Abhishek at Tongues of Fire (London Asian film festival) (Q&A)
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51 Responses to “Abhishek at Tongues of Fire (London Asian film festival) (Q&A)”
after seeing this i hope people realise why abhishek is still liked so much in bollywood circles. here is a guy who is an intelligent,level-headed person. from his interviews(even on koffee with karan)it is evident that he is one of the most well-spoken actors of the current lot.and the best thing i like abt him is that he comes across as a genuinely nice guy. it’s just a matter of time before the much eluded success will becum his lapdog. i hope his ‘haters’,some of which r there on this blog,realise this
well said Saurabh….although over the last 4-5 years of blogging I have realized one thing – say your point, do not argue with haters, bas ekla chalo re….. , dimag mein shanti rehtee hai…
LOL!!
rocky-sahi baat hai par mai naya hoon, kuchh din tak argue karoonga, phir shayad thak jaoonga. sahi kaha ekla chalo re-it really amuses me what pleasure people get in bad-mouthing him. i do not find him a great actor but neither is he the worst as sum people claim here. the hardwork can easily be seen in his performances.and i hate these diabological people who normally do not like amitabh but whenever abhishek comes with a credible performance, the same will jump to say that he is aping his dad
Agreed Saurabh, and well said. Its only a matter of time now, He did taste success few years back. Hoping he will come with a bang and stay there for sometime.
Agree with the theme on Abhishek but it is critical for him to deliver with Bol Bachchan tho Shetty- Devgun will hog the credit ( and rightfully so to some extent) but atleast it will change the narrative a bit.
Even tho he is smart,talented, balanced, has a storied last name and makes interesting choices, at some point he will stop getting the benefit of doubt. But, am not worried. He is doing the right things and I expect it to come together this year.
rajen- u r right abt bol bachchan. and though i find devgn a better actor in totality, in a comedy like this one, if abhishek gets even half a decent role here he will swallow devgn alive(case in point-dostana). but media may still not give him the credit sadly
I actually disagree with the basics of that proposition on Bol Bachchan. I start with a very simple, very obvious assumption that many anti-Abhishek partisans and even many who are fans seem to be completely missing. Rohit Shetty could have made another solo with Devgan after Singham. Or he could have made a two hero film that wasn’t called Bol Bachchan, where the director in every interview on the film didn’t talk about Abhishek more than he did about Devgan, where he concede it was a loose Golmaal remake with Abhishek doing the Amol Palekar double and furthermore being a guy called Abbas (some important Bachchan symbolism with that name) who pretended to be one ‘Abhishek Bachchan’ (not the actor, just someone with the same name). furthermore the director said explicitly the name in the title was the same as Abhishek’s name. So the question then arises: what other film can one think of where the main guy (if you will) is not the recipient of all these ‘benefits’? Wouldn’t it be rather bizarre on the part of the director to do this if Devgan was the main show? Wouldn’t his distributors find it crazy? And what about the audience? Does a general audience go into a film with that title with a reasonable expectation that Abhishek is.. er.. central to the film?! Doing things this way would be a complete mystery!
In many ways we get back to the same old issue with both the partisans and the fans. The inability on their part to explain Abhishek’s connection with some important projects (whether defined as prestigious or commercially big or both). The thing (as I’ve always said.. perhaps with some smugness) is that if I am wrong in my entire estimation of Abhishek’s career the rest should not follow. And those on the other side agree with this which is why they resort to increasingly improbable explanations. In other words when there’s no other hero one insinuates it might be about someone pulling strings, it might be about a quid pro quo, and so on. When it’s a two hero film now it’s easy enough to ‘explain’ this by saying ‘hey it’s all about Devgan’! Except that Rohit Shetty isn’t making Singham 2. He is doing just the opposite! In fact couldn’t it be very plausibly argued that he really wants to do a film with Abhishek in an important, probably ‘the’ central part (he plays a double character after all), and that Devgan is really his insurance plan? So any questions that you might have about Abhishek’s initial are solved this way. But it does not at all follow from the box office argument in terms of generating the initial that Devgan therefore has the more important part here. In fact one would have a much harder time proving the opposite. Which is why people just don’t address this stuff. They ‘ignore’ it. They just don’t have an answer. Much as they cannot provide other examples where something as blatant as this happens but the guy is not the main hero or at least not one of two main stars.
So I just refuse to concede the central claim here. It seems to follow from the premise that someone who’s in box office trouble ought not to be able to get such projects. True. But there are mediating factors here, precisely the ones I’ve discussed many times. Clearly the industry shares my estimation of his abilities and his potential to some degree, otherwise he would have been out of the game long ago. Of course people come up with absurd responses to account for this but that’s another matter.
