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48 Responses to “Images from R… Raj Kumar (updated)”
Possible, to replace uday or abhishek or another side actor added. Not in the lead role, after Hrithik and aamir, I think it will be either srk, salman or ranbir.
SRK fans have been waiting forever for SRK to be in a Dhoom film. Willing to bet a lot this will never happen. On Abhishek too there has been this wait to see him replaced. This isn’t likely too. Said this after D2. I’ll say it again. But yeah wake me up if either development comes about. Have been waiting to get woken up also since D2!
I expected you to say exactly this but then the question is: why did you bring it up in the first place and say the opposite?
Of course dishonesty and consistency don’t often go hand-in-hand. The latter is a minor inconvenience for SRK fans like yourself, the former is second nature!
Re: Of course dishonesty and consistency don’t often go hand-in-hand. The latter is a minor inconvenience for SRK fans like yourself, the former is second nature!
You do not come up by beinga follower of trends. You have to set them. Ranbir did not became the leading star of his generation by doing south remakes. He did it by doing APKGK , Rajneeti, Rockstar, Barfi, Rocket Singh, Wake Up Sid and JHD. Shahid’s strength was Vivah, Jab We Met and Kaminay. He should have persisted on that trajectory.
Actually Ranbir has himself been a trend follower. You don’t do YJHD, Besharam, Anjaana Anjaani, BeH as part of some radical trend-setting move! As for the other films those too are things many other actors do as well. In fact for most top stars not called Salman there is this pressure to combine the purely commercial with the prestige film. Even those who are not top stars do this sort of thing. John Abraham produced Madras Cafe! ‘Nuff said!
On Ranbir my critique has been precisely the opposite, that he actually hasn’t taken any serious risks. It might be smart not to do so but that’s a different debate. He’s done films that he knows will either be commercial successes or critical successes or both. He’s on the right side of his multiplex audiences and the media establishment (the same class really) with every choice of his, however it fares. One can say a lot of things about these choices but path-breaking or defining it isn’t by any stretch of the imagination. It’s neither the SRK iconic deal which heralded an age nor is it the Aamir paradigm that brought about a different calibration. There is utterly no trend even at a minimal level that begins with Ranbir.
I would disagree. Inspite of a possible commercial appeal Barfi was a risk as was Rajniti. His safest bet was Sanwariya and see how it fared. BEH and AA were safe on paper but average grossers. Even Rocket Singh wasnt a sure bet. Neither was Besharam before YJHD. Now, everything is a safe bet post YJHD. Atleast, for now
I don’t disagree but I was making a somewhat different point. These aren’t choices that no one else was making. Stars for a number of years now have been indulging in all kinds of prestige attempts. So there’s no new mould here. Now Ranbir has been smart about choosing films that either work at the box office or that don’t hurt him even when they don’t. This is where I always introduce my ‘ideology’ point. When AA or Rocket Singh fail it doesn’t hurt Ranbir’s image. He can’t have too many of those but no actor can have too much failure at any level. On the other hand a choice like D6 not only fails but also hurts the star in certain ways much as Raavan does because these films unsettle the audience for ideological reasons as well. Ranbir has been very careful not to take up any kind of film that offends his multiplex base. Some of them have been riskier true but they’re risky in more usual ways. Much as TZP was risky but not risky in the precise ways that MP or Talaash were. Paa was a risky film but if you convinced the audiences to see it they wouldn’t have a problem with it. Which is what happened. Dev on the other hand is a different ballgame. Currently this Abhishek-Aishwarya film that is being talked about is risky for all the reasons I’ve mentioned in that thread but not on ideological grounds. When the latter happens the bar is even higher. So again in one group you have films that an audience might not be interested in but if you could get them to the theaters they’d like the film (assuming it was well-done and so forth). On the other hand there are those films which the audience will be resistant to even when it might like them on some level. So to make up for that resistance you need an extraordinary film. For instance many of Bachchan’s key films upset a certain cross-section of his middle class audiences. However the emotional force of these narratives was enough to carry them through even with this cross-section. But you don’t get Salim-Javed every day. A Ratnam film is usually risky but Guru is far less risky than Raavan or Dil Se or even Yuva.
