Raj Kapoor to Rohit Shetty : How the Bollywood Landscape has Evolved, Satyajit Warrier [story reading txt] 📗

It is painful to note how great talent such as Meena and Geeta got wasted due to personal sorrows in their lives. If only better sense had prevailed and the two women had decided to fight back, history would have been witness to the careers of two successful women in Bollywood. It is sad that Guru Dutt had to take that extreme step despite having friends like Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor.

One really cannot blame Meena Kumari as she had suffered a lot as a child(her parents fought a lot). During her childhood, Meena’s lunch mainly comprised rotis made the previous day. Even she became famous as a leading actress, “the baasi” roti remained Meena’s favorite dish. Her impulsive decision to marry a much married man(Kamal Amrohi) just as her career was blooming in 1953(after the super success of “Baiju Bawra”) was perhaps the biggest mistake of her life. When Meena Kumari died in March 1972, Nargis who was a pillar of support to Meena wrote that – Meena had eventually been set free from a world she never belonged to.

Mera Naam Joker - Why did this film bomb at the box office?

Audience tastes are fickle. None can deny this fact. Maverick film makers often underestimate the role played by the audience in the success of a movie and Raj Kapoor was no exception. Even Dev Anand continued to unleash his movies on the audience even though the latter had stopped watching his movies long ago.

Mera Nam Joker – it was a dream project for the legendary film maker cum showman Raj Kapoor. I am told that I was taken to watch this movie (Rupam Cinema, Sion) when I was 6 months old, so I apologize for not being able to remember anything about my first experience. However, when I watched the movie later on television, I could relate to it. It was also evident why the movie bombed.

For one, the movie was too lengthy (it had two intervals). The so-called tear jerker tried to paint a dark, somber picture of the poor souls working in circuses. The joker was portrayed as someone who had to cultivate the emotional labour and perform in front of an audience no matter what his personal predicament was. But seldom does the audience wishes to part with their hard earned money to watch a movie that is way too serious. In true sense, Mera Nam Joker was an art house movie despite having commercial elements like songs and dances.

The movie was far ahead of its times. The puppy love between Raju and his class teacher (Simi Garewal) was something, I am not sure, the audience of the 70’s could relate to. The relation between Raju and the Russian woman is also not very clear. The worst performance however was by South Indian actress Padmini. Her transition from a street side acrobat to a classical dancer was unbelievable and unrealistic. As expected, in this movie too, Raj Kapoor made sure that Padmini was draped in a wet saree (without a blouse ) when she sang the erotic number “ Mohe Ang Lag Ja” (by Asha Bhosle, who else?).

The presence of Manoj Kumar, Dharmendra, Dara Singh and Rajendra Kumar did nothing to salvage this unmitigated disaster which almost made Raj Kapoor bankrupt until Bobby (1973) restored his lost glory and filled the coffers with cash. I am not sure if Raj Kapoor was penitent about having made the movie. Understandably, it was his pet project – something (a master piece) that he wanted to be known for. With some taut editing, the film could have been more watchable. But again one is not sure. The premise itself was ambivalent and ambiguous. What did this man Raju, who is a joker, actually want from life ? Why did the ladies shun him? The concept was esoteric.

Padmini was not an ingénue contrary to what Raj Kapoor wanted to portray her as. That added to the confusion. It still remains a mystery that Padmini who won accolades as a classical dancer par excellence in the South, stooped to such low levels displaying ample flesh in this movie, most of which was blatantly crude, vulgar and unnecessary. One has to surmise that Raj Kapoor would have paid her handsomely but in the end, money is not everything an accomplished danseuse actress like Padmini should have aspired for – that too at the fag end of her career as a leading lady, when she had already married and was all set to settle in the Big Apple.

The message in the movie – The show must go on – is relevant even today but where Mera Nam Joker falters is in the treatment. The script appears to be eclectic. It is like – the film maker wanted to say too much in a short span of time. The morbidity in the movie proved to be its nemesis. The climax scene in the movie salvages it to some extent but by then it is too late.

Towards the end, the movie drags to such an extent that it proves to be a real test of your patience. When such a thing happens, the failure of a movie is predicated. The movie did not have any repeat value at all. Who would want to pay money again and again for watching a tear jerker?

