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Romedies, remakes & rip-offs

I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated.

Romedies, remakes & rip-offs

The success of Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone-starrer Happy New Year once again proved that packaging and promotion, and not content, can make a hit



Nonika Singh

I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made films were magicians. — Francis Ford Coppola

Rewind the magic of 2014 closer home and the Bollywood magicians may not have always succeeded in creating a hypnotic spell and making viewers willing partners in suspension of disbelief. Yet the lure of Hindi cinema continued uninterrupted. Stars were born, the existing ones cemented their position and it were not just the Khans who proved they ‘khan’ do it. If biggies coveted and worked towards the Rs 200-crore club, newer stars made entry into Rs 100-crore bracket. Bollywood followed rules, made a few new ones and once again proved there are no rules and no surefire formula to success. If Sajid Khan served up a turkey, a nonsensical film Humshakals, that amused neither critics nor viewers, the success of equally unintelligible Happy New Year by sister Farah Khan exemplified that there is no accounting for viewers’ tastes.
Bollywood threw up surprises, flirted with risqué and once in a while raised the bar but by and large took the beaten path focusing more on packaging and promotion rather than content. Of course, few films shined like a beacon.
The early part of the year saw Vikas Bahl’s Queen, a heartwarming tale of a middle-class girl finding herself, ruling hearts and establishing for once that critics’ choice can be viewers too. Among other things, it put everybody’s favourite whipping girl Kangana Ranaut in the reckoning and spelt good times for heroine-oriented films.
Before one could hail women power, Madhuri Dixit’s second comeback vehicle Gulab Gang bombed. And before Kangana could take a bow as the new queen of Bollywood, her Revolver Rani came a cropper. Another Rani grabbed the headlines as much for her wedding in Italy as for her stellar act. In hubby dearest Aditya Chopra’s meaningful film Mardaani, Rani Mukerji flexed her muscles, acting and otherwise as a tough cop and nailed her part with aplomb. Yet another actress who packed a punch literally and metaphorically was none other than Priyanka Chopra as she slipped into the part of the legendary boxer Mary Kom. Mary Kom, the film, may have failed to replicate the magic of last year’s sports biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag but not only did it do reasonably good business but also wonders for its lead star.
By and large, stars delivered, if not on the critics-metre, but on boxoffice for sure. Big ticket films rode on star charisma of superstars such as Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn, each of whom added to the year’s top grosser’ list. Expectedly the three Khans did not fail.
Jai Ho Salman Khan. Never mind that his film by the same name had to be content with the 100-crore club and because of its big budget was only a semi-hit. But come Eid and he kicked back hard and strong with Kick and later he even nudged out foe-turned-friend Shah Rukh Khan from Forbes’ 2014 Celebrity 100 List.
The eternal charmer Shah Rukh Khan, anyway, continued to charm birds off the woods. If his production Happy New Year raked in more than Rs 200-crore, the film that established him as the evergreen romantic star Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge clocked 1,000 weeks. Amid the bevy of aging stars, younger ones like Arjun Kapoor, too, smiled all the way to the bank. Karan Johar and his favourite protégés Alia Bhatt, Siddharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan had all the reasons to grin. Alia might have been the butt of ridicule and target of unflattering jokes but she was on a song. As she crooned in Imtiaz Ai’s Highway, her mature acting won her critical acclaim and she notched up hits with 2 States and Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya. But the film that stirred minds, hearts as well as ruffled a few feathers of self-styled patriots was undeniably Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider, an unflinching take on the Kashmir valley. Whether it will go down in the history as Bhardwaj’s best film or Shahid’s best performance, time will tell. But few could dispute that no one adapts Shakespeare better than Bhardwaj.
Raj Kumar Hirani, too, lived up to his reputation with PK, which galloped to Rs 100 crore in the first few days.  The film once again proved that entertainment and social purpose do not always make for strange bedfellows, especially when it has one of Bollywood’s most dedicated actors Aamir Khan on board. And the lady with the Midas touch Ekta Kapoor, who has always cocked a snook at conventions dared to cast Sunny Leone as Sunny, the porn star, in Ragini MMS2. She not only gave the industry one of its two genuine hits in the first quarter of the year but also a new term Horrex. But otherwise originality remained a casualty. Remakes, Hollywood rip-off and the good old masala serving…. John Updike once said, “Movies took you right up to the edge but kept you safe.” Here most makers played safe, investing in star power rather than brave cinema. Safe and sound? Not quite for out of 120-odd films, just about 20 were bona fide hits. In short, films came, critics raved and ranted, people saw what they wanted to, few ruled at the boxoffice and fewer still conquered hearts.
But fans’ affair de amour with Bollywood is not going to end anytime soon and rolls on to 2015. With period films like Detective Byomkesh Bakshy and Bombay Velvet in the offing, expectations have already begun to build up. Will these be belied or lived up to…watch this space same time next year. Adieu 2014.


                                 TRANSITIONS 

Khushwant singh: India’s best-known and most-read journalist, this Padma Vibushan recipient’s pen delighted readers for decades

zohra sehgal: Her irrepressible spirit and impish looks lit up the silver screen in innumerable films
from 1946 to 2007                                                                  

bks iyengar: This foremost yoga guru’s style of yoga came to be known as Iyengar yoga. He wrote many books on yoga practice and philosophy       

robin williams: This Hollywood actor made us laugh and cry and stood out in films like Mrs Doubtfire, Goodwill Hunting and Dead Poets Society                                   

richard attenborough: The maker of the historic film Gandhi, the director-producer was also a consummate actor of movies like Jurassic Park and Elizabeth

suchitra sen: The Bengali beauty moved audiences with her stellar performances in films like Bombai Ka Baboo, Mamata and Aandhi                                                                        

 

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