We see the same sort of debate surrounding Abhishek on his physicality. Now all of us can agree that for various reasons he should be err on the lean side than not. But this is different from being a gym body. Just about every star strives for the latter. And so people might like the stars or not at various levels but once they discern that attempt at a gym body they check off a certain box in their mind. They see the star as sharing their values. On the other hand even when Abhishek is very lean or what have you they clearly see he is not attempting the same. So they place him in a different category. As the guy who’s resisting what everyone else is doing. And here it’s not like choosing dishes off a menu where you like one thing and the other guy gets something else. In ‘New India’ there is only one kind of prix fixe meal! You have options here but if you want something other than this it’s a problem. So when you do films which make certain kinds of ideological statements or when you run against the grain off screen you are put in the ‘enemy’ camp (exaggerating just a bit). Remember for the very same audience Bachchan’s iconic cinema is best accessed as ‘fun masala’. They’re not in it for Kaala Pathar’s subversions! Even if they might recognize these films as important from a distance. This ties in with Abhishek’s choices who from day 1 whether he’s succeeded or failed has engaged in choices that are not on the right side of his multiplex audiences. Not always but very often. Interestingly even doing masala doesn’t exactly solve the problem for him because he’s seen as ‘playing the part’ as opposed to ‘being it’ in the manner of an Akshay Kumar or Ajay Devgan or Salman Khan where the same audience can condescend to them (‘hey they’re only good for this stuff’!). Abhishek’s class marker is too strong for him to be under the radar in this sense. Even when he does a Dostana the gay angle is introduced. Which might not seem like much except that every other Karan Johar film is more ‘normal’ in this sense. So the audience wonders why Abhishek has made it his business to question their choices! DMD was another such film. hey if you thought India was shining look at this! One could go down the list. Now of course he’s doing very commercial films but there remains a certain ideological resistance which is why you have BB, then Dhoom (which he was always associated with anyway), then the SRK film but also Umesh Shukla’s Mere Apne (what does this title remind you of?!). Then if it’s about the couple you get D2 (she’s with the other guy), or SR (he gets shot), or Raavan (he’s Raavan to her Sita), Guru being the one exception. So whichever way you spin it he’s irritating the audience. Which wasn’t the case between ’04 and early ’07 or between Yuva and Guru because with films like DHoom and BnB and Sarkar and Dus and BM and KANK he could just about keep everyone happy.
The reason I get into all of this is that this is a very different model from Ranbir’s. Obviously in a box office sense it’s smarter to do the latter (though I’d argue that such a route would always be less available to a Bachchan) but it’s smarter precisely because it’s not as radical. This is why it’s celebrated everywhere. Saawariya was mauled by everyone. I personally didn’t mind it, even found it interesting at certain levels but it was mauled. Ranbir has not done such a film again. Or anything which could be mauled for any reason. I’ve said this about Aamir too. He’s made a number of risky choices but the most interesting ones at an ideological level have not met with the best reception (MP and Talaash). And he was of course doing some of those other films even when a lot of his peers weren’t. SRK did Dil Se in the 1990s, it released a few months before KKHH, the fate of both films couldn’t have been more different! But SRK didn’t keep doing stuff like Dil Se. So again there are two kinds of ‘risky’ films. Khakee is as close to a perfect film as one is likely to get. But it’s just not what large cross-sections of the audience wanted. Or at least those that drive the gross. Black was risky, always meant for a niche audience but it did far better than this. The less risky Khakee became for ideological reasons the more risky film! Ranbir is basically engaging in the kind of cinema that the media instantly celebrates. But he might even be moving away from this model. Because once you have stuff like YJHD succeed so hugely and specially if Besharam does the same it will be hard for him to get back to Rocket singh or whatever. This is not an argument against him but my point to Utkal was that there’s nothing trail-blazing here.
I haven’t seen Ranbir give a better performance than Rocket Singh. It’s the only performance of his that strikes one as truly unique (and not re-purposed in some manner) not least because it’s got an overall tone that I think plays well to his gifts. It’s also one of the most uncharacteristic portrayals of a Sikh protagonist I’ve ever seen in a Hindi movie.