Now in a D3 I can at least ‘see’ the point. Because here you have a film where at least in the previous installment there was an imbalance. Given Aamir’s vastly greater box office standing one could make certain assumptions (though I don’t really share them here for different reasons). Bol Bachchan is a completely different scenario. What happens is that with each failure folks think that the game should be up for Abhishek and because it isn’t they find it hard to make this square with what are in many cases completely dogmatic assumptions about not just Abhishek but about the movie business in general. So I would argue for example looking at the careers of a number of stars over the last twenty years for example that it isn’t only about the box office as a science but the larger standing of a star in the public imagination. For example Sunny Deol has had some extremely lean patches that lasted years and years (I’ve gone into this in great detail before) and where no one really thought he wasn’t a major star. Could say the same for Dutt. With Sunny there was also far more prestige projects that didn’t work. but one could go back even further. The idea that a star’s survival is perfectly aligned with the box office is in some ways the greatest fiction around. It depends on what the nature of the star’s overall appeal is or what his (or her) narrative is about. The same standards don’t apply across the board. We know there can’t be complete failure and clearly overwhelming success also makes for an easy call. But most stars are in between. If the market perceives the star to have no brand value (whatever that brand value is premised on) the star simply cannot survive. This is true even for someone like Tushar Kapoor because for the films he gets or for the parts he plays the market makes a decision that he adds some minimal value. In other words rather Tushar than ‘x’. But of course he’s at the lowest end of the food chain in this sense. The problem again with the partisans and even many of the fans is that (leaving aside their poor grasp on the history) they’re not even willing to concede that Abhishek is ‘some’ kind of star. They’re saying he’s close to nothing. In that case his career becomes a massive mystery!
I am prepared to concede quite a bit there, particularly the significance and scope/breadth of Abhishek’s role in the film but whether it will be enough to prevent media and vested interests from giving Abhishek a significant share of credit for what is a quite assured BO success remains to be seen.
Utpla Dutt had a stellar role in original Golmaal and while Pappu Palekar was great Dutt made the film what it was. Devgun is not quite the force that Dutt could be in these kind of roles but will definitely have a meaty role.
The media will never give him credit. That’s a different issue. It’s like BOI already put Bol Bachchan’s in the year’s 100 crore probables. Because they’ll say it was all about Devgan. However I don’t believe that the general public just goes by this.
I am not denying Devgan will have a proper role here. But I don’t believe he’s the kind of actor to pull an Utpal Dutt on anyone! Also remember Abhishek’s role will have some strong masala elements as well. Devgan according to the director plays a wrestler who is fooled by everyone.
Satyam: the response to Abhishek’s career brings to mind the logic of certain fundamentalists — if one “wins” one says “Hey, this proved God was with us” and if one “loses”, one says “God is punishing us for not being good enough.” In both cases, the reality is there is no logic (not in the real sense of the term), because the conclusion comes first (“We are God’s chosen, no matter what happens”; “Abhishek is a nobody”), and everything else must be shaped.
Initially I was surprised that one would train guns at a film called “Bol Bachchan”, but then realized that this is the Karl Rove principle — you don’t attack your opponent’s weaknesses, but his strengths! (e.g. Kerry’s war record)…
A (sensible) girl without any clothes wont go shopping for ‘Ascott headwear’ but scamper for some bare essentials first
so abhishrek needs to be a ‘sensible (girl)’ right now 😉
But isn’t the problem precisely (from your side of the argument) that ‘whether successful or not I [Abhishek] will still keep getting important projects’?! In other words that doomsday scenario hasn’t panned out so far! And with every new film the doom and gloom portraits are painted with as much regularity as the hopes many fans have on the same! So my point here is, the evidence so far only supports one of our claims!
I said this half-seriously earlier but for some years Abhishek’s issue has been that even with much greater box office success though he would be defined as a bigger star or whatever he couldn’t really improve on the quality of the projects he’s worked in one way or the other! Barring an exception here and there.
satyam- i do not know whether u will believe me or not but i will still mention. in my college these days, if an abhishek film(and if it does not have any) comes,people just refuse to watch it in theatre. i remember KHJJS had released, probably no one apart from me(from my college) went to see the film: all of them were saying that if it has abhishek in it, it must be a horrible(the film was removed from theatres in my city in 1 week). the same happened with ‘game’.
satyam-after ‘game'(which i quite liked; i saw both the earlier films in theatre), players was supposed to come. now i felt that here is a film by abbas-mustan(who have a proved track record in thrillers) which should finally give abhishek much needed success. but alas! a lot of people decided to stay from this too, again the reason being cited that though it is a multi-starrer abhishek is in the lead, and so he must have spoilt in the film. i still went to see the film(a horrible film it was)
satyam-now before ‘players’ released, dmd(my fav film last year and had a superlative performance by abhishek) had cum.due to its catchy music and interesting theme, decent amount of people had turned up for this one.the film became sumwhat of a marginal success,with most of my batchmates having positive things to say abt ab’s act.yet abhishek’s nect players could not garner a good enough initial audience.i remember this trend began with raavan where lot of us turned up on the 1st day and were disappointed.
now i believe for his fortune to turn to his favour, abhishek requires a huge hit in a solo-hero which has the scope of raavan. i don’t think even bol bachchan’s success will change much for ab( case in point-even after a hit in dostana, drona and next films simply tanked).yes bol bachchan may dilute the extremely negative perception people have abt him, they may start taking notice of comic-timing(which is still untapped)but it will not be enough to reinvent him.that will occur only after a solo hit
Abhishrek Bachchan–“plotting against success”
basically he needs to get beyond just GETTING interesting projects
TO
making them work !!
