Dabangg- The Big Bang

The creator of the ‘angry young man’ would be more than happy for his real life creation’s inspiring exploits this Eid. Salman Khan has managed(managed may be a lesser word) to bring back that mass hysteria, that seetis and thalis, which were once the face of Indian mainstream cinema back to the Indian big screen. The debutant director Abhinav Singh Kashyap has prepared a pure indian masala with all ingredients in the correct proportion, the maa forced to choose between her sons, the step father, the poor potter girl, the dacoits, the wily politician villain with a touch of humour, the songs, dances and fights and ofcourse Chulbul Pandey, and it works.

‘ Dabangg’ is a Salman Khan film riding purely on his star power.The character Chulbul Pandey has reflections of his real life persona.

His dialouge “barosa bhi hai, himmat bhi hai aur thakat bhi aur paagalpan had se zyaada” summarises his character in the movie. Chulbul Pandey is a pagal guy who can dance in between a fight with the villains, who can tap in his uniform, who can drink daru in police station and who can kill men at will. Salman carries the role with unprecedented ease and panache. The humour that he brings to the character in every move and every dialogue is more than capable of generating mass euphoria. The dialogue delivery and voice modulation is perfect and he has rendered the character, which is likely to gain a cult status, as only he can do. Chulbul Pandey is a complete ‘charra‘ as we can put it in ‘khari bholi’ and Dabang is charragiri at its best. Dont ask me the meaning of charra, but this was the first word which came to my mind after watching Chulbul pandey. Salman’s character will draw comparisons with the unparalleled indian screen legends of Gabbar Singh and Shahenshah for its mass appeal and madness. We can call Chulbul Pandey an indian cowboy who would curdle Clint Eastwood’s blood were he to watch it.

Anurag Kashyap’s younger brother is a polar opposite of his good self, be it the style or the selection of the theme.Abhinav Kashyap has brought back the good old Manmohan Desai/Prakash Mehra genre of film with a big bang with his Dabang. The screenplay is tight and pacy with hair tapping scenes crammed in this beautiful package from start to end. The dialogues are exhilarating and humorous. The most imperative thing he has done is that he has used Salman Khan and his mannerisms as no one has ever done. He may not be as classy as Anurag, but he is a master in his craft. He has brought back the indian flavour which was long forgotten with the advent of multiplex culture which provided half baked sandwich of hollywood and indian masala pionereed by the Chopras and Johars.

Sonakshi Sinha is a thousand times more talented and beautiful starkid than some of the overrated stick insects crawling around. Indians are watching an indian looking indian heroine in bollywood after a long time. She has the screen presence on par with yesteryear heroines like Madhuri and Sridevi. Her dialogue “thappad se dar nahi lagta saab, pyar se lagta hai” reminded me of her superstar father’s confident and stylish dialogues in Kallicharan and Vishwanath. Size Zero heroins beware, a real indian heroine has arrived and she is here to stay.

Chedi Singh is an antagonist harmonising Chulbul Pandey, be it his style, humour sense, dialogues or body. Chedi Singh was thinking about himself as a hero right from his childhood and his villainy has a heroic touch to it.He even overshadows the cresting personality of Chulbul Pandey somewhere in the climax.
The editing of the film never lags behind the screenplay and the rapid cuts is similair to the ones we see in  south masala potboilers directed by masters like Shankar and Rajamouli. The cinematography is excellent with a lot of bird’s eye and wide angle shots to give that supernatural feel to the characters. The exaggerated action sequences choreographed by Vijayan is eyecatching as well as heart thumbing.

Dabang is pure madness stumbled into a heightened sensibility.The statement may seem to be contradictory. But that is what Dabang is.

The Rajni Experience……….

