India Masala

Agneepath: Revenge re-packaged

While watching Katrina Kaif gyrating to “Chikni Chameli”, more than halfway through Karan Malhotra’s “Agneepath”, I couldn’t help but wonder about the similarities between the song and the film. Both are adaptations of an original product (“Chikni Chameli” has been adapted from a popular Marathi song), both have ample production value and some great moves, but they are also ample proof that remaking an original may not always work.

Malhotra’s version of “Agneepath”, to be fair, is not a direct copy and is quite different from Mukul Anand’s 1990 version. A lot of the plot points of the original film have been swapped for newer stories, but the gist of the story remains.

Hrithik Roshan plays Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, a gangster from the Mumbai slums, who is obsessed with killing Kancha (Sanjay Dutt), the man who killed his father over a dispute more than 15 years ago.

Vijay feeds his revenge, joining a rival gang and rising to the top quickly, but in the process alienates his mother (Zarina Wahab), who cuts off all ties with him. To his credit Roshan portrays that angst and that loneliness beautifully and in one particular scene, where he eats at his mother’s house after fifteen years, you do feel for him.

There are some moments, like the scene where Vijay meets his sister for the first time, which are well done, as is most of the action. The palette of Mandwa, dreary and dark, lends very well to the personality of villain Kancha, and the fight scene at the end will keep you hooked, even though you know how it’s going to end.

What brings this film down is its unnecessary length. There are too many songs, and too many inane dialogues at crucial points that will make you laugh out loud. Om Puri, playing a police officer who looks out for Vijay, has the bulk of these lines. Malhotra’s script isn’t as tight as it should have been and the central theme of the film — revenge — gets diluted.

On the plus side, there are some good performances — Hrithik Roshan, Rishi Kapoor (playing Kancha’s rival and Vijay’s mentor Rauf Lala) and Sanjay Dutt (who looks creepy enough to scare most people except when he’s speaking lines in Sanskrit) are all exceptional in the film. Roshan uses his eyes to express the turmoil his character goes through in the film, delivering a powerful performance.

Agneepath: 20 years later?

More than 20 years after he first mesmerised an entire generation with his baritone and signature dialogue, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan is going to be back on celluloid, but this time in a different avatar.

Producer Karan Johar said the original film which was produced by his father didn’t “meet commercial expectations” and he thought this one would hit bull’s eye. Directed by debutant Karan Malhotra, the film stars Hrithik Roshan as Chauhan while Sanjay Dutt plays dreaded villain Kancha.

“This isn’t a remake, it is more like a tribute to the original film, which has now achieved cult status,” Johar said. At the launch of the teaser trailer on Monday, the entire cast was at pains to explain that the new “Agneepath” wasn’t a “remake” of the 1990 film, saying there were a lot of structural changes in the story.

One of those changes is that Mithun Chakraborty’s much loved Krishnan Iyer M.A. character won’t be seen afresh. Also Priyanka Chopra doesn’t play a nurse in the film and according to director Malhotra, “the only similarity is that the film begins and ends in Mandwa” (a port town near Mumbai).

After Chandra Barot’s “Don” (1978), which was re-made by Farhan Akhtar and “Umrao Jaan”, which was re-made by J P Dutta, this is the third major Bollywood film which is being looked at anew. While the first two weren’t big hits (“Umrao Jaan” wasn’t even a hit), Akhtar’s sequel to the new “Don” is one of the big releases this year, scheduled for a Christmas release.

“Agneepath” releases in January 2012, but Johar is already keen on building a buzz around the film, and says he is feeling his way around it, because he isn’t used to violence in his films.

Guzaarish: Slow death

At one point in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Guzaarish”, the protagonist of the film Ethan Fernandes sings “it’s a wonderful world” while his mother is being buried. It’s a poignant moment, one where you feel the pain of the man. It’s also one of the very few genuine moments you will find in the film.

Everything else, like Aishwarya Rai’s make-up, seems fake and loud, and puts you off. The emotions, the set design, the dialogues, Hrithik Roshan’s beard are all out of this world, residing in some alien planet that only Bhansali inhabits.

I’m from Goa (where the film is set) and I can assure you, I don’t know of too many Goan women who wear Victorian skirts, have elaborate hairdos and bright lipstick, all the while nursing a paraplegic man. Actually, I don’t know if women anywhere do that.

The said paraplegic man is played by Hrithik Roshan, a former magician, who after a magic trick gone wrong, is paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair for the last twelve years, we are told.

