Why 'Fan' is a make-or-break film for SRK?

A man from nowhere became the star of Bollywood. 

Call him "Baadshah of Bollywood", "King of Bollywood" or "King Khan", Shah Rukh has charmed the world for more than two decades with his exuberance and charisma but then stardom weighed heavy on him and he became so busy to fight gravity and keep his throne that the actor slowly faded away. He kept giving hits after hits, riding the number game but his role and his portrayals were repetitive and uni-dimensional. 

However, his next two releases Maneesh Sharma's Fan (releasing on April 15) and Rahul Dholakia's Raees seems like a step in the right direction and give a glimmer of hope for a star to find his soul again.

When Shah Rukh was yet to be discovered, Amir and Salman had already arrived. With Qayamat se Qayamat Tak (1988) and  Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), both Amir and Salman had already tasted success, taking Bollywood by storm, stealing the hearts of many a fans with their boyish charm. 

Amir further cemented his place in the industry with Dil (1990), Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991), Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992), Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), Andaz Apna Apna (1994) and Raja Hindustani (1996), for which he won his first Filmfare Award for Best Actor. 

Salman, on the other hand, left many women weak at their knees when he hit Madhuri Dixit with a catapult in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994). It actually had struck the hearts of his female fans and led to huge following, putting him at the top of the most eligible bachelor's list.

Shah Rukh, meanwhile, was trying to chart a new territory for himself with films such as Darr (1993), Baazigar (1993) and Anjaam (1994) after making his debut with Deewana (1992). Such roles earned him appreciation but also criticism for playing violent roles as the society then was not okay with such kind of portrayals.

But then something happened which changed everything. In exactly mid 90s, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) happened to SRK and it opened up a new world of super stardom which only grew bigger with films such as Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001). He had earned the key to success, winning the heart of All and Sundry.

In the new millennium, however, the definition and dynamics of love seemed to have changed. But Shah Rukh still continued to rule the roost with films such as Mohabbatein (2000) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Devdas (2002), Swades (2004), Chak De! India (2007).

Amir, meanwhile, had found his calling in meaningful cinema that spoke about social and youth issues but also entertained. Films such as Lagaan (2001), Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Rang De Basanti (2006) and Taare Zameen Par (2007), were poignant and meaningful and also set the cash register ringing. Shah Rukh too sharpened his acting prowess and played the role of a character with Asperger's syndrome in Karan Johor's My Name Is Khan (2010). 

However, a new benchmark to gauge a film's success had emerged by the late 2000 -- '100 crores'. What followed was a maddening race among filmmakers, producers and actors to get their films into the '100 crore' club.

Interestingly, Salman, who went through a dark phase in the new millennium where he did more than 30 films but none matched his past rewards, emerged as the most consistent member of this club with film such as Wanted (2009), Dabangg (2010), Bodyguard (2011), Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Kick (2014) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) -- earning him unprecedented stardom. Amir also tried to balance it with Ghajini (2008), 3 Idiots (2009), Dhoom 3 (2013) and PK (2014).

However, Shah Rukh found himself sandwiched between two kinds of cinema dished out by the other two Khans. 

After Yash Chopra's last picture, Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012), SRK starred in Rohit Shetty's Chennai Express (2013), Farah Khan's Happy New Year (2014) and Dilwale (2015) alongside Kajol. All the films were profitable but SRK received a lot of brickbats for his uni-dimensional portrayal of characters which seemed hollow and stale.

Shah Rukh is intelligent enough to know that the audience is changing and what he needs to do to woo them back. He can no more just seat back and play to the gallery like Salman or weave it like Amir and neither does he want to leave his fans to move away from him. 

Here lies the importance of Maneesh Sharma's Fan (releasing on April 15), where he is once again challenging himself to play a character which is obsessed and violent, a role which shows glimpses of his past portrayals in films such as Darr and Anjaam. 

From the trailer, the film seems to have been written interestingly, pitching an actor who had dared to tread uncharted territories and had caught the imagination of his fans in his earlier days against an actor that he has become over the years.

His dual roles of a superstar and his fan provides that double dose of SRK which even his critics are waiting to watch and if he can pull off something which Kangana Ranaut did with aplomb in Tanu weds Manu returns, it is surely going to shut the critics and win him many more hearts.