The only remarkable thing about Mera Nam Joker is Raj Kapoor himself. Only he could have played a waif like joker with such innocence. No one else could have ever done justice to the role. So, you can’t think of Mera Nam Joker with any other hero other than the legendary showman Raj Kapoor. But clearly the audience was disappointed with this fare which was much ahead of is times.

 Rohit Shetty’s Chennai Express

Chennai Express may be a so-called super hit despite the fact that the theatres are only filled to 60% of capacity in its 3rd week. The era of silver jubilees and golden jubilees are long over. Nowadays, producers are relieved if their movie runs for at least two weeks.

It is very easy to understand that the mainstream media like Times of India can be easily bought for sharing manipulated data about box office collections of movies. For the last few weeks, TOI is regularly carrying interviews of Shah Rukh, going to the extent of publishing his childhood photographs and information about his maternal grandfather. Shah Rukh went crazy promoting the movie before its release. The movie is at the most a one-time watch.

We can pity the audience who laugh at some of the silliest jokes in the movie. This shows a terrible dearth of real comedy in Hindi movies and deterioration in the audience tastes. Shah rukh’s age clearly shows and Tamilians are not going to forget the way he has portrayed Tamil characters as caricatures in the movie.

Can’t believe that this is the same King Khan who gave us the memorable “Darr” and “Bazigar” ! How the mighty have fallen ! What a let-down ! Rohit Shetty gets minus points for undoing the little good work that he did in “Bol Bachan” and “Singam”.

I complete agree with Jaya Bachchan who once said that “Today movies run because of stars and not because of content”. If Shahid Kapoor or Ranveer Singh had played the role of Shah Rukh, the film would have bitten the dust. The film’s collections can be solely attributed to the star allure of King Khan. By the way, Shah Rukh is my favourite actor and I am only anguished by the fact that the great actor is forced to do such roles that are completely devoid of logic. He struggles hard to fight his age and bring a few laughs.

Here are the 12 reasons why the movie sucks:

1. None of the songs are worth humming. By the way, who is the music director who has done so much injustice to Shah Rukh?

2. The lungi dance at the end of the movie is atrocious. What was the need to pay homage to a living actor like Rajnikanth? Where is the connection?

3. A veteran actress like Kamini Kaushal deserved a better deal. Her name does not appear in the credits though Deepika’s name appears prominently. It is pathetic to see such a senior actress wasted in a 10-second role.

4. How come Deepika’s character speaks English and Hindi so fluently but falters in Tamil? What exactly was she doing in Mumbai?

5. How can the villain (Pankaj Dheer’s son), who looks like Tamil actor Napolean, who is supposedly a Tamilian, speak such atrocious Tamil?

6. At the most critical juncture in the movie, both Shah rukh and Deepika break into an antakshari and worse the villain too takes part in it (by singing the Chammak Challo song).

7. The climax fights are tiring. When will Bollywood come out of its dirty habit of keeping pots, buckets and other accessories and showing them getting dismantled during a fight ? Rohit Shetty Sir, in how many more movies, are we going to see the glasses in auto rickshaws getting broken by the hero’s head and vehicles catching fire? Your action sequences are becoming a big bore.

8. The movie completely slumps post-interval. We get impatient as to when the movie will end.

9. Rohit Shetty has picked up actors from Tamil cinema and television and they are all mere props and look like glorified extras. Poor things – we can’t blame them, they must have got good money for such 2-minute appearances. It is sad to see Satyaraj and Delhi Ganesh stoop so low.

10. As far as Deepika’s father’s role goes – what does Satyaraj have to do except utter – “Ennama Kannu” to Shah Rukh and stare ferociously. His role hardly has any substance. It gets damn irritating to see Satyaraj and the hundred extras surrounding him, again and again with the chakoos and talwars. Satyaraj is an accomplished actor in Tamil movies and he need not have played an “extra” in a Shah rukh Khan movie. Hence, one feels that Rohit Shetty has done great injustice to Tamilians. He has portrayed Tamilians in a poor light as if all that they do is pick up a knife and fight at the drop of a hat.

11. The storyline of the movie is wafer thin.

12. Before the climax, Shah Rukh and Deepika are travelling in a car and the former reaches the latter’s village. All of a sudden, Deepika’s costumes change. How? What about continuity of the scenes