He seems unfazed by his plight though, hosting a radio show from his run-down mansion, with the help of his loyal nurse Sofia (Aishwarya Rai, wearing said Victorian skirts and lipstick), who, when she is not helping him brush his teeth, is primly embroidering sheets.

One minute he is telling listeners to live life to the fullest and the next, he asks his lawyer friend (Shernaz Patel) to file a euthanasia petition in the court, asking for permission to die. The rest of the film chronicles his efforts in this direction.

It is also peppered with more characters that seem out of the world, including a young man keen to learn magic and talk as loudly as he can (Aditya Roy Kapoor), Ethan’s doctor Dr Nayak (Suhel Seth), and Ethan’s mother who says she cares for her son very much, but lives far away from him, never calling or visiting.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali turns to music

At the launch of the first look of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest offering “Guzaarish“, it came as a surprise that the trailer didn’t have any hint of the songs.

Instead, it was just a melody that served as a background. Given the memorable music of his earlier films, there are a lot of expectations from this one.

But the director does have a reason for keeping the music under wraps a little longer, because there is a brand new music director making his debut — Bhansali himself.

The director says he didn’t want to pass on the “deep thoughts” the characters would be expressing musically in the film to someone else.

“Only I can understand what my characters feel the best. So I thought it was best that I score the music for the film,” he said.

In “Guzaarish”, Hrithik Roshan plays a magician who becomes paraplegic after a stunt goes wrong while Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan stars as his lady love.

Kites: Romance is in the air

It has been such a long time since Bollywood has made a true-blue romance that purely on that merit alone, “Kites” is worth a watch.

Passion, chemistry and the cruel world against true love have become secondary when it comes to matters like reforming our education system or discovering new worlds.

Anurag Basu’s “Kites” makes no such pretences. It is about a boy and a girl madly, passionately in love who have to fight to stay together. There is no larger message business here.

What there is instead is crackling chemistry and beautifully shot scenes and a reminder of the good old 80s and 90s when love was the main theme in Indian cinema, making you forgive many of the obvious flaws in the film.

Hrithik Roshan plays J, a dashing but slippery customer who bides his time by marrying immigrants for green cards and teaches dance classes while he waits to hit the jackpot at the many casinos of Las Vegas.

When one of his students, the daughter of a rich casino owner falls for him, J plays along but his plans go awry when he falls for Linda (Barbara Mori), the fiancée of the casino owner’s son.

Desperately in love and on the run from her furious, gun-toting fiancé, they hit the road and in spite of the fact she can’t speak English and he doesn’t understand a word of Spanish, fall even more in love with each other.

Luck By Chance: An insider’s look at Bollywood

My favourite scenes in Zoya Akhtar’s “Luck By Chance” are when Rishi Kapoor is on screen as the over the top, aging Bollywood producer Romy Rolly.

And that’s not just because he is brilliant in the part — he is. But the scenes capture perfectly the subtle performances and nuanced characters this film is bursting with.

“Luck By Chance” is the story of Sona and Vikram, both struggling actors who are looking for a break in the big, bad world of Bollywood. Through their story, Akhtar depicts the confounding, ugly and yet oh-so-attractive world of our film industry.

The director tells the story light-heartedly but don’t expect direct humour. There are a lot of subtle references to real-life Bollywood characters, dialogues said in the passing and facial expressions, a refreshing change from the in- your-face slapstick humour we are subjected to most of the time.

The film follows both Sona (Konkona Sen Sharma) and Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) through their journey in Bollywood, one they undertake with the understanding that nothing here comes easy. So she sleeps with a producer who promises her a big break and he has no qualms about flirting with a yesteryear actress in the hope she will cast him in her daughter’s debut project.

A host of characters as well as some top Bollywood actors make an appearance in this journey. What is commendable is how Akhtar has astutely used even two-minute guest appearances. So you have Aamir displaying his “perfectionist” tendencies, Abhishek mentioning “Pa” and John Abraham talking about doing “experimental films.”

Also a part of this colourful ensemble are Juhi Chawla who plays the producer’s doting wife, Sanjay Kapoor, who ironically plays the failed actor brother of a big producer and Dimple Kapadia, the yesteryear siren who now grooms her daughter and is referred to as a “crocodile in a chiffon sari” by Romy Rolly in a fit of frustration. One of the highlights of the film is undoubtedly Hrithik Roshan, who plays the role of the insecure star with such skill and ease.