In fact, Rahul Dholakia's Raees (SRK's next release), co-starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui is another film which will decide which way his stardom goes.

The swordmanship of Kohli

Virat Kohli is a tattooed swordsman who knows how to paint with his sword.

One who wears his heart on his sleeves, Kohli has always dared to express his emotions on field. Not one to shy away from difficult situations whether it is a fight on the field or a verbal duel, Kohli has also shown he has the stomach to learn from his mistakes.

For someone who has been in fluent form for what seems forever, Kohli has shown that words such as "form" doesn't exits in his lexican. His shots against Australia tonight at the World twenty20 were all copybook cricketing shots, whether it was the leg glances, cover drives, straight drives or the shots where he opened the face of the bat at the last moment or the pulls using his bottomhand. Each of these shots would have made his icon Sachin Tendulkar proud.

The way he ran between the wickets seemed he could have given Usain Bolt a complex. Yuvraj Singh, despite all the good intentions, had slowed the chase because he was not able to respond to Kohli's calls for twos. But that didn't upset Kohli, instead the Delhi cricketer dug his heels and kept walking slowy and steadily towards the target, knowing fully well his time will come.

This innings once again proves that he has reached a stage where he dictates the terms of his innings. The maturity he shows on field has glossed over the brazenness that gave him bad press in the past. It seems he has a compass inside his head which knows which way to go, something which works on auto-mode. It only proves that in no time, he has become one of the cricketing geniuses who will end at the top spot in the hall of fame.

There is no doubt, Kohli will go down in history as the best batsmen in the world because never ever in the history of international cricket, any other batsmen has won his team more matches from such precarious situation. Not even legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Even Australia's Mike Hussey and Michael Bevan will take a bow before this new master of cricket. He certainly shut a certain Mitchell Johnson, who will be eating his words!!!

Why Aligarh is not to be missed

Aligarh is not for an audience, whose glass is already full as nothing will help to change his or her views, leave a casual viewing of the film.

     Aligarh is yet another masterpiece from director Hansal Mehta. It tells the story of a man who loved poetry and music, taught Marathi to the students of one of the premier universities of India but yet faced the wrath of a morally arrogant society for his sexual preference and ultimately his controversial death.



    The long shot capturing the incident that happened in that fateful night on February 8th, 2010 sets the film in motion. Whether it is the dirty jokes which the two characters who filmed the incident is concerned or it is the production design of the rooms, the detailing of the film was done to perfection.



     The film captures the loneliness of the protagonist poignantly with the help of long close ups during the moments when he is drinks alone listening to Lata Mangeskar. The way the director portrays Dr Siras' slow alienation from society is commendable.                             


    The indifference with which this news debate of our prime time news channel are conducted was also showcased in one of the scenes in the film.

     As for the actors, Manoj Bajpai never ever slips even once in his portrayal of Dr Siras. His body language when he is sitting in the court room, his demeanor when he crooning a song or his mannerism when he conversing with people, Bajpai never leaves the character behind even for a second and his portrayal possibly should earn him a national award. Rajkumar Rao also does justice to his role as the young journalist. Never going over the top even once.


Questioning the Poor response

     Despite being a thoroughly researched and deftly directed film, Aligarh doesn't have many takers in the country as most of the cinema halls are running shows with most seats remaining vacated.

     Not that Director Hansal Mehta is bothered about box office collections. After all, here is a man who has showed the courage to make films such as Shahid and City Lights, both gems in their own rights, tackling issues which are more often than not brushed under the carpet by  Bollywood.

     But yet the question remains: Why a film like Aligarh doesn't get audience? Is it because it deals with Homosexuality? Is it because our morally arrogant society fears that it will corrupt our children or challenge our perception?

     Also is there a way to make such films more entertaining for the audience? I say entertaining because, the film doesn't fall short of engaging its audience, of course only if you are interested to know the truth or open to challenging your beliefs. An audience, whose glass is already full, nothing will help to change his views, leave a casual viewing of the film.

     I wondered, if there was a way to take it to the audience. But after a little ponder, I came to the conclusion that there was none because such an issue-based film cannot have a song encapsulating his pangs because it will break the flow and defeat the very claustrophobia that the director wants to create around the audience, a suffocation which Dr Siras went through in those last few months of his life.

