Sharp-tongued in his day, one wonders what Randhir Kapoor would’ve said about his sister-in-law’s latest film. After a 13-year gap, when Mumtaz had failed to make a comeback with the Shatrughan Sinha-Prosenjit film Aandhiyan (1990), Randhir had wisecracked that her flop show had impacted the two retired Kapoor wives, Babita and Neetu. “Now if they ever want to make a comeback, they’ll get ₹20 lakh less,” he’d joked.
If 79-year-old Randhir had his cognitive skills intact and could watch Neetu and Riddhima Kapoor’s Daadi Ki Shaadi (DKS), he might’ve had something similarly snarky to say. However kind colleagues want to be to Neetu, the truth is that the effortless sparkle has gone out of her performances. Additionally, Neetu’s fond belief that Riddhima would’ve made a blockbuster heroine if only she hadn’t “sacrificed” her secret ambition to appease conservative father Rishi Kapoor was somewhat busted. Riddhima may have finally realised her dream of facing the camera (Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives, DKS), but it’s been an inconsequential debut on the big screen, in a role befitting only a scheming bhabhi from a TV serial.
As for Kapil Sharma, he is another example of a successful man who aspires to be someone else. When his Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon 2 failed to bring in the audience last year, he’d concluded that Dhurandhar had drowned it. So he re-released it this January, only to flop again. In DKS, the 45-year-old standup paired himself with a 28-year-old actress he’s supposed to have gone to college with. People are delusional and DKS was packed with them.
In January, Vir Das, another successful standup, had also made a joke of himself at the box office. He wrote and directed Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos in which he miscast himself in the central role, overloading it with action, romance, a kissing scene, even an item number. Before the screening, he took one of his jibes at the ruling dispensation and told me, “I was cancelled for two years. I spent that time creatively by writing Happy Patel…” One isn’t sure who was more disappointed when his “creativity” was rejected — Vir Das himself or producer Aamir Khan. At a special screening of Happy Patel, Rajkumar Hirani, his wife Manjit and writer-partner Abhijat slipped away during the interval. That should be an indication of how happy Vir’s audience was at his attempts to turn hero.
It is this malady that landed comedian Rajpal Yadav too in a financial soup when he borrowed huge amounts to fund films featuring him in the lead. The comedian with the perfect timing stretched his finances and courted trouble, landing behind bars. His forte is comedy as seen in the recent Bhooth Bangla. Although it had a chaotic second half dominated by Akshay Kumar, the horror-comedy did better business than expected, with claims of grossing over ₹260 crore. Most of it is attributed to the comedy featuring Rajpal, Paresh Rawal and the late Asrani.
“If only the makers had continued our comedy in the latter half too, they could’ve made another ₹100 crore,” quipped Rajpal at Ashoke Pandit’s birthday dinner. Pandit’s night drew celebrities from diverse ideologies. From Anupam Kher and Madhur Bhandarkar to Aamir Khan, Javed Akhtar and Raj Babbar. Aamir even sang Papa kehte hain… for the guests.
Celebrations and cinema cut across party lines.
A film called Aakhri Sawal, which bats for the RSS, raises the curious sawal: what’s Sunil and Nargis Dutt’s son doing speaking up for the RSS?
Meanwhile, if humour drew the audience in to watch Bhooth Bangla, Ayushmann Khurrana’s breezy Pati Patni Aur Woh Do may turn out to be a worthy third instalment in the franchise started by B.R. Chopra way back in 1978.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author