Yes I too think this was his best turn not least because he’s most suited to play quirkier types. Of course in a commercial industry everyone has to become the star sooner or later but I’ve never found him very convincing doing the SRK-like flamboyant routine or for that matter the Corleone deal in Rajneeti. Also liked him in Saawariya. The problem is that he’s losing his sincerity as an actor rather too early. Can’t blame him. If you’re getting his reviews you’re not likely to grow very much. This of course happens to most stars over time but it’s become an expedited process for him.
I think Rockstar was the biggest risk of Ranbir’s career. He broke every single conceivable mould that was laid out for him and proved he is a very different actor to the rest of his peers.
I have a great weakness for Rockstar and Ranbir certainly carried this one but I can’t say I found anything very special here. I expanded on all of this elsewhere:
If i understood your ‘ideology’ point as well as the ‘India Shining’ point correctly, Rockstar would be unsettling to the audience in many different ways (the whole second half was difficult for many people as it really threw the candy floss romance we are accustomed to out of the window, and one of the reason it didnt do that well) and really wasnt India shining sort of a thing (a pessimistic ending and a conclusion which the average audience couldnt grasp) so shouldnt you think this was something more riskier than otherwise?
I loved Rockstar, thought the ending was brilliant as well and was an apt conclusion but I could see people in the theatre saying “Arey Khatam ho gaya kya, kaise?”
yes if you check out both pieces I made this point, especially in the second half, that there are ways in which there is a certain subversion in the second half of the film. I like the film quite beyond its merits which is to say I wouldn’t argue it’s a perfect film or anything but it’s become one of my favorite contemporary Hindi films. Much like Talaash.
and again to be clear my point isn’t that films with a certain ideological slant cannot be successful. They just have to be vastly better as scripts which sometimes entails being more traditional. For instance I could more easily imagine Raavan being a hit than D6. You could do things with the former, push the right buttons, make a more traditional narrative out of it, some of the subversion would remain but it would probably become more palatable, even if less interesting. With D6 it’s much harder to do this without making it a completely different film. Because this is much more about ambience and so on. Which doesn’t mean that one couldn’t dislike these films, just that the reasons why these films didn’t work have to be located elsewhere. Similarly we see how Rockstar despite being a lot more accessible and generally generating good reviews, specially for the lead performance, didn’t have many takers even in multiplexes once the initial hype died down. There’s no comparison between the business this film did and what YJHD did. So one could look at any star. Interesting films are just harder to make hits out of. Moreover we don’t live in an age where great scripts are written. So a lot of these films are interesting ideas but never get beyond this. I feel this a lot even with films that I like. For instance Madras Cafe was pretty engaging but it could have been a vastly superior film. It’s the rare film that has a good script these days. The rest are about interesting ideas that were never fully realized in the existing films. And this happens even in very commercial subjects. Scores of films that could easily be better even on that very commercial terrain. Once again the writing tends to be subpar in most ways. And so you have well-produced films, the right aesthetic values and so forth but not much more. There just isn’t a ‘thinking’ (for want of a better word) of these subjects. ALl else being equal I tend to like some of the flawed contemporary efforts far more than the lionized ones. But most films don’t even fall in the interesting-but-flawed category.
‘Rockstar’ has the same place in ranbirs career that ‘cock tale’ has for deepikas..
There’s a ‘rate limiting /critical event’ that has to happen before the ‘tides turn’..
Initially I thought it was a fad but
Can now say that rockstar is one of the films I loved the most in Indian cinema …
I know it’s a big statement to make but I don’t go watch films with a pen n paper in hand (infact I have never had a pen n paper in hand anyways !!)
Recently checked the rockstar soundtrack –wow…
It’s a big ask to compete with other rahman albums but I’m grappling with the hypothesis..
Is rockstar the greatest album rahman has created?
I know many wont agree!
This is where ones personal resonance comes into play..
But loved the spirit of ‘rockstar’ and not only did it have resonance in the way I live, the music was ethereal ….
