History has repeated itself. There was a revival of great expectations in the Hindi film industry after Siddharth Anand’s action thriller Pathaan, a big-budget masala film with Shah Rukh Khan in the title role, performed extraordinarily at the box office early this year. Anil Sharma’s period film Gadar 2, the direct sequel to Gadar: Ek Prem Katha released 22 years ago, attracted viewers in large numbers, particularly in the mass sectors in India. Atlee’s action thriller Jawan, another SRK starrer, has generated a phenomenal initial response. Will it surpass the earnings of Pathaan? That seems highly possible, if not inevitable.
Make a film exactly like the average viewer wants it to be. Jawan’s director and co-writer Atlee has performed that magic trick repeatedly in Tamil cinema. The screenplay (Atlee along with S. Ramanagirivasan) is not without its share of weaknesses, but the maker has presented the larger-than-life persona of SRK in a way only he can. The consequence is a vigilante action thriller whose story revolves around the megastar’s characters of father and son and their momentous journeys through life. The story unfolds at a fast pace, there are enough twists, and above all, SRK pulls out all the stops to play the challenging dual role with many shades.
Last year had brought a lot of bad news for the industry. Too many films had failed. The #boycottbollywood gang on social media was active and angry, resulting in an atmosphere of negativity that might have also hurt some films. There were some success stories such as Ayan Mukerji’s superhero action-adventure film Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva, Abhishek Pathak’s crime thriller Drishyam 2 and Vivek Agnihotri’s small-budget drama The Kashmir Files. However, viewers back then could have never imagined that theatrical viewing would be accompanied by singing, dancing, claps and cheering – once again. That is happening, making another emphatic statement of SRK’s megastardom while also showing the way to makers of commercial entertainers who are already making, or want to make, action films.
Screams and claps echoed inside the movie hall where this writer went when SRK appeared in a bandaged avatar in the superb intro sequence. There was a similar atmosphere during the equally well-crafted sequence before the interval. Sanjay Dutt’s cameo had the sort of effect Salman Khan’s did in Pathaan, while the impact of Deepika Padukone’s much longer and crucial special appearance was clearly visible – and audible.
A small group of viewers left their seats in the first few rows and broke into a spontaneous dance after the song ‘Zinda Banda’, despite its inappropriate placement in the film, began. When the much-loved line of the film – ‘Bete ko haath laganey sey pehle baap sey baat kar’ – was heard, loud noise generated by the vocal cords of viewers threatened to bury the impact of the sequence. The real fun lay in celebrating that moment since everybody inside the cinema hall knew that line anyway!
Jawan deals with serious issues such as farmer suicides, faulty weapons and poor healthcare without being preachy, which makes viewing it a smooth ride for the most part. Some members of the supporting cast are good, led by Vijay Sethupathi as the formidable antagonist and the female lead Nayanthara as the counter-terrorism officer. The centre of attraction is, however, SRK, be it as the cigar-smoking, ageing man with enviable swag or as his son who seeks answers to critical questions.
The message from the viewers is loud and clear. They want to watch larger-than-life massy entertainers. More importantly, writers and directors must try to incorporate an X factor, such as SRK’s appearance in Pathaan as a full-fledged action hero in his first main role after four years. Jawan has done a lot more with the latest image of the megastar, who seems to have enjoyed playing his character(s) thoroughly.
What worked for Gadar 2 was Sunny Deol’s much-loved character of Tara Singh, a Sikh man we first met in the prequel Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. Deol makes the impossible somewhat believable as Tara Singh, such as when he lifts a horse carriage, confronts any number of adversaries and intimidates them with an eardrum-shattering scream. It was because of Singh’s undeniable mass appeal that significant deficiencies such as less-than-ordinary writing and equally unimpressive acting by the actual male lead Utkarsh Sharma were ignored by the masses. The film sprung a pleasant surprise by becoming a blockbuster.
The next big massy entertainer that will hit the marquee on November 10 is Maneesh Sharma’s action thriller Tiger 3 starring Salman Khan, which is the fifth film of the YRF Spy Universe and the third film in the Tiger series. If Jawan does become an all-time blockbuster, the industry’s expectations from Tiger 3 will increase.
The viewer is prepared to go to the cinemas more readily than seemed possible last year. What we are experiencing is the return of enthusiasm, which is a good thing.
The author, a journalist for three decades, writes on literature and pop culture. Among his books are ‘MSD: The Man, The Leader’, the bestselling biography of former Indian captain MS Dhoni, and the ‘Hall of Fame’ series of film star biographies. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
Comments
0 comment