The ‘doomsday scenario’ bit is relative, really!!
Dont think he will be homeless hungry in a few generations even without doing anything–(like some other people)
oops—the ‘curse of affluence’ –a la znmd–a fave topic 😉
Basically, enuf is enuf
have limited patience and have no more for him really (with all due respects–not in a bad way)
but do wish him all the best (mnore for amitabhs &
aishwaryas sake
Consistent Underperformance deserves sympathy ONLY upto a point!!
after that –i personally believe in ‘kick-ass action’–
human being’s a naughty lazy being lol
Get it in written–IF abhishreks survival or existence wouldve been at stake (like other struggles) he wont have been dilly-dallying like this
Pardon the bluntness–and dont expect others to agree
and have nothing personal against abhishrek—ingact like him and moreso his dad (and sp his wife)
But
To me, he has SHONE only in TWO scenes (matching his legacy) in his entire career
1) a tiny confrontation scene (1 min or so) in Umraao Jaan
with shabana azmi
where he showed his place…..
and also emphasised her place (literally!!)
2) The final courtroom scene in guru–well, that was a class act
aided by manis brilliance and excellent technical team (may write on this later)
3) in sarkar–after the ‘slap’ by the police officer—the restrained ‘humiliation’ –just right
These scenes perhaps transcend the rest of his entire career for me (till now)
Abhishek aint a bad actor – but I’ll be blatant in saying he has been, now for a much longer time, just going on with the proceedings, making sure his performance just about suits the character he plays. But I often feel he just doesnt make enough effort to connect with the audience. In his comic roles a la Dostana, soe of his scenes had the audience in splits, but it disappoints me that after being such a show stealer is Yuva, Sarkar and the ultimate – Guru, he has been on a steady decline. I agree that all his choices havent been bad but somewhere I feel he’s just stopped caring enough.. Why the hell he went for projects like Drona and Umrao at a stage of his career when most in the industry (including some media) were looking up to him is beyond me.
I agree that Delhi 6 was a good film and that was an interesting choice (pity that the Trade experts without Adarshs were so harsh on him) but had he considered the scripts of Raavan and KHJJS before signing them blindly just coz of the brilliant directors at the helm, he’d probably be in a better place to manage his career. Now the Rohit Shetty project just reveals how he is in dire need of a hit.
tony- and man,after giving a plethora of huge flops he cannot be termed as a ‘star’ at all-probably when had hits in the form of guru,dhoom2,bunty-babli he could have been called one but certainly not now.when people get to know that a film stars abhishek they start feeling jittery abt it.yes,i understand that he had made sum courageous(i liked khelein hum,did not think it was bad)choices and has improved his acting skills by leaps & bounds, he needs bol bachchan to work for him to get back into reckoning
I agree. My point is – he shouldn’t have been where he is to begin with. He had the opportunity after 2005 when he gave a string of hits, and then in 2007 with Guru, but he sort of gave it away by signing some mediocre projects.
Having said that, I believe his act in Guru is probably the best by a ‘current generation star’ in the past decade (That includes the Khans). trust me thats no exaggeration.
I THINK WE HAVE BEEN DOWN THIS ROAD TOO MANY TIMES BEFORE AS TO WHY,WHEN AND HOW DID THINGS GO WRONG FOR ABHI
But,I do think Raavan was a particularly bad moment. Good film or not it just didnt connect with any significance for the vast majority. People felt he could NOT act at all. Am surprised a seasoned caimpaigner like Mani could not see it coming. KHHJS and Game fortified the impression in the minds of many that he was just lazy and took things for granted.
A success can reverse a lot of this negativism and I think he is on course for atleast a couple this year and next.
It is certainly true that the clock was reset after Raavan. Till the release of this film he had a certain initial even on his worst days. After this the initial completely evaporated. In some ways Raavan completed (rather ironically) the Guru circle. The latter was his highest career point and the former his lowest.
he was atleast appreciated in D-6 and DMD, the movies were good too…
not many liked him in Raavan, I however did, even though I did not like the movie..
in Game he was OK the movie was slow and boring ( should have ideally been a TV movie), KHJJS- both him and the movie sucked ( although my 11 year old was very fascinated and googled the history of Chittiong)…
Players , the movie was good but AB Baby was lazy and was uninterested and Uninteresting…….