Just bcos many dont have the ‘dimension’ to understand/expereince the vibe makes it no less…
Anyways–
Phir se ud chala
Mitti jaise sapne ye kitna bhi palko se jhaado
Phir aa jaate hain
Itne saare sapne kya kahoon kis tarah se maine
tode hain chhode hain kyun…
when one saw naseer mouthing like “phata poster nikla hero” in hero hiralal which was a wonderful spoof on masala and heroic antics it was something new at that time and they basterdize it with masala
only time the guy acted something seriously was with bhardwaj
//not right post ///
SRK Speech at AIMA –two parts-
Seems to be a deliberate subdued performance atleast in part1
Part 2 and his QA are going towards crass it seems–
Well..if its any consolation..I have now seen Bhaag Milkha Bhaag on YouTube of all places 🙂 I liked it although I dont understand Hindi and there were no subtitles 😦 or atleast I couldnt find them. But I liked it.
“something to watch after I come home from work”– yup maggie lemme know when u come back — SRKs interviews /speeches are always fun—Whatsay Oldgold lol…
Good u watched bhag milkha bhag–did u like your own song ‘slow motion angreza’–u were great in it lol
And didn’t know Bmb on youtube…
Satyam—how did u find it..
@ On Ranbir my critique has been precisely the opposite, that he actually hasn’t taken any serious risks.
@ D6 not only fails but also hurts the star in certain ways much as Raavan does because these films unsettle the audience for ideological reasons as well.
Laughter is the best medicine. Keep the joke coming.Ha..Ha..Ranbeer hasn’t taken any risk and Abhishek is all about presitigious and risky film. Ha..Ha..Nice joke to satart the day/
Lol! In the last pic posted, Shahid looks like a kid kicking his friend at the school’s playing ground! I don’t know how he will turn out to be but from the trailers and the pics, Shahid looks really out of place here.
Would be surprised if this didn’t work. Prabhudevaa has good instincts and the whole of the asymmetry impish guy playing this masala role works (in my view).
Has their been a “fantasy Mahabharat” on this forum where people list which actors they would have playing gods/goddesses if Mahabharat were made into a real movie?
SATYAMSHOT 
September 26, 2013 at 3:08 AM
Had no idea Prabhudeva was doing this..
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September 26, 2013 at 4:31 AM
whats up with the “…” ? it used to be called ‘Rambo Raj Kumar’
i like top image of shahid…i like the intensity.
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September 26, 2013 at 6:44 AM
though he could have waited till his high school graduation to do this part..
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September 26, 2013 at 6:58 AM
Hahaha
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September 26, 2013 at 7:00 AM
Hope this is like Rowdy Rathore.
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September 26, 2013 at 7:55 AM
Next will he be in Dhoom 4 after Johm Hrithik and aamir?
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September 26, 2013 at 8:18 AM
Liked this look…A good departure for Shahid hopefully…
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September 26, 2013 at 8:33 AM
Possible, to replace uday or abhishek or another side actor added. Not in the lead role, after Hrithik and aamir, I think it will be either srk, salman or ranbir.
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September 26, 2013 at 10:23 AM
SRK fans have been waiting forever for SRK to be in a Dhoom film. Willing to bet a lot this will never happen. On Abhishek too there has been this wait to see him replaced. This isn’t likely too. Said this after D2. I’ll say it again. But yeah wake me up if either development comes about. Have been waiting to get woken up also since D2!
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September 26, 2013 at 12:51 PM
lol, funny.
What’s the point of replacing abhishek or uday from dhoom? It’s not like anybody is going in to see them.
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September 26, 2013 at 1:07 PM
I expected you to say exactly this but then the question is: why did you bring it up in the first place and say the opposite?
Of course dishonesty and consistency don’t often go hand-in-hand. The latter is a minor inconvenience for SRK fans like yourself, the former is second nature!
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September 26, 2013 at 1:14 PM
Re: Of course dishonesty and consistency don’t often go hand-in-hand. The latter is a minor inconvenience for SRK fans like yourself, the former is second nature!
Aint that the truth! LOL! You nailed it there.
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September 26, 2013 at 8:43 AM
You do not come up by beinga follower of trends. You have to set them. Ranbir did not became the leading star of his generation by doing south remakes. He did it by doing APKGK , Rajneeti, Rockstar, Barfi, Rocket Singh, Wake Up Sid and JHD. Shahid’s strength was Vivah, Jab We Met and Kaminay. He should have persisted on that trajectory.
