The return of the action film
By Subhash K. Jha

THE architects of candyfloss romances have reason for concern. The USP of the just-released Daag: The fire is not the melodramatic love story about moral, sexual and emotional rehabilitation of a lawyer (Chandrachur Singh) through the able and determined ministrations of a goldenhearted prostitute (Mahima Chowdhary).

The portion of this heavyhanded film by Raj Kanwar that have audiences falling out of their seats feature Sanjay Dutt in all his gruesome glory as a commando of the Indian army who wreaks vendetta on his father’s killers. Each time the muscled macho man strides across the screen in seething splendour, the audiences cheer lustily.

It’s a grand comback fot the 40-year-old Dutt. Described by the gossip press "Deadly Dutt" and "The last action hero" Dutt’s post incarceration films floundered at the box office either because they were ill-timed or ill-conceived. His recenet films like Daud and Dushman featured Dutt as an anti-action hero. On the other hand Mahaanta and Vijeta seemed to bring coal to Dhanbad after the entire town had switched over to another source of fuel.

The success of romantic films like Kuch Kuchm hota hai and Aa Ab Laut Chalen and romantic leading men like Shah Rukh Khan and Akshaya Khanna put a question mark on the careers of the action superstars. One of them, Sunil Shetty quickly switched over to ‘meaningful’ directors like J.P Dutta and Gulzar who cast him in cerebrally resonant roles in Border and Hu-tu-tu, respectively. Another patent action hero Ajay Devgan flipped over to a fightless firmament in Pyar To Hona Hi Tha. But his red-eyed disposition appeared restless in the rituals of romance.

A third action hero Bobby Deol imagined himself as a castrated Cassonova, or a Devdas if you like, in pale products like Aur Pyar Ho Gaya and Kareeb.

Abbas-Mastan’s surprise hit Soldier has brought Bobby back to the box office battlefield with a bang. The turnover in Deol’s fortunes is highly illustrative. With his pre-designed brawn-to-win inheritance as a Pucca Deol. Bobby’s efforts to win stardom failed as long as he attempted to go against his Jat-blooded pedigree in the slick ‘n’ svelte Gupt and now Soldier, Bobby takes up the ancestral from gun where Sunny Deol had cocked it.

The success of Soldier puts an end to the popular trade myth that violent action films are not box office friendly. Slick action films never lost their market, and they never will. They have shed only their tackiness. With growing competition from American cinema through satellite television and the dubbed big screen release of the latest and choicest Hollywood films, action filmakers and stars in Mumbai. were forced to Jazz up their act. No more clumsy stunts and third rate special effects, thanks!

In Solider, the late action coordinator Akbar Bakshi who died during the making of this film has created fights that are worth killings for. The bloodsplattered climax in the deserts of Jaisalmer got the whold cast and crew so charged up that even the regal Raakhe relinquished services of her double to be dragged by horses on a rope!

The authenticity level of the stunts in Soldier is unprecedented. That’s what made a difference to the script. Now, in yet another repudiation of the aur-nahin-bash-aur-nahin theory. Raj Kanwar has written a special ‘action’ track in Daag: The Fire Reportedly Sanjay Dutt’s sanguine role was an afterthought in the script, since Chandrachur Singh’s role and character were found to be exceedingly namby-pamby.

Those tradewathers who swear by the mush rush in Hindi cinema are shocked by audiences’ positive response to Sanjay Dutt on the stunt-front in Kanwar’s violent melodrama.

Even as the sooth (en) sayers lick their Soldier and Daag inflicted wounds, Mumbai’s cinema prepares for its third action explosion of the week in two months. the new-director Milan Luthria Kachche Dhaage. Like Soldier, Kachche Dhaage is a rugged bone crunhing, gut-wrenching blood-bathed drama with excellent music.

As the sonorous strains of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s Lata Mangeshkar-sung melodies suffuse the powdery ambience. Ajay Devgan returns to his sock-and-dukh persona Soon Phool Aur Kante that made him famous.

The plot about two estranged stepbrothers (Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan) has the action-badshah Tinu Verma pulling out all stops to deliver some of the crunchiest fights ever staged in Hindi cinema Devgan’s daredevilish disposition resurfaces in Kachche Dhaage particularly in a stunning stunt sequence where he’s tied under a speeding goods train. High risk? Yes, and high rewards too.

Kachche Dhaage is expected to be the third action-oriented blockbuster in the first two months of 1999 after Soldier and Daag: The Fire. In all likehood the action-Jacksons shall be back doing brisk business with a big bang. And the real superstar of the year shall be action-directors like Veeru Devgan and Tinu Verma.