Ghai visited Bachchan the other day. Bachchan mentioned this on the blog. Not sure what’s great about the news though given the sort of stuff Ghai has been making for years. I’m afraid he missed his Devaa chance 25 years ago!
Amitabh Bachchan@SrBachchan
T 698 – Film trade refers to status now by ‘title’ as ‘the 100 cr Club’ ! In our days it was ‘the Jubilee Star’ – 25 weeks, 50, 75 weeker !!
never really liked much of Ghai’s work. Thought each of his earlier films had lots of characters with oodles of melodrama (Raj Kanwar gave him company on the latter bit).
but he could’ve capitalised on his success ratio and at least made an effort to change with the times. The media-made stories of Ghai being the only showman after Raj Kapoor were exaggerated beyond belief.
Loved his Pardes though. I think that film has a solid repeat value.
Karma was an okay watch
Saudagar was too long.
Khalnayak was good.
Taal was Chopra wannabe. Rehman’s classic music should’ve been used in a better film
The less said about Yaadein and Kisna the better
Parts of Karz were very good but much of it was unintentionally funny
my fav films of ghai- kalicharan(shatrughan’s best role- a film not to be missed by any masala lover- ghai’s first film and easily one of his best). 2 khalnayak- sanjay in never-before-role, the title track is so bloody good 3-meri jung(one of my fav anil kapoor performance) and karma(sumhow love this especially for dileep and naseer and dil diya hai)
by the way luved ur line on raj kanwar. he was easily one of the words directors around that time. i find most of his films atrocious.still sumone of his films i liked- ‘daag’- sumhow have a soft-spot for this one. sanju in top form, chandrachur was also good,luved sukhwinder’s song ‘tera lucky kabootar’ 2) jeet- sunny was good here, easily ate up salman in every scene, yet people say he is a non-actor 3)deewana-simply for its songs-aisi deewanagi and sochenge tumhe pyar-kumar sanu at his best
no problem rocky, i’m glad that u enjoyed it. i luved raaj kumar(said that he left us so early)- can never get over his ‘gaindaswaami’ dialogues from tiranga. wish he would have worked with bachchan though. also, in the video really enjoyed the young sanjay dutt
SATYAMSHOT 
March 28, 2012 at 10:23 AM
Abhishek, Salman, Gavaskar pay tribute to Sachin Tendulkar-
[new post created]
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March 28, 2012 at 10:32 AM
Salman Khan- Kuch bhee bolta hai, log hastey hain…takes a huge dig at SRK’s DON…
Aside- what a distingushed gathering….
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March 28, 2012 at 10:44 AM
would love to watch Aamir’s Tribute….
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March 28, 2012 at 12:18 PM
Aamir’s part of this video.. he’s there at the beginning.
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March 28, 2012 at 10:44 AM
Test
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March 28, 2012 at 1:04 PM
after seeing this i hope people realise why abhishek is still liked so much in bollywood circles. here is a guy who is an intelligent,level-headed person. from his interviews(even on koffee with karan)it is evident that he is one of the most well-spoken actors of the current lot.and the best thing i like abt him is that he comes across as a genuinely nice guy. it’s just a matter of time before the much eluded success will becum his lapdog. i hope his ‘haters’,some of which r there on this blog,realise this
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March 28, 2012 at 1:20 PM
well said Saurabh….although over the last 4-5 years of blogging I have realized one thing – say your point, do not argue with haters, bas ekla chalo re….. , dimag mein shanti rehtee hai…
LOL!!
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March 28, 2012 at 2:04 PM
rocky-sahi baat hai par mai naya hoon, kuchh din tak argue karoonga, phir shayad thak jaoonga. sahi kaha ekla chalo re-it really amuses me what pleasure people get in bad-mouthing him. i do not find him a great actor but neither is he the worst as sum people claim here. the hardwork can easily be seen in his performances.and i hate these diabological people who normally do not like amitabh but whenever abhishek comes with a credible performance, the same will jump to say that he is aping his dad
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March 28, 2012 at 1:35 PM
Agreed Saurabh, and well said. Its only a matter of time now, He did taste success few years back. Hoping he will come with a bang and stay there for sometime.
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March 28, 2012 at 1:59 PM
Agree with the theme on Abhishek but it is critical for him to deliver with Bol Bachchan tho Shetty- Devgun will hog the credit ( and rightfully so to some extent) but atleast it will change the narrative a bit.
Even tho he is smart,talented, balanced, has a storied last name and makes interesting choices, at some point he will stop getting the benefit of doubt. But, am not worried. He is doing the right things and I expect it to come together this year.