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September 26, 2013 at 10:30 AM
Actually Ranbir has himself been a trend follower. You don’t do YJHD, Besharam, Anjaana Anjaani, BeH as part of some radical trend-setting move! As for the other films those too are things many other actors do as well. In fact for most top stars not called Salman there is this pressure to combine the purely commercial with the prestige film. Even those who are not top stars do this sort of thing. John Abraham produced Madras Cafe! ‘Nuff said!
On Ranbir my critique has been precisely the opposite, that he actually hasn’t taken any serious risks. It might be smart not to do so but that’s a different debate. He’s done films that he knows will either be commercial successes or critical successes or both. He’s on the right side of his multiplex audiences and the media establishment (the same class really) with every choice of his, however it fares. One can say a lot of things about these choices but path-breaking or defining it isn’t by any stretch of the imagination. It’s neither the SRK iconic deal which heralded an age nor is it the Aamir paradigm that brought about a different calibration. There is utterly no trend even at a minimal level that begins with Ranbir.
By the way Shahid is now doing Bhardwaj’s Hamlet.
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September 26, 2013 at 1:30 PM
I would disagree. Inspite of a possible commercial appeal Barfi was a risk as was Rajniti. His safest bet was Sanwariya and see how it fared. BEH and AA were safe on paper but average grossers. Even Rocket Singh wasnt a sure bet. Neither was Besharam before YJHD. Now, everything is a safe bet post YJHD. Atleast, for now
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September 26, 2013 at 2:23 PM
I don’t disagree but I was making a somewhat different point. These aren’t choices that no one else was making. Stars for a number of years now have been indulging in all kinds of prestige attempts. So there’s no new mould here. Now Ranbir has been smart about choosing films that either work at the box office or that don’t hurt him even when they don’t. This is where I always introduce my ‘ideology’ point. When AA or Rocket Singh fail it doesn’t hurt Ranbir’s image. He can’t have too many of those but no actor can have too much failure at any level. On the other hand a choice like D6 not only fails but also hurts the star in certain ways much as Raavan does because these films unsettle the audience for ideological reasons as well. Ranbir has been very careful not to take up any kind of film that offends his multiplex base. Some of them have been riskier true but they’re risky in more usual ways. Much as TZP was risky but not risky in the precise ways that MP or Talaash were. Paa was a risky film but if you convinced the audiences to see it they wouldn’t have a problem with it. Which is what happened. Dev on the other hand is a different ballgame. Currently this Abhishek-Aishwarya film that is being talked about is risky for all the reasons I’ve mentioned in that thread but not on ideological grounds. When the latter happens the bar is even higher. So again in one group you have films that an audience might not be interested in but if you could get them to the theaters they’d like the film (assuming it was well-done and so forth). On the other hand there are those films which the audience will be resistant to even when it might like them on some level. So to make up for that resistance you need an extraordinary film. For instance many of Bachchan’s key films upset a certain cross-section of his middle class audiences. However the emotional force of these narratives was enough to carry them through even with this cross-section. But you don’t get Salim-Javed every day. A Ratnam film is usually risky but Guru is far less risky than Raavan or Dil Se or even Yuva.
