Entertainment
Much dhoom over nothing
Bollywood delivered little in cinematic quality with the effort being on
hitting the 100-cr mark
Saibal Chatterjee

Report card: (Clockwise from top) Aamir Khan-starrer Dhoom 3 vroomed past the opening-day collection record set by Chennai Express. Deepika Padukone was catapulted to the numero uno position among Bollywood divas; and Krrish 3, starring Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra, hit the screens amid much fanfare

The teasers of the last major Bollywood release of 2013, Dhoom 3, raised hopes that the year would end on a high. Yes, it was that kind of the year — moviegoers were left clutching at straws.

It wasn’t as if the past 12 months were low on action but the mainstream Mumbai movie industry, despite the bang from its buck, delivered very little by way of real cinematic quality.

Excess was the norm and all that the key players seemed interested in was hitting the 100-crore mark. Consequently, more often than not, they scraped the bottom of the barrel.

Consider some of the releases that made big bucks in 2013: Chennai Express, Krrish 3, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Ram-Leela and, the worst of them all, Grand Masti. All of them flirted with overkill of one kind or another. For this critic, the three most disappointing films of the year were Ram-Leela, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Satyagraha, if only because expectations from these films were sky high, given the reputations of the directors in question.

Two of these films were huge successes while the last named failed to recover its costs. All three suffered from the malaise of unbridled overload.

Ram-Leela, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s reworking of Romeo and Juliet in an implausibly colourful Rann of Kutch setting, made a mockery of one the greatest tragedies ever written.

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s biopic about legendary athlete Milkha Singh went overboard with a mix of songs, dances and cliché-ridden melodrama that only served to trivialise an inspiring rags-to-riches story of a rare Indian sportsman, who never gave up.

Prakash Jha’s Satyagraha, inspired by Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption agitation, lost the plot completely because it chew off more than it could possibly digest.

Of course, the producers of most of these films had absolutely no reason to complain. But those that believe that there is more to cinema than just the numbers generated at the turnstiles felt that Bollywood was, as has been the norm in recent years, hurtling down the wrong track.

In more specific terms, the year will be remembered for three significant developments: the rise and rise of Deepika Padukone, the growing clout of indie cinema and the fast-declining traction of remakes of films from past decades.

Deepika was catapulted to the numero uno position among Bollywood divas, thanks to the super success of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Chennai Express and Ram-Leela.

Even though none of the three superhits were any great shakes in terms of cinematic merit, these gave Deepika’s career a solid boost, propelling her ahead of Katrina Kaif and Kareena Kapoor.

But in a year in which Krrish 3 and Dhoom 3 hit the screens amid much fanfare, it was only natural for filmmakers to seek returns from tried and tested ideas. Despite the reverses, this is a trend that Bollywood is unlikely to abandon in a hurry.

Postscript: Dhoom 3 lived up to its title. It went boom boom at the boxoffice and vroomed past the opening day collection record set earlier in the year by Chennai Express. It was an Aamir Khan show all the way. The superstar played a master illusionist who outthinks a listless cop played by Abhishek Bachchan. Without Aamir’s solid presence, Dhoom 3 would have been just another big-ticket franchise film. It wasn’t. It brought the year to an end with the promised bang.

Deadly duds:

• As a result of the ill-advised surfeit of wannabe blockbusters, moviegoers began to turn their backs on the kind of cinema that sought to peddle trash. Boss, Besharam and R… Rajkumar, to name three such monstrosities, found few takers.

• Among the year’s biggest duds were three much-touted remakes — Himmatwala, Zanjeer and Chashme Baddoor.

• Similarly, formulas that worked the first time around boomeranged on being repeated. Neither Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara nor Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 made any waves. The only exception to the ‘lightning doesn’t strike twice’ rule was Aashiqui 2.

Good things come in small packages:

• Small independent films that sprang from a zone completely removed from the industry’s commercially driven space not only made it to the multiplexes with heartening regularity but also made some money in the bargain.

• Hansal Mehta’s Shahid, Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus and Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox were released with the support of mainstream forces in the industry. The success of these gutsy little films proved that an alternative model of distribution does exist in this country for cinema made in response to a genuine creative urge, and not merely as a part of a business plan.

• Films like Subhash Kapoor’s Jolly LLB, Ajay Bahl’s B.A. Pass and Raj Purohit’s Sixteen made a mark in a crowded marketplace.

• Several films managed to rake in profits despite the absence of boxoffice stars in the cast. Notable among these were Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che, Mrighdeep Singh Lamba’s Fukrey and Aanand L Rai’s Raanjhanaa.

• Similarly, films that played the game somewhat differently while riding on mainstream stars also tasted commercial success. On this list were Vikramaditya Motwane’s Lootera, Shoojit Sircar’s Madras Cafe, Neeraj Pandey’s Special 26, Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K.’s Go Goa Gone and Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns and Bullett Raja.

A mixed platter: Abhishek Kapoor’s Kai Po Che raked in profits despite the absence of boxoffice stars in the cast; Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram-Leela made a mockery of Romeo and Juliet; Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Bhaag Milkha Bhaag went overboard with a mix of song, dance and melodrama; and Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Chennai Express made big bucks despite a thin storyline setting an opening-day collection record

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