1.He came in with a lot of promise. Not many can forget that grand entry perched on two bikes in Phool Aur Kaante or the death-defying stunts in money-spinners like Jigar, Vijaypath and Dilwale. Quickly changing tracks to become the intense, brooding hero, the deadly Devgan struck gold. The smouldering intensity in Company and Zakhm (which earned him his first National Award), the tough guy act in Gangaajal and Apaharan, the supportive husband in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and the capo in Omkara all contributed to the aura of Ajay Devgan. Even his negative turn as the angst-ridden Yashwant Angre in Khakee came in for its fair share of acclaim. But over the past year, the man hasn’t been the same. Cash, RGV Ki Aag, Halla Bol and now Sunday — all wrong, all box-office disasters. If he was intolerable as Doc — a Superman-like character leading a double life in Cash, then the Cornetto-chomping cop act in Sunday had the audience reaching for aspirin. To be fair, he wasn’t too bad in Halla Bol, apart from the fact that it was yet another cliche of a role that Devgan has done to death.
2.Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag will easily make it to the record books as the biggest disaster of the decade. And Ajay’s performance came close. With the insufferable Nisha Kothari as Ghungroo for company, Ajay attained glorious new heights of idiocy. Just watch the two in the Ruk ja number and you will know. In one scene, Devgan’s Heero threatens to commit suicide (ala Veeru in Sholay) by putting a gun to his head. We wish he had pulled the trigger.
3.Never the conventionally good-looking Bollywood hero, Devgan has over the past year gone in for a drastic change of look. And what a hair-raising experience it has been for the audience. If it was a brown-blonde look in Cash, then platinum streaks is what he sported in RGV Ki Aag. The peroxide blonde look suits Halle Berry, not Devgan. Or is he competing with the L’Oreal shade chart? Besides, constant experimentation is not always good for a married man.
4.And the acute weight loss. When he doesn’t look like the perfect “After” candidate for a weight-loss programme ad, in which the “Before” was better, he looks like a tall scarecrow. We recommend a protein supplement.
5. No matter how hard he may try to tickle our funny bone, comedy is not Ajay’s forte. Be it Ishq, Golmaal or Sunday, Devgan has stood out like a sore thumb in all these films. A dumb expression, colourful clothes and gender jokes that are off-colour like his hair (as in Sunday) do not a good comic actor make. He is only funny in steamy scenes, as with Nisha Kothari. Give us Akshay Kumar any day; he is good at both.
6.The future doesn’t seem too exciting for Ajay either. The pressure of pulling off a Taare Zameen Par with U, Me Aur Hum — Devgan’s unfortunately-titled directorial debut — is daunting enough. If there is anything exciting about this desi Titanic — U, Me Aur Hum has Ajay and Kajol meeting on a ship and falling in love — it is only the re-return of Mrs Devgan to the silver screen after Fanaa. The Ajay-Kajol pairing never managed to match up to the Shah Rukh-Kajol chemistry. And how many much-married couples retain that spark after years? Not many. But the wiser keep it to themselves. They don’t make a film to advertise it.