We see the same sort of debate surrounding Abhishek on his physicality. Now all of us can agree that for various reasons he should be err on the lean side than not. But this is different from being a gym body. Just about every star strives for the latter. And so people might like the stars or not at various levels but once they discern that attempt at a gym body they check off a certain box in their mind. They see the star as sharing their values. On the other hand even when Abhishek is very lean or what have you they clearly see he is not attempting the same. So they place him in a different category. As the guy who’s resisting what everyone else is doing. And here it’s not like choosing dishes off a menu where you like one thing and the other guy gets something else. In ‘New India’ there is only one kind of prix fixe meal! You have options here but if you want something other than this it’s a problem. So when you do films which make certain kinds of ideological statements or when you run against the grain off screen you are put in the ‘enemy’ camp (exaggerating just a bit). Remember for the very same audience Bachchan’s iconic cinema is best accessed as ‘fun masala’. They’re not in it for Kaala Pathar’s subversions! Even if they might recognize these films as important from a distance. This ties in with Abhishek’s choices who from day 1 whether he’s succeeded or failed has engaged in choices that are not on the right side of his multiplex audiences. Not always but very often. Interestingly even doing masala doesn’t exactly solve the problem for him because he’s seen as ‘playing the part’ as opposed to ‘being it’ in the manner of an Akshay Kumar or Ajay Devgan or Salman Khan where the same audience can condescend to them (‘hey they’re only good for this stuff’!). Abhishek’s class marker is too strong for him to be under the radar in this sense. Even when he does a Dostana the gay angle is introduced. Which might not seem like much except that every other Karan Johar film is more ‘normal’ in this sense. So the audience wonders why Abhishek has made it his business to question their choices! DMD was another such film. hey if you thought India was shining look at this! One could go down the list. Now of course he’s doing very commercial films but there remains a certain ideological resistance which is why you have BB, then Dhoom (which he was always associated with anyway), then the SRK film but also Umesh Shukla’s Mere Apne (what does this title remind you of?!). Then if it’s about the couple you get D2 (she’s with the other guy), or SR (he gets shot), or Raavan (he’s Raavan to her Sita), Guru being the one exception. So whichever way you spin it he’s irritating the audience. Which wasn’t the case between ’04 and early ’07 or between Yuva and Guru because with films like DHoom and BnB and Sarkar and Dus and BM and KANK he could just about keep everyone happy.
The reason I get into all of this is that this is a very different model from Ranbir’s. Obviously in a box office sense it’s smarter to do the latter (though I’d argue that such a route would always be less available to a Bachchan) but it’s smarter precisely because it’s not as radical. This is why it’s celebrated everywhere. Saawariya was mauled by everyone. I personally didn’t mind it, even found it interesting at certain levels but it was mauled. Ranbir has not done such a film again. Or anything which could be mauled for any reason. I’ve said this about Aamir too. He’s made a number of risky choices but the most interesting ones at an ideological level have not met with the best reception (MP and Talaash). And he was of course doing some of those other films even when a lot of his peers weren’t. SRK did Dil Se in the 1990s, it released a few months before KKHH, the fate of both films couldn’t have been more different! But SRK didn’t keep doing stuff like Dil Se. So again there are two kinds of ‘risky’ films. Khakee is as close to a perfect film as one is likely to get. But it’s just not what large cross-sections of the audience wanted. Or at least those that drive the gross. Black was risky, always meant for a niche audience but it did far better than this. The less risky Khakee became for ideological reasons the more risky film! Ranbir is basically engaging in the kind of cinema that the media instantly celebrates. But he might even be moving away from this model. Because once you have stuff like YJHD succeed so hugely and specially if Besharam does the same it will be hard for him to get back to Rocket singh or whatever. This is not an argument against him but my point to Utkal was that there’s nothing trail-blazing here.
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September 26, 2013 at 3:26 PM
I haven’t seen Ranbir give a better performance than Rocket Singh. It’s the only performance of his that strikes one as truly unique (and not re-purposed in some manner) not least because it’s got an overall tone that I think plays well to his gifts. It’s also one of the most uncharacteristic portrayals of a Sikh protagonist I’ve ever seen in a Hindi movie.
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September 26, 2013 at 4:31 PM
Yes I too think this was his best turn not least because he’s most suited to play quirkier types. Of course in a commercial industry everyone has to become the star sooner or later but I’ve never found him very convincing doing the SRK-like flamboyant routine or for that matter the Corleone deal in Rajneeti. Also liked him in Saawariya. The problem is that he’s losing his sincerity as an actor rather too early. Can’t blame him. If you’re getting his reviews you’re not likely to grow very much. This of course happens to most stars over time but it’s become an expedited process for him.
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September 26, 2013 at 2:39 PM
I think Rockstar was the biggest risk of Ranbir’s career. He broke every single conceivable mould that was laid out for him and proved he is a very different actor to the rest of his peers.
