying that Ready does entertain in parts, especially when its actors forget they are starring in a big-budget film targeted at millions of people who hero worship Salman Khan. And when they do, Asin is amusing as a runaway bride.
If Ready is tolerably amusing, Siddique's Bodyguard tests the intelligence of its audience with recycled gags and poor storytelling. Dwarfs must be laughed at and obese people have to be ridiculed. Khan's poor attempts to replicate the mannerisms of the secret service agents who discreetly guard state heads are laughable. Kareena Kapoor as his love interest is a prop, pity, since her 2007 film Jab We Met established her as one of Bollywood’s finest actors.
An article about Bollywood's biggest letdowns of the year is incomplete without the mention of Shah Rukh Khan’s mega-budget science fiction film RA.One. Aggressively promoted, it was one of the most anticipated films of 2011 and promised to usher in an era of visual effects previously unseen in Indian cinema.
In the days leading up to its worldwide release, Khan is seen exhaustively promoting the film in the media. He dances with fans, sings at shopping malls, performs stunts, appears on television shows, sells merchandise, joins live webchat groups, tweets day and night and gives innumerable interviews. Not just during the making of his film, Khan intelligently uses technology in the promotions as well. RA.One is the first film in India to make use of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology on the new range of Nokia's new smartphones - Nokia 700 and Nokia 701.
Given the painstaking attempts to make RA.One appear a groundbreaking and cool film, the actual affair is a huge let down. It draws in the five to fifteen crowds and targets the family audience, but in execution and plot it is spectacularly plain. Shekhar Subramaniam, the nerdy father to a hip kid tries to win brownie points with his son by designing a video game featuring a deadly villain - RA.One.
A couple of expensive car pileups, chase and crash sequences, unforgivable mishmash from several of Hollywood’s action classics and a half-hearted storyline drags down a film that had the potential to create cinematic history. At the budget of Rs 150 crore, there are no excuses for slapstick comedy, shoddy acting or disjointed dialogue and song sequences.
It almost seems that director Anubhav Sinha is in awe of his star cast and lets them take total control of what could have been one of Bollywood's trendsetters. The huge opening (3000 screens across India) helps RA.One pick up initial sales, collecting Rs 18 crore on its first day. It ended up earning Rs 192 crore.
But why blame Sinha alone? Mohit Suri's very successful Murder 2, a blockbuster, exploits every cliche in the book that goes into the making of a regular masala movie. Murder 2, a dark thriller, is an ode to Emraan Hashmi with the pretty Jaqueline Fernandez thrown in as a red herring to mask gaping holes in a plot that seems inspired by the 2008 South Korean thriller The Chaser.
When his prostitutes go missing, a Goan pimp asks for the help of Hashmi, a jaded ex-cop, in helping him find the reason behind the disappearances.
For Suri, this is a trip down the memory lane having given us Kalyug - a film about the seedy pornographic film industry. He gets into the skin of a psychopath killer who gets his jollies from torturing and killing hookers. As a film, Murder 2 is bold and desperately dark. As a subject it is perfectly possible that the charming guy you bump into at the corner chemist’s, could be hiding a gruesome secret in his basement. The story is derived directly from the society we live in. Didn't the Nithari killings shock and repulse us for weeks?
But Prashant Narayanan's overacting as the resident nutcase or Hashmi's perpetual brooding grates on the nerves. When he tries to adjust a fast paced thriller to Indian film sensibilities by inserting unnecessary emotional baggage, Suri falls far short of achieving the chills and revulsion The Chaser arouses.
If Murder 2 disappoints, John Abraham's Force, the Deols' Yamla Pagla Deewana and Warsi-Deshmukh-Jaffri's Double Dhamaal, all box office hits, prove the rule that India’s real audiences are in the suburbs. This is not to say that they expect any less from a film, but these ventures cater to a targeted fan base willing to forgive the worst oversights.
Hardcore action film Force is single-handedly set back by the staid acting of its cast.
The effervescent Genelia D'Souza plays second fiddle to lead Abraham who plays a cop committed to wiping out the drug mafia in Nishikant Kamat's brawn fest. The action is exceptional as the plot unravels. The revenge-thirsty brother of a drug kingpin resolves to unleash mayhem in Abraham's life as his anti-narcotics unit takes on a risky operation.
Over the years, Abraham, a role model for Bollywood's young fitness enthusiasts for his fantastic physique, has never earned the same respect for his acting. The adrenaline-driven film proves yet again why Abraham may be Bollywood’s poster boy but is far from achieving the intense screen presence that an actor like Ajay Devgn commands in cop romps such as Singham.
Like Abraham, the Deol brothers have had a good run this year with Yamla Pagla Deewana and Sanjay Dutt with Double Dhamaal. The two successful comic capers keep the cash registers ringing in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Delhi.
Cast veteran actor Dharmendra with his sons, add a dash of slapstick, repeat hit-in-the-groin sequences every hour and you have the basic premise for both films. It is sad to see Arshad Warsi who has achieved cult status portraying the loyal sidekick 'Circuit' in the Munna Bhai franchise, holding his audiences at ransom with tired gags.
Dutt as the congenial gangster Munna Bhai trades his rustic charm in the cult classic for the role of a conman in Double Dhamaal. Grossly unfunny, it tests every joke in the book to force a laugh out of its audiences. If cross dressing is a gag popular with makers of such films, so is getting hit in the groin. Literally.
Samir Karnik's Yamla Pagla Deewana at least has no pretensions of appealing to an upper class audience looking for refined humour. It is a masala movie dedicated to fans who have closely followed three generation of Deols. And let’s not forget, Dharmendra is irresistible when he sets out to charm.
Perhaps with the exception of RA.One, each one of the year's highest earners is forgettable. As milestones of the year they fall short in expectation, execution and gratification, which is a pity, given the huge canvass the makers had in telling a plausible story to a cinema-obsessed India during a year that returned good profit on their investments.
The Other Heroes
And then there are the other heroes of 2011, the sharply made, true-to-form medium budget ventures that are forced out of the theatres in a week because of either shortage of promotional and marketing funds or the low profile of their actors. These films tell a good story and tell it well. Loved by critics, they are the underdogs of 2011. Shor in the City, Chillar Party and Stanley Ka Dabba are some such films that have not failed to move its audiences.####
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