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March 28, 2012 at 2:02 PM
Aapke ke mu mein ghee shakar..lol (I know a bit cheezy and corny there). But hope our hopes come true.
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March 28, 2012 at 2:09 PM
rajen- u r right abt bol bachchan. and though i find devgn a better actor in totality, in a comedy like this one, if abhishek gets even half a decent role here he will swallow devgn alive(case in point-dostana). but media may still not give him the credit sadly
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March 28, 2012 at 4:59 PM
I actually disagree with the basics of that proposition on Bol Bachchan. I start with a very simple, very obvious assumption that many anti-Abhishek partisans and even many who are fans seem to be completely missing. Rohit Shetty could have made another solo with Devgan after Singham. Or he could have made a two hero film that wasn’t called Bol Bachchan, where the director in every interview on the film didn’t talk about Abhishek more than he did about Devgan, where he concede it was a loose Golmaal remake with Abhishek doing the Amol Palekar double and furthermore being a guy called Abbas (some important Bachchan symbolism with that name) who pretended to be one ‘Abhishek Bachchan’ (not the actor, just someone with the same name). furthermore the director said explicitly the name in the title was the same as Abhishek’s name. So the question then arises: what other film can one think of where the main guy (if you will) is not the recipient of all these ‘benefits’? Wouldn’t it be rather bizarre on the part of the director to do this if Devgan was the main show? Wouldn’t his distributors find it crazy? And what about the audience? Does a general audience go into a film with that title with a reasonable expectation that Abhishek is.. er.. central to the film?! Doing things this way would be a complete mystery!
In many ways we get back to the same old issue with both the partisans and the fans. The inability on their part to explain Abhishek’s connection with some important projects (whether defined as prestigious or commercially big or both). The thing (as I’ve always said.. perhaps with some smugness) is that if I am wrong in my entire estimation of Abhishek’s career the rest should not follow. And those on the other side agree with this which is why they resort to increasingly improbable explanations. In other words when there’s no other hero one insinuates it might be about someone pulling strings, it might be about a quid pro quo, and so on. When it’s a two hero film now it’s easy enough to ‘explain’ this by saying ‘hey it’s all about Devgan’! Except that Rohit Shetty isn’t making Singham 2. He is doing just the opposite! In fact couldn’t it be very plausibly argued that he really wants to do a film with Abhishek in an important, probably ‘the’ central part (he plays a double character after all), and that Devgan is really his insurance plan? So any questions that you might have about Abhishek’s initial are solved this way. But it does not at all follow from the box office argument in terms of generating the initial that Devgan therefore has the more important part here. In fact one would have a much harder time proving the opposite. Which is why people just don’t address this stuff. They ‘ignore’ it. They just don’t have an answer. Much as they cannot provide other examples where something as blatant as this happens but the guy is not the main hero or at least not one of two main stars.
So I just refuse to concede the central claim here. It seems to follow from the premise that someone who’s in box office trouble ought not to be able to get such projects. True. But there are mediating factors here, precisely the ones I’ve discussed many times. Clearly the industry shares my estimation of his abilities and his potential to some degree, otherwise he would have been out of the game long ago. Of course people come up with absurd responses to account for this but that’s another matter.
Now in a D3 I can at least ‘see’ the point. Because here you have a film where at least in the previous installment there was an imbalance. Given Aamir’s vastly greater box office standing one could make certain assumptions (though I don’t really share them here for different reasons). Bol Bachchan is a completely different scenario. What happens is that with each failure folks think that the game should be up for Abhishek and because it isn’t they find it hard to make this square with what are in many cases completely dogmatic assumptions about not just Abhishek but about the movie business in general. So I would argue for example looking at the careers of a number of stars over the last twenty years for example that it isn’t only about the box office as a science but the larger standing of a star in the public imagination. For example Sunny Deol has had some extremely lean patches that lasted years and years (I’ve gone into this in great detail before) and where no one really thought he wasn’t a major star. Could say the same for Dutt. With Sunny there was also far more prestige projects that didn’t work. but one could go back even further. The idea that a star’s survival is perfectly aligned with the box office is in some ways the greatest fiction around. It depends on what the nature of the star’s overall appeal is or what his (or her) narrative is about. The same standards don’t apply across the board. We know there can’t be complete failure and clearly overwhelming success also makes for an easy call. But most stars are in between. If the market perceives the star to have no brand value (whatever that brand value is premised on) the star simply cannot survive. This is true even for someone like Tushar Kapoor because for the films he gets or for the parts he plays the market makes a decision that he adds some minimal value. In other words rather Tushar than ‘x’. But of course he’s at the lowest end of the food chain in this sense. The problem again with the partisans and even many of the fans is that (leaving aside their poor grasp on the history) they’re not even willing to concede that Abhishek is ‘some’ kind of star. They’re saying he’s close to nothing. In that case his career becomes a massive mystery!