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September 26, 2013 at 4:28 PM
I have a great weakness for Rockstar and Ranbir certainly carried this one but I can’t say I found anything very special here. I expanded on all of this elsewhere:
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September 26, 2013 at 5:15 PM
If i understood your ‘ideology’ point as well as the ‘India Shining’ point correctly, Rockstar would be unsettling to the audience in many different ways (the whole second half was difficult for many people as it really threw the candy floss romance we are accustomed to out of the window, and one of the reason it didnt do that well) and really wasnt India shining sort of a thing (a pessimistic ending and a conclusion which the average audience couldnt grasp) so shouldnt you think this was something more riskier than otherwise?
I loved Rockstar, thought the ending was brilliant as well and was an apt conclusion but I could see people in the theatre saying “Arey Khatam ho gaya kya, kaise?”
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September 26, 2013 at 5:51 PM
yes if you check out both pieces I made this point, especially in the second half, that there are ways in which there is a certain subversion in the second half of the film. I like the film quite beyond its merits which is to say I wouldn’t argue it’s a perfect film or anything but it’s become one of my favorite contemporary Hindi films. Much like Talaash.
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September 26, 2013 at 5:59 PM
and again to be clear my point isn’t that films with a certain ideological slant cannot be successful. They just have to be vastly better as scripts which sometimes entails being more traditional. For instance I could more easily imagine Raavan being a hit than D6. You could do things with the former, push the right buttons, make a more traditional narrative out of it, some of the subversion would remain but it would probably become more palatable, even if less interesting. With D6 it’s much harder to do this without making it a completely different film. Because this is much more about ambience and so on. Which doesn’t mean that one couldn’t dislike these films, just that the reasons why these films didn’t work have to be located elsewhere. Similarly we see how Rockstar despite being a lot more accessible and generally generating good reviews, specially for the lead performance, didn’t have many takers even in multiplexes once the initial hype died down. There’s no comparison between the business this film did and what YJHD did. So one could look at any star. Interesting films are just harder to make hits out of. Moreover we don’t live in an age where great scripts are written. So a lot of these films are interesting ideas but never get beyond this. I feel this a lot even with films that I like. For instance Madras Cafe was pretty engaging but it could have been a vastly superior film. It’s the rare film that has a good script these days. The rest are about interesting ideas that were never fully realized in the existing films. And this happens even in very commercial subjects. Scores of films that could easily be better even on that very commercial terrain. Once again the writing tends to be subpar in most ways. And so you have well-produced films, the right aesthetic values and so forth but not much more. There just isn’t a ‘thinking’ (for want of a better word) of these subjects. ALl else being equal I tend to like some of the flawed contemporary efforts far more than the lionized ones. But most films don’t even fall in the interesting-but-flawed category.
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September 26, 2013 at 5:19 PM
it was part of india shining campaign actually
unofficial indianised version of life of jimmy morrison ala doors …hint is at start only with ranbir’s introduction start with description of him
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September 26, 2013 at 6:22 PM
‘Rockstar’ has the same place in ranbirs career that ‘cock tale’ has for deepikas..
There’s a ‘rate limiting /critical event’ that has to happen before the ‘tides turn’..
Initially I thought it was a fad but
Can now say that rockstar is one of the films I loved the most in Indian cinema …
I know it’s a big statement to make but I don’t go watch films with a pen n paper in hand (infact I have never had a pen n paper in hand anyways !!)
Recently checked the rockstar soundtrack –wow…
It’s a big ask to compete with other rahman albums but I’m grappling with the hypothesis..
Is rockstar the greatest album rahman has created?
I know many wont agree!
This is where ones personal resonance comes into play..
But loved the spirit of ‘rockstar’ and not only did it have resonance in the way I live, the music was ethereal ….
Just bcos many dont have the ‘dimension’ to understand/expereince the vibe makes it no less…
Ok so what’s she up2 now… Though Don’t think she will ever repeat the rockstar perfomance …ever
https://mobile.twitter.com/NargisFakhri/media/grid?idx=2&tid=378474417031880704
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September 26, 2013 at 8:17 PM
“Is rockstar the greatest album rahman has created?”
It might be assuming a certain stage of Alzheimer’s.
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September 26, 2013 at 6:32 PM
Satyam, did you check out aashiqui 2?