     The director did try to use humour which are situational in a few places, something which a film like 'Talvaar' had done so beautifully despite tackling a tricky subject. But again 'Talvaar' was a murder mystery which had a lot of characters (Police and other people involved in investigation) to play with, whereas, here it was a case which was not even thoroughly debated or probed.   

   Probably, that is also the reason why the film leaves a lot of questions behind. There are scenes which leaves things open ended because perhaps in reality there has not been enough investigation to find those answers.

     In fine, Aligarh is a must-watch which raises a lot of questions, not all of them have been answered. While we can't find those answers legally, probably as a society we can look at ourselves in the mirror and go beyond the labels which we put on everything and find answers to those questions with empathy and may be it will help us to shed the burden of our age-old perceptions.

Oscars & Our films

A million butterflies subsided inside the stomach of fans as they let off let a sigh a relief after Leonardo Dicaprio finally received his best actor award at the 88th Academy awards for 'The Revenant'. Not that, it is Leo's best work till date but given the plethora of work that he has done over the years, it seemed almost unfair that he didn't receive it earlier.

'The Revenant' also earned a successive best director award for Alejandro González Iñárritu. Needless to say about the talent of this Mexican, who burst into the scene with his "Death Trilogy" comprising Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006). Though, he has made films such as 'Biutiful (2010) and won the Oscar for Birdman (2014) last year, the death trilogy remains one of his best work.

The Revenant has a revenge story which has been done and dusted around the world, including India but what brings the film alive is its setting in the wilderness of the 1980s, its cinematography and performances. So it is a welcome decision that it didn't win the best film, rather that award went to 'spot light' which depicts the investigative journalism which went into uncovering the sexual abuses of the church.

'Spot light' reminds us about two films which I had watched during my growing up days -- All the President's Men (1976) and The Killing fields (1984). Another film which I liked recently was Kill the Messenger (2014), which also had a similar investigative journalism theme.

I wonder when we will make such films in India. After all, we too had our shares of investigative reporting in the last 60 years.

'Room' and 'The Danish Girl' fetched Brie Larson the Best Actress award and Alicia Vikander the Best Supporting Actress respectively. Both the films have got a thumbs up from the audience and I too want to watch them as soon as possible.

The actor who received the Best Supporting Actor prize for Steven Spielberg's 'Bridge of Spies' is Mark Rylance. Bridge of Spies is a amazing story set in the cold war and has such a power-packed performance from none other than two-time academy award winner Tom Hanks. But yet, it is Rylance who stole the show with his measured portrayal of a soviet spy arrested in US. The film is an extraordinary story of grit and human empathy that leaves you overwhelmed. May be Bollywood too can try out their hands, making a film on the time when KGB agents penetrated India during the 1970s or may be about the forgotten spies who were part of India's covert wars with Pakistan.

Coming back to the Oscars, one film that deserves mentions is Mad Max: Fury Road, the craziest film that I have seen in my life. This reboot of the late 1970s and 1980s, Mad Max was so different from the original and so creative that it made everybody awestruck with its sound design, editing and deservingly, it won a host of technical awards, including Best Editing, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.

Well, all that is dark in Indian cinema tough. In Bollywood itself, with films such as Talwar, Haider, Gangs of Wasseypur, Neerja, Airlift, Baby and a few others, we too are slowly and steadily trying our hands in telling different stories of life and struggle. We have a treasure trove of good cinema in regional film industry and the Bollywood stalwarts need to encourage and invest in them to help in succeeding our own Oscar dream.

I wonder what drives actors like Nawazuddin Siddique?

I guess it will be an unstoppable desire, an unshakable self belief and a zen like state of consciousness. 

Or else, how do you find that motivation to get going when the industry you work with doesn't reward you enough for your hard work? 

A look at the various award function of Bollywood (We are talking about Indian commercial cinema here) and it becomes clear that awards only recognizes or considers the films which are commercial success. It doesn't matter if someone has done a better role in a film which may not have filled up the coffers of the producers. 

Let us take the case of Nawazuddin Siddique or Kalki Koechlin for that matter. 

Nawaz portrayed three different characters in Bollywood cinema last year and in two of them he aged from 20s to 50s. Anybody who has watched his flawless renditions in 'Badlapur' and 'Mountain Man' would vouch for it. There could not have been a 'Badlapur' or 'Mountain Man' or 'Bajrangi Bhaijan' without him and yet he is beaten by Ranveer Singh for the best actor award in most award functions.

