 |
The question that’s being whispered is: is Salman Khan heading the Akshay Kumar way? The box office figures of his latest film Ready are buoyant. Earning approximately Rs 40 crore over the opening weekend, Ready did almost as well as 3 Idiots did in the first three days. Of course, thereafter, 3 Idiots climbed higher and higher and was much appreciated too, before it went on to become the biggest grosser ever.
The story of Ready has been vastly different. It opened heartily and then began the inevitable dip as it was hardly watchable fare. It is therefore, a commercial hit but with its rasta chhaap flavour (topped with equally pedestrian chartbusters that go Character dheela... and Dhinka chika...), it can hardly be the pride of any actor’s résumé. But try that logic on Salman Khan and you’ll be treated to his famous glare because right now they’re all busy patting themselves on the back for delivering a huge hit with the actor actually crowing that he interfered in every department of the film and that’s why it didn’t “go for a toss”.
A few years ago, Akshay Kumar had been on that same page. If you ever questioned his penchant for no-brainers, Akki would lecture you on how it required intelligence to tailor a commercial hit. As long as the money was coming in, the lack of substance was not worth a worry. On the contrary, the profits only served to make the star confident that he now had the intelligence to pick the right script and the right to pick the rest of the team too.
Akshay had even begun to emulate Hollywood stars by having a jet on standby for him while shooting a film. He would also ask his office to send huge bills to magazine offices for expenses incurred during photo sessions, never mind if the costs didn’t carry the authorisation of the editor. He had actually begun to believe that he was now equipped to change the rules of the game.
As we all know, Akshay Kumar soon began to stumble and he hasn’t really had a decent hit in the last three years (except a stray Housefull). The tedium that set in as he repeated his ear-splitting comedy ad nauseam has not yet evaporated. Akshay had to understand and accept that he desperately needed variety in his repertoire, and depth too, if he wanted to be in for the long haul.
Salman Khan’s Ready has definitely benefited from the larger-than-life appeal of Wanted and Dabangg. It was evident in the opening collections, but it has been an inferior product. Mercifully, unlike Akshay who repeated his act every four months, Salman has been seen only once or twice a year, so he’s still got an audience out there. However, the disappointment over the unsubstantial content of Ready is an indicator that Salman should now re-think his strategy instead of repeating an act just because it has worked twice before. After all, when you talk of Shah Rukh Khan he does have films like Chak De! India that he can be proud of. Aamir has a whole lot of films like Lagaan, Taare Zameen Par, 3 Idiots that give him a respectable standing as an actor. What has Salman to show for his 20 years of stardom?
While names like Anees Bazmee (he has the honour of making Akshay Kumar’s flop Thank You and Salman Khan’s unworthy Ready in the same year) have clearly run out of steam, this week, there’s been a fine addition to an interesting list of new and extremely talented young directors. Raj Babbar’s former son-in-law Bejoy Nambiar’s Shaitaan is so well-crafted that he will soon join the ranks of Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj and other much-applauded noir filmmakers. That is, if he can keep his nose out of trouble since his father and he have been caught in a fraud case. The CBI-investigated case is over a “less-than-Rs 5-crore” swindle which will be chicken feed if Bejoy succeeds as a director.
Actually, Bejoy showed his talent quite a few years ago when he made a short silent film called Reflections with fellow Malayalee Mohanlal and two Mumbai-based star daughters. Bejoy married one of them, Juhi Babbar, for a brief while. The other celebrity offspring in his short film was Ahlam, daughter of late Amjad Khan. For Gabbar Singh’s daughter, Ahlam, who is making waves in the theatre world in Mumbai, Bejoy remained only a colleague and friend. In fact, the story idea of Bejoy’s edgy feature film Shaitaan, released this week, came from Ahlam Khan.
