When action turns fraction
We’re ready for action, not anal acoustics and under nourished scripts. The same hammy formula just doesn’t work anymore
WTHE BOTTOMLINE IS, THERE IS NO WINNING FORMULA. WHEN YOU PROMISE ACTION, DELIVER. DON’T TRY TOO MUCH, TOO OFTEN, TOO LOUD. IT DOESN’T HELP WHEN YOU ARE BUSY FOCUSSING ON CAR BRANDS THAT GAVE YOU WHEELS TO BLOW UP ON SCREEN, OR THOSE SUPER FLASHY DESIGNS THE HEROINE SQUEEZES HERSELF INTO. GRIP THE SCRIPT INSTEAD.
hen you opt for an action flick these days, you mostly sign up for noise and nuisance. Isn’t it? Film makers still haven’t realised that the audience has changed. We have evolved into swift-footed screen champions, midst the gobble of
OTT spiels, and simply don’t have the patience to waste our time on useless scripts. The same hammy formula just doesn’t work over and over again. We are bored, faded and jaded, and if you don’t net our interest in the first 15 minutes, you’re out. Forget the bloated crores that are tossed around as figures supposedly distilled at the box office.
What was Rohit Shetty thinking when he cast the 50something Akshay Kumar as the cop dynamo in Sooryavanshi? After Singham (and its robust sequels) and the loud Simba, the RDX simply went ‘phat’ in this movie, despite helicopter-hanging. Nothing I haven’t seen before. As the boring stunts rolled in, so did no-forced chuckle at bad jokes (Garbhvati instead of Padmavati? Wow, really, that’s some gender bender!) The script was as dry and flaccid as a dehydrated banana, reviving those who lasted, when the final 20 minutes rolled in. With Ajay Devgan and Ranveer Singh appearing to resurrect the sorry flabby run with their swagger and histrionics. Shetty was looking at milking the cop dynamo series with Sooryavanshi but lo! Behold, landed with a dull plop instead.
Agreed, Aahan Shetty got doodhi poisoning while filming Tadap (a remake of a confirmed South winner in RX100) but what did we
do to deserve this? Then Satyamev Jayate 2 was poised to hit a whammy but things got clearly clammy with the triple role John Ab-raham took on. (I loved the tyre tearing and car door ripping in the earlier hit, Satyamev Jayate though)
The bottomline is, there is no winning formula. When you promise action, deliver. Don’t try too much, too often, too loud. It doesn’t help when you are busy focussing on car brands that gave you wheels to blow up on screen, or those super flashy designs the heroine squeezes herself into. Grip the script instead.
Janta Garage is one of my favourite films, for the sinew show minus the cacophony. N T Rama Rao Jr cracks the performance with his sombre looks and punches that pound your ears, once. No echoes. Unfiltered action. Mangta hai, minus unibrowed villains. That’s my Antim view.