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March 28, 2012 at 6:36 PM
I am prepared to concede quite a bit there, particularly the significance and scope/breadth of Abhishek’s role in the film but whether it will be enough to prevent media and vested interests from giving Abhishek a significant share of credit for what is a quite assured BO success remains to be seen.
Utpla Dutt had a stellar role in original Golmaal and while Pappu Palekar was great Dutt made the film what it was. Devgun is not quite the force that Dutt could be in these kind of roles but will definitely have a meaty role.
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March 28, 2012 at 8:30 PM
The media will never give him credit. That’s a different issue. It’s like BOI already put Bol Bachchan’s in the year’s 100 crore probables. Because they’ll say it was all about Devgan. However I don’t believe that the general public just goes by this.
I am not denying Devgan will have a proper role here. But I don’t believe he’s the kind of actor to pull an Utpal Dutt on anyone! Also remember Abhishek’s role will have some strong masala elements as well. Devgan according to the director plays a wrestler who is fooled by everyone.
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March 29, 2012 at 2:37 AM
Satyam: the response to Abhishek’s career brings to mind the logic of certain fundamentalists — if one “wins” one says “Hey, this proved God was with us” and if one “loses”, one says “God is punishing us for not being good enough.” In both cases, the reality is there is no logic (not in the real sense of the term), because the conclusion comes first (“We are God’s chosen, no matter what happens”; “Abhishek is a nobody”), and everything else must be shaped.
Initially I was surprised that one would train guns at a film called “Bol Bachchan”, but then realized that this is the Karl Rove principle — you don’t attack your opponent’s weaknesses, but his strengths! (e.g. Kerry’s war record)…
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March 29, 2012 at 7:42 AM
Well-framed!
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March 28, 2012 at 5:09 PM
The ONLY thing abhishrek needs right now is
box office suxess
By hook or by crook
Unashamedly, unapologetically and with a goal directedly precision
No hang ups, no prestige, nothing
This reminds me of an analogy since a (dumbish) person was eating my brains me about this –oops!!
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ascot+headwear&hl=en&rlz=1G1SNNT_ENUK477&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=WX1zT7yCOYWp8AOBwoUv&ved=0CF4QsAQ&biw=1366&bih=577
A (sensible) girl without any clothes wont go shopping for ‘Ascott headwear’ but scamper for some bare essentials first
so abhishrek needs to be a ‘sensible (girl)’ right now 😉
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March 28, 2012 at 5:12 PM
But isn’t the problem precisely (from your side of the argument) that ‘whether successful or not I [Abhishek] will still keep getting important projects’?! In other words that doomsday scenario hasn’t panned out so far! And with every new film the doom and gloom portraits are painted with as much regularity as the hopes many fans have on the same! So my point here is, the evidence so far only supports one of our claims!
I said this half-seriously earlier but for some years Abhishek’s issue has been that even with much greater box office success though he would be defined as a bigger star or whatever he couldn’t really improve on the quality of the projects he’s worked in one way or the other! Barring an exception here and there.
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March 28, 2012 at 9:19 PM
satyam- i do not know whether u will believe me or not but i will still mention. in my college these days, if an abhishek film(and if it does not have any) comes,people just refuse to watch it in theatre. i remember KHJJS had released, probably no one apart from me(from my college) went to see the film: all of them were saying that if it has abhishek in it, it must be a horrible(the film was removed from theatres in my city in 1 week). the same happened with ‘game’.
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March 28, 2012 at 9:26 PM
satyam-after ‘game'(which i quite liked; i saw both the earlier films in theatre), players was supposed to come. now i felt that here is a film by abbas-mustan(who have a proved track record in thrillers) which should finally give abhishek much needed success. but alas! a lot of people decided to stay from this too, again the reason being cited that though it is a multi-starrer abhishek is in the lead, and so he must have spoilt in the film. i still went to see the film(a horrible film it was)
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March 28, 2012 at 9:37 PM
satyam-now before ‘players’ released, dmd(my fav film last year and had a superlative performance by abhishek) had cum.due to its catchy music and interesting theme, decent amount of people had turned up for this one.the film became sumwhat of a marginal success,with most of my batchmates having positive things to say abt ab’s act.yet abhishek’s nect players could not garner a good enough initial audience.i remember this trend began with raavan where lot of us turned up on the 1st day and were disappointed.
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March 28, 2012 at 9:48 PM
now i believe for his fortune to turn to his favour, abhishek requires a huge hit in a solo-hero which has the scope of raavan. i don’t think even bol bachchan’s success will change much for ab( case in point-even after a hit in dostana, drona and next films simply tanked).yes bol bachchan may dilute the extremely negative perception people have abt him, they may start taking notice of comic-timing(which is still untapped)but it will not be enough to reinvent him.that will occur only after a solo hit
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March 28, 2012 at 11:39 PM
Drona was a total flop.