Thanks to Sony Guild Awards, they at least found him worthy of Best Supporting Actor for Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Best Actor in a Negative Role for Badlapur. 

As for last night's Filmfare Awards, he could just watch as Anil Kapoor walked away with the supporting actor and Ranveer hold the black lady as the best actor.

Kalki's case is worse. She was exceptional in ‘Margarita with a Straw’ and I wonder why an actor like her is not even nominated in best actors nomination. As someone who plays a girl with cerebral palsy, talking us through her struggles of life, Kalki had given the best performance of her life but yet it falls flat on the jury. 

Well for actors such as Nawaz and Kalki, probably, these awards doesn't matter. But recognition and acknowledgment fuel desire and ambition to achieve greater heights. These actors are trying to remove the stains of glitter and glamour from our eyes. They are trying to wear those layers and layers of human frailties to show us the picture of real world. They are the only hopes of a kind of cinema which talks about the ethos and pathos of the poor and burgeoning lower middle class. 

Their dreams gives hope to many other writers, actors and filmmakers to dream something bigger and so when they don't get what they deserve, it becomes one step back to mediocrity.

P.S. Ranveer Singh was good in Bajirao Mastani and as a film aficionado I am happy for him. He has come a long way and also to get this at this point where his girl friend Deepika Padukone also won the best actress award is special but he was not better than Nawaz. period.

Birthdays: From bustling to boring

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When we were young, birthdays were the most awaited day in our calendar. It meant gifts, new clothes and a day away from books and studies. But more importantly, it meant a little more freedom which gave us access to many new things which made us curious as a kid.

But as we grow up and birthdays pass by, those boundaries which our parents used to put us in as kids, seem like garlands now, and living in those confinement the best part of our lives.

Growing up means there are no shackles to break, no walls to jump, no mysteries to unfold because you are independent with no horizon to limit your sights.

And so birthdays becomes boring. Wishes a whatsaap or Facebook status. Just another day. A fleeting moment which passes more quickly than we ever imagined.

Probably, because during this journey called life at some point we overturn the hour glass and put the watch on an anticlockwise mode. A diminishing timeline. A receding calculation. Because Birthdays becomes another reminder of slipping time.

So why do we lose that excitement, those butterflies which used to keep fluttering inside our heads even a day before the actual date? Where have all those faint smiles gone that always floated in our eyes and hanged in our lips on the day?

Possibly, we lose all expectations as we grow up. Or may be growing up means exposing to the various pains of life. So it feels like the burden of earth is thrust on our shoulders and just one day won't change anything.

So how to find that twinkle in our eyes on birthday? How to rediscover the inexplicable happiness?

Probably for that we have to reconnect with the child that we have left behind in this race of life. If we can trace our way back to him or her possibly only then every birthday will find its true meaning. Every year a gem which we will treasure. Every time it will become a new opportunity to cut a new corner and celebrate it in the next birthdays to come.

Hansal Mehta to complete his poetic masterpiece with Aligarh

Who would have known, Mr Hansal Mehta would be a poet? 

I certainty didn't. 

I realised only after I watched Shahid and City Lights. 

To pour the lives on those unfortunate souls on the canvass of his films is poetry indeed. 

The way he narrated the pathos of Shahid and Deepak Singh and his wife in City Lights seemed like pure cinema is standing bare naked for the world to see but as always the world doesn't always care. 

But the fact that in this times such poets too have a canvas to play with their brush show probably that not everything is wrong with this world. I'm now waiting for him to finish his trilogy with Aligarh.

Rajkumar Rao too have braved this troubled waters of human frailties and swam back to give us some precious jewels which the coming generations will remember. He is turning into one of the finest actors of Indian cinema. Hope Aligarh can complete the cycle of life.

Manoj Bajpai, who will be carrying the film on his shoulders in Aligarh doesn't need any introduction. Needless to say, he has always been like that soil which can produce any character once you put that seed in it. Whether it is Bandit Queen or Satya or Gangs of Wasseypur, he is a master craftsman and his presence ensures that the painting will never be spoiled. So for now, I m awaiting Aligarh.