On the eve of another Rajni release after 3 years, I can feel the excitement in south India especially among the thalaivar fans. The biggest superstar in India will set the Indian big screen on fire tomorrow, may be for the last time. His unmatched screen persona and charisma(Amitabh Bacchan is the only other superstar who have at least tried to match Rajni in his reigning days) will be exhibited tomorrow.The only Rajni film I have watched in theatre was Sivaji and it was an experience that will be cherished lifelong. The mass euphoria that he can invoke and the demi god status he enjoys still remains in my mind as a golden episode in my 25 years old life. As far as I can remember the first Rajni movie I watched was Thalapathy in the now obsolete VCP in my uncle’s home. The scene in which Rajni’s character Surya vigorously assaults a police officer in a highway with Shobana watching from a bus with indifferent surprise caught my imagination like anything, now I can’t even recollect the number of times I would have watched that scene after that.Thalapathy was a movie rich with excellent actors like Mammooty and Amrish Puri, the ultimate chocolate sensation of his time Arvind Swamy and sensual beauties like Shobana and Banupriya.But after watching the movie the only image that imprinted in my mind was that of Rajnikanth. That’s what Rajni is all about. His screen presence and grace will invade your mind like a million Alexandre’s army can plague the world. After that exemplary movie watching experience I have watched most of his movies from the ultimate superstar incarnation like Baasha to the comedy capers like Naan Avan Allai, but I never got an opportunity to watch a Rajni movie in theatre till Sivaji. Sivaji was released worldwide on the 15th of June 2007 with prints around 1000. I was in my home at that time after completing my BTech and raring to join Ispat. I had already decided to watch the movie on the first day, but I couldn’t figure out, how I can arrange for a ticket? My college hostel friends called me on the evening of 14 June and asked me to reach the Kavitha theatre complex at 4 am. Now I started thinking about the lie I would have to tell my parents to make them allow me to leave home around 3:30 am. As always a college project came to my rescue, I should reach Kasargod atleast at 7 to do a project on power distribution system and as always my father took it too seriously, he even arranged for an auto-rikshaw for me to reach the bus stand so that I will not run late to reach in time to do the project. The queue I saw in the theatre at 4am terrified me. I saw my college and hostel mates brushing their teeth in the line with dreamy half slept eyes. As soon he saw me, one of my friends asked me to take his place in the queue so that he can relax a bit. That process continued till 10am till the ticket delivery started. We took our positions in the queue in turns allowing time for each to relax a bit and have some water and snacks. By 7 there were more than 35 GCEKians in the complex including our college union chairman. In that 10 hours in the Kavitha complex from 4am to 2pm, I saw some of the most weird scenes and krackjack people I have ever seen in my life. There was a huge poster of Rajnikanth in his Sivaji attire near the main gate of Kavitha Theatre with a graceful ‘mullamala’ hung around his neck. I rightfully guessed it to be the madness of some krackjack Rajni fans. The exuberant whiteness of the garland which shone in his neck in the sensual darkness of that cold dawn gave him the manifestation of a ‘mass messiah’. Beneath that poster I saw a family of scrap pickers resting peacefully as if in the bright shadow of god. The male members of that family were in the queue, hoping that, they will be able to give their children a glimpse of their god. No one has ever seen the god. Your god is what you believe him to be and that tamil scrap picker family worshipped him as their god. His inspiring on-screen exploits were a source of inspiration for the working class of tamil nadu, his philosophical dialogues always captured their imagination and his intoxicating movements gave them the nasha that only ‘absinth’ can give to a rich man. He was their god, I knew it from their eyes. There was another group of tamilians just in front of us in the queue, who came from coimbatore because of the unavailability of tickets there. I learned from them that the tickets for the first 10 days were already sold out and in black market the rates were as high as 2000. They had thought of a much better option, to watch the movie in Kannur only at a distance of around 400 kilometres from their home town Coimbatore. They told me that they had friends here working in hotels and lodges as cleaners, sweepers and suppliers. The only thing that cost them was a second class ticket and a 7 hours journey in the suffocating boggies of link express. The childish innocence and sincerity they showed in their devotion disturbed me more than stratling me. Now I understand why an Anna Durai is considered more than the father of our nation in tamil nadu?, how an on-screen superstar like MGR can become the longest reigning chief minister there and how a Prabhakaran is created. This is the stuff that tamilians are made of. I would like to call them the purest breed in India. So pure that you can’t even think of tainting their colour. The colour that absorbs all impurities in the world still maintaining itself as a pure as always it had been. I love tamilians and I started enjoying their company even more after my sister was married to a man settled in coimbatore. By 7 the print box reached the theatre and we welcomed it with a huge roar. Some members of the Rajni fans association persuaded the theatre owners to take the print box to the Parassinikadavu temple for a traditional puja. The fans had already started firing crackers and distributing sweets. A young boy from the group of scrap pickers gave me a ladoo and I accepted it with poise. I was really starting to enjoy the atmosphere by that time. The fans group pursued their pilgrimage to the temple with the box and the theatre manager joined them. I came out of the theatre to have my breakfast at around 7:30.After having a simple breakfast of 2 iddlis and tea I came back to the theatre within half an hour only to feel spellbound by the electrifying atmosphere. There were 2 police jeeps by the entrance gate of the theatre and it seemed that even the policemen had joined the celebrations. Hundreds of milk packets were torned open and thrown in to the giant posters and cut outs arranged in the theatre complex, resembling the traditional ‘palabhishekam’ done on the statues of dieties in temples. Rajni fans were creating floral carpets in the sky with flowers of all colours wavering in the morning sky. They were dancing and singing their heart out as if the marriage of some loved one is taking place. The celebrations crossed all its limits when the print box returned to the theatre after the Puja. I can’t express in words the mass hysteria that followed, it is a thing to be experienced and felt. The crowd became violent with the start of ticket distribution and the policemen had the task of their life controlling the hysteric mass. With much difficulty we entered the cinema hall at 10:15.The 45 minutes we spend in the cinema hall before the movie started was relatively calmer and silent. The songs from various malayalam and tamil films reverberated the walls of the theatre. When the song attokaaran from Baasha was played the crowd showed glimpses of hysteria they had reserved in themselves to celebrate the movie. When the movie kick started at 11 a fan in front of me burned camphor in his hands to show his devotion to his god. I wasn’t able to hear most of the dialogues and missed many scenes in the next three hours. But I didn’t felt any regret for not being able to enjoy the movie to the fullest. I had experienced something different, something that only Rajni can deliver, I don’t know what that experience really is, it still remains as an enigma in my mind as the super stardom of Rajnikanth is. I don’t expect that Rajni experience in the multiplex in Mumbai when I watch Endhiran. But that Rajni magic which I felt during the first show of Sivaji will remain in my mind as one of the most weird experience I have ever had.

‘bakarchodhi’ resurrected

I always have ideas and views on anything and everything happening around me, which I tend to express verbally. This tendency may be called ‘bakarchodhi’ in colloquial hindi. Now I have got a platform for my ‘bakarchodhi’, and being a ‘bakarchodh’ by birth, I am feeling very much elated at this moment. I welcome you all to join me for a ride through my beach of senseless commentary(bakarchodhi). Just feel the warmth of cool salty water, the roughness of soft sand and the velvet touch of dusty breeze in my beach.I assure you ‘ A Walk To Remember'(a bit of Nicholas Sparks der), so start walking with me………………