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March 29, 2012 at 1:47 AM
satyam-yes, that’s what i said that even after dostana was a hit, drona and next films flopped.
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March 29, 2012 at 7:43 AM
Drona preceded DOstana. What followed the latter was D6.
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March 29, 2012 at 7:49 AM
Yes, I was wrong regarding Drona. But D6 also was a disaster (again a film which had its heart in the right place and not a bad film by any means) .
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March 28, 2012 at 5:36 PM
Abhishrek Bachchan–“plotting against success”
basically he needs to get beyond just GETTING interesting projects
TO
making them work !!
The ‘doomsday scenario’ bit is relative, really!!
Dont think he will be homeless hungry in a few generations even without doing anything–(like some other people)
oops—the ‘curse of affluence’ –a la znmd–a fave topic 😉
Basically, enuf is enuf
have limited patience and have no more for him really (with all due respects–not in a bad way)
but do wish him all the best (mnore for amitabhs &
aishwaryas sake
Consistent Underperformance deserves sympathy ONLY upto a point!!
after that –i personally believe in ‘kick-ass action’–
human being’s a naughty lazy being lol
Get it in written–IF abhishreks survival or existence wouldve been at stake (like other struggles) he wont have been dilly-dallying like this
Pardon the bluntness–and dont expect others to agree
and have nothing personal against abhishrek—ingact like him and moreso his dad (and sp his wife)
But
To me, he has SHONE only in TWO scenes (matching his legacy) in his entire career
1) a tiny confrontation scene (1 min or so) in Umraao Jaan
with shabana azmi
where he showed his place…..
and also emphasised her place (literally!!)
2) The final courtroom scene in guru–well, that was a class act
aided by manis brilliance and excellent technical team (may write on this later)
3) in sarkar–after the ‘slap’ by the police officer—the restrained ‘humiliation’ –just right
These scenes perhaps transcend the rest of his entire career for me (till now)
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March 29, 2012 at 2:48 AM
Abhishek aint a bad actor – but I’ll be blatant in saying he has been, now for a much longer time, just going on with the proceedings, making sure his performance just about suits the character he plays. But I often feel he just doesnt make enough effort to connect with the audience. In his comic roles a la Dostana, soe of his scenes had the audience in splits, but it disappoints me that after being such a show stealer is Yuva, Sarkar and the ultimate – Guru, he has been on a steady decline. I agree that all his choices havent been bad but somewhere I feel he’s just stopped caring enough.. Why the hell he went for projects like Drona and Umrao at a stage of his career when most in the industry (including some media) were looking up to him is beyond me.
I agree that Delhi 6 was a good film and that was an interesting choice (pity that the Trade experts without Adarshs were so harsh on him) but had he considered the scripts of Raavan and KHJJS before signing them blindly just coz of the brilliant directors at the helm, he’d probably be in a better place to manage his career. Now the Rohit Shetty project just reveals how he is in dire need of a hit.
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March 29, 2012 at 3:05 AM
tony- and man,after giving a plethora of huge flops he cannot be termed as a ‘star’ at all-probably when had hits in the form of guru,dhoom2,bunty-babli he could have been called one but certainly not now.when people get to know that a film stars abhishek they start feeling jittery abt it.yes,i understand that he had made sum courageous(i liked khelein hum,did not think it was bad)choices and has improved his acting skills by leaps & bounds, he needs bol bachchan to work for him to get back into reckoning
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March 29, 2012 at 4:05 AM
I agree. My point is – he shouldn’t have been where he is to begin with. He had the opportunity after 2005 when he gave a string of hits, and then in 2007 with Guru, but he sort of gave it away by signing some mediocre projects.
Having said that, I believe his act in Guru is probably the best by a ‘current generation star’ in the past decade (That includes the Khans). trust me thats no exaggeration.
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March 29, 2012 at 8:42 AM
Amitabh and Jaya’s interview with BBC- a great watch.
Part1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Eo5OhV0fks&feature=relmfu
Part2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4Z0JycxpXE&feature=relmfu
Notice how shy Amitabh is in the interview
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March 29, 2012 at 9:45 AM
i wonder why is it being moderated(as if i have posted porn)
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March 29, 2012 at 10:20 AM
It’s through now.. anytime you add two or more links of any kind it automatically goes into moderation.
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March 29, 2012 at 11:13 AM
I THINK WE HAVE BEEN DOWN THIS ROAD TOO MANY TIMES BEFORE AS TO WHY,WHEN AND HOW DID THINGS GO WRONG FOR ABHI
But,I do think Raavan was a particularly bad moment. Good film or not it just didnt connect with any significance for the vast majority. People felt he could NOT act at all. Am surprised a seasoned caimpaigner like Mani could not see it coming. KHHJS and Game fortified the impression in the minds of many that he was just lazy and took things for granted.
