Agneepath : Murdering the Classic

   When the first trailer of the movie released, which had bald  Voldermort looking Sanjay Dutt taking head on with an intense Hrithik Roshan, one only hoped that it would bring an end to drought of  villain characters that were so easily producible earlier. One of the most cherishing moments in such movies were not the mustanda exchanges between  Hero and the Villian fist,punch in the stomach fight sequences but the confrontation scenes, where one could take a dig at each other . 

  
So if I ask when was the last time we saw a hard core negative character, who enjoyed playing the Evil ,*stylishly* delegated tasks to his subordinates to wipe out the Good, by keeping  a check on Hero’s lady of her whereabouts, and the one who created his own world with Wines and Women. I say None. Last couple of years saw none of these elements in any characters. Prakash Raj even with his spontaneity  could only portray hyperactive roles in Wanted, Buddha Hoga Tera Baap and  Singham. SRK’s proclamation of his negative character in Don2 is farcical to say the least. Even Sanjay Dutt got an opportunity in Aladdin, but with little screen space and meat.

Hence Sanjay Dutt’s portrayal of Kancha Cheena in 2012 becomes the only hope to get back to those characters.

  Karan Malhotra’s visualization of a Kancha Cheena as a sadomasochist, a self-proclamation of Ravana with an introduction line “Tum Leke Aaye ho, Tum Kya leke Jaoge” is spot on and believable. But in the bigger picture it fails to strike the chord. Here’s how. 


Karan Malhotra’s version of revenge drama is not a remake to start with. The basic idea of the movie remains the same, but then so much has been tweaked that in an attempt to make an original, it ends up spineless and heartless, with over the top drama. An absolute tripe compared to the original. Even if it’s not compared with the Mukul Anand’s version it presents us with all the clichés of Karan Johar movies that we are so familiar with. 


Mukul Anand’s version which now has got a huge following because of Amitabh’s swagger and then infamous voice (Inspired after Marlon Brando’s character in Godfather)  is not only about Vijay Dinanath Chauhan’s retribution against businessman Kancha Cheena. Its also about a boy’s rise from the alleys of Mandwa to the Godfather of Mumbai. But in Karan’s version Vijay ends up as a Godfather of a local slum called Dongri, which later is turned into a K3G’s Yash Raichand’s family function, much to the liking of Karan Johar’s audience.

  Many feel  that the performances in the original  were over-dramatic. Be it Vijay’s arrogance while flaunting his appointment with death, or his fumbling of words while conversing with officer Gaitonde  or scaring shit out of his partners in crime, Amitabh did it all effortlessly. But was it Dramatic ? Yes. But if we have liked and followed him in Hum and others, then there’s no reason why we shouldn’t  admire him here. One cannot find such instances in the newer version at all. In fact there isn’t a memorable scene which would make you stand up and shower seetis. One of the important aspects of the original version was the “action-packed” dialogues viz Kancha Cheena’s favourite “Jo daayan haath karta hain , bayein haath ko pata nahi chalna chahiye, Yeh humara usool hai” and my favourite “Jala Daala .. “. But then there isn’t a single line which provides such fun. Instead it tries to cover up by inducing 1^st level of RGV’s violence and some basic twists which we have already seen a million times in RGV’s earlier movies . And all this happens with intense looking Hrithik Roshan at the center, void with any style. Hence delivering a plain and unimpressive performance compared to Amitabh.

  If there is any kohl-eyed  moment in the  newer version , then its Rishing Kapoor as Rauf Lala. A conniving Don who plans, plots and almost pin down Vijay Dinanath Chauhan , hence making it more delightful to watch. Lala’s is a culmination(or say replacement) of all 4 local gunda characters of the original one. It's a treat to watch him play Bad and is the only silver lining in this movie. Equally painful is to watch Kancha Cheena’s character with the Sanjay Dutt‘s “Isko Bolte trigger” repetitive look from Vaastav.  Neither he is wild and funny as Amrish Puri in Mr.India and Vishwatma or Jaichand in Farishtey, nor is he absolutely serious as Dr.Dang in Karma. 

Unlike the clean , suave Danny Dengzopa the new Kancha has any logic and tries to impress audience with his constant eye-popping evil grins.

Yet again an original is ruined.


And yet again the fandom for original increases.  

Stanley Ka Dabba - Not a review!

You wake up to some noise.Popping of sesame seeds.U avoid and go back to sleep.Daily routine they are.

 Lethargically you start preparing by stuffing the books, separating them as either 100/200 pages or text books and placing them in different compartments, only to retrieve it easily. Packing Done .

Its late.You start rushing with your heavy bagpack.Empty handed.R u missing something?
A loud scream from  back..

DABBA … Food for lunch it is ..

After some mundane morning  sessions  and some short naps, you desperately wait for lunch break. With less time on hand, you along with the your Gang start finding a place to have packed food peacefully(Hang out is what we call now..).

Open the Dabba.There is something.Yeah something.U dont give a damn whats packed inside.Seated in a circle you start passing it in round robin fashion to make sure each and everyone has tasted it. A curious friend X asks Y if he has brought chutney along with curd rice that so much suits the taste.X enjoys a spoon of that and passes on a smile. All they want is to just to hang out. They hardly keep track of the individual’s contribution/share. It’s a crime.

You go back to attend more classes,some mundane ,some interesting and some deserving a nap. End of the Day. You go back to home and start the next day afresh.

Memories . Million Memories those school moments were . They were brought to life again and refreshed after watching the most endearing and heartwarming children movie that lights up those childhood days when we were at our purest state.

Stanley Ka Dabba

Stanley is 4^th Grade(‘F’ section to be precise) student who keeps his class entertained by his impromptu parallel world stories. The stories he narrates to teachers to bail himself and his gang members out of a situation. In free time(or recesses) he makes the whole class *head bang* to his tune of Dan Tan Tan.  

Lunch Period is the time that he hates the most. That’s because he doesn’t get the Dabba like others. Unlike others he kills his hunger by having copious amount of water  to sustain the afternoon sessions. Often shares it with his generous friends, but hesitantly though.

Mr. Verma(Amole Gupte) , a Hindi teacher  faces a similar sort of a problem.In this case he gets his colleagues share their food by pestering them. Shamelessly though.  He is better known as Khadus among kids for hijacking  sharing their food, albeit alone.

Thinking that Stanley is robbing his share of food from gang members, Verma vents out his anger and passes disparaging comments on Stanley by asking him not to come to school until he gets his own Dabba.

At the end , Stanley gets out of this awkward predicament by getting a Dabba of his own. How? Anything beyond this would be a spoiler J

Though Stanley and Verma are facing the same problem,empathy for Stanley grows. In actual they both are representation of same character. But still we end up empathizing with Stanley and not Verma.Why? If observed carefully it would reveal that Verma was once Stanley, hence his behavior (opinions may differ).Verma just didn’t wanted to see that side of life. May be.

Lets discuss the Gang. Yes the Friends, that we cherish the most. Reminds us of those bench fights that we picked up for crossing an undrawn borderline, the extra classes that we bunked to watch the fag end of a Test match, times when we deliberately punctured girl’s bicycle for fun, moments when we  were either caught playing radio in the extra classes or passing our answer sheets to our friends.

It was all unadulterated.

If God tells me that I have only 3 hrs to go, I would request for couple more so that I could watch Satya , Lagaan and maybe end with full stomach  after watching Stanley Ka Dabba.