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September 26, 2013 at 8:16 PM
yes, didn’t mind it. But vastly prefer the first one. Had a certain mood.
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September 26, 2013 at 6:40 PM
Satyam checks out ‘murder2’ not ‘a ashiqui2’
Anyways–
Phir se ud chala
Mitti jaise sapne ye kitna bhi palko se jhaado
Phir aa jaate hain
Itne saare sapne kya kahoon kis tarah se maine
tode hain chhode hain kyun…
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September 26, 2013 at 6:45 PM
As I go where no man has ever gone b4…
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September 26, 2013 at 9:55 AM
when one saw naseer mouthing like “phata poster nikla hero” in hero hiralal which was a wonderful spoof on masala and heroic antics it was something new at that time and they basterdize it with masala
only time the guy acted something seriously was with bhardwaj
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September 26, 2013 at 12:25 PM
Bharadwaj’s Hamlet is definitely a much better idea than Rambo Rajkumar.
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September 26, 2013 at 10:33 PM
//not right post ///
SRK Speech at AIMA –two parts-
Seems to be a deliberate subdued performance atleast in part1
Part 2 and his QA are going towards crass it seems–
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September 28, 2013 at 8:32 AM
This will give me something to watch after I come home from work…his speech mightve been right out of his book 🙂
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September 28, 2013 at 8:31 AM
Well..if its any consolation..I have now seen Bhaag Milkha Bhaag on YouTube of all places 🙂 I liked it although I dont understand Hindi and there were no subtitles 😦 or atleast I couldnt find them. But I liked it.
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September 28, 2013 at 8:13 PM
“something to watch after I come home from work”– yup maggie lemme know when u come back — SRKs interviews /speeches are always fun—Whatsay Oldgold lol…
Good u watched bhag milkha bhag–did u like your own song ‘slow motion angreza’–u were great in it lol
And didn’t know Bmb on youtube…
Satyam—how did u find it..
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September 28, 2013 at 9:27 PM
@ On Ranbir my critique has been precisely the opposite, that he actually hasn’t taken any serious risks.
@ D6 not only fails but also hurts the star in certain ways much as Raavan does because these films unsettle the audience for ideological reasons as well.
Laughter is the best medicine. Keep the joke coming.Ha..Ha..Ranbeer hasn’t taken any risk and Abhishek is all about presitigious and risky film. Ha..Ha..Nice joke to satart the day/
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September 28, 2013 at 11:44 PM
Looks like my argument has ‘touched’ you! You’re trying too hard to laugh..!
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September 29, 2013 at 2:31 AM
Your argument always ‘touched’ me. I am waiting for year end to read some more excuses i mean gems.
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October 3, 2013 at 5:19 AM
Lol! In the last pic posted, Shahid looks like a kid kicking his friend at the school’s playing ground! I don’t know how he will turn out to be but from the trailers and the pics, Shahid looks really out of place here.
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October 3, 2013 at 6:07 PM
I dont have good vibes about this. This will be another PPNH for shahid
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November 18, 2013 at 7:22 AM
Would be surprised if this didn’t work. Prabhudevaa has good instincts and the whole of the asymmetry impish guy playing this masala role works (in my view).
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November 18, 2013 at 7:37 AM
shahid is passing thru a rough patch so…….
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November 19, 2013 at 12:32 AM
Satyam ji,
Here the OFFICIAL TRAILER of MAHABHARAT :
Director: Amaan Khan
Produced by Kushal Kantilal Gada, Dhaval Jayantilal Gada
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Vidya Balan, Sunny Deol, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Manoj Bajpayee, Dipti Naval
Thanks
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November 19, 2013 at 1:05 AM
Has their been a “fantasy Mahabharat” on this forum where people list which actors they would have playing gods/goddesses if Mahabharat were made into a real movie?
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November 19, 2013 at 1:12 AM
What a great idea! I’ve often fantasized about that sort of film myself, and I have pretty definite views on who I’d like to play various roles…
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November 19, 2013 at 1:16 AM
Raj5, I just started a new post…
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November 19, 2013 at 3:34 AM
Thanks Qalandar! I’m curious to see people’s lists..
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