A success can reverse a lot of this negativism and I think he is on course for atleast a couple this year and next.
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March 29, 2012 at 12:55 PM
It is certainly true that the clock was reset after Raavan. Till the release of this film he had a certain initial even on his worst days. After this the initial completely evaporated. In some ways Raavan completed (rather ironically) the Guru circle. The latter was his highest career point and the former his lowest.
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March 29, 2012 at 3:19 PM
he was atleast appreciated in D-6 and DMD, the movies were good too…
not many liked him in Raavan, I however did, even though I did not like the movie..
in Game he was OK the movie was slow and boring ( should have ideally been a TV movie), KHJJS- both him and the movie sucked ( although my 11 year old was very fascinated and googled the history of Chittiong)…
Players , the movie was good but AB Baby was lazy and was uninterested and Uninteresting…….
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March 29, 2012 at 3:10 PM
Per NDTV a Big B- Subhash Ghai movie may be happening soon !!
great news…..
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March 29, 2012 at 3:11 PM
Ghai visited Bachchan the other day. Bachchan mentioned this on the blog. Not sure what’s great about the news though given the sort of stuff Ghai has been making for years. I’m afraid he missed his Devaa chance 25 years ago!
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March 29, 2012 at 3:22 PM
If Ghai can give even 75% of the Saudager moments ( great dialogs, confrontation scenes of AB and Naseer etc, and loud BGM)…I would be elated….
aaj pachees baras mein toh himmat hoi nahee kiseekee kee thakur Vijay Chauhaan par rang daal sakey….LOL!!
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March 29, 2012 at 3:25 PM
my daughters were watching KJO’s KKHH in the van last weekend and the loud BGM reminded me of the very loud BGM of KJO’s Agneepath..
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March 29, 2012 at 4:56 PM
If social services get a wind of tbis ,they might take away your daughters for subjecting the,to such mental cruelty!
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March 29, 2012 at 4:05 PM
Amitabh Bachchan@SrBachchan
T 698 – Times and perceptions change ! Guess volume of money is greater than success duration of film, nowadays ..!!
J@jiteshpillaai
@SrBachchan sir my humble opinion is that volume of money offers neither respectability nor quality or posterity. Sholay is sholay!
Amitabh Bachchan@SrBachchan
@jiteshpillaai Jitesh !! You shall be loved and immortalized for this remark !!
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March 29, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Amitabh Bachchan@SrBachchan
T 698 – Film trade refers to status now by ‘title’ as ‘the 100 cr Club’ ! In our days it was ‘the Jubilee Star’ – 25 weeks, 50, 75 weeker !!
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March 29, 2012 at 4:23 PM
never really liked much of Ghai’s work. Thought each of his earlier films had lots of characters with oodles of melodrama (Raj Kanwar gave him company on the latter bit).
but he could’ve capitalised on his success ratio and at least made an effort to change with the times. The media-made stories of Ghai being the only showman after Raj Kapoor were exaggerated beyond belief.
Loved his Pardes though. I think that film has a solid repeat value.
Karma was an okay watch
Saudagar was too long.
Khalnayak was good.
Taal was Chopra wannabe. Rehman’s classic music should’ve been used in a better film
The less said about Yaadein and Kisna the better
Parts of Karz were very good but much of it was unintentionally funny
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March 29, 2012 at 4:30 PM
my fav films of ghai- kalicharan(shatrughan’s best role- a film not to be missed by any masala lover- ghai’s first film and easily one of his best). 2 khalnayak- sanjay in never-before-role, the title track is so bloody good 3-meri jung(one of my fav anil kapoor performance) and karma(sumhow love this especially for dileep and naseer and dil diya hai)
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March 29, 2012 at 4:37 PM
oh yes i forgot meri jung.. I liked that film
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March 29, 2012 at 4:51 PM
by the way luved ur line on raj kanwar. he was easily one of the words directors around that time. i find most of his films atrocious.still sumone of his films i liked- ‘daag’- sumhow have a soft-spot for this one. sanju in top form, chandrachur was also good,luved sukhwinder’s song ‘tera lucky kabootar’ 2) jeet- sunny was good here, easily ate up salman in every scene, yet people say he is a non-actor 3)deewana-simply for its songs-aisi deewanagi and sochenge tumhe pyar-kumar sanu at his best
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March 31, 2012 at 10:03 AM
This is a must watch- Amitabh has never been more honest and emotional at an award show
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March 31, 2012 at 10:27 AM
two of my Fav. Big B and the Raj Kumar……thanks Saurabh
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March 31, 2012 at 11:49 AM
no problem rocky, i’m glad that u enjoyed it. i luved raaj kumar(said that he left us so early)- can never get over his ‘gaindaswaami’ dialogues from tiranga. wish he would have worked with bachchan though. also, in the video really enjoyed the young sanjay dutt
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