By
Sharada Iyer
What a waste of time, talent and resources by Yash Raj films, producer Aditya Chopra and director Karan Malhotra-they promised a magnum opus and delivered a total dud! But then, after seeing the trailer it should not come as a surprise, for the recipe for disaster was there for everyone to see in the trailer itself, and explains the dismal performance of the film in the cinema halls. Many morning shows have been cancelled and many other shows have recorded very poor occupancy rates. The show I went for on 22nd July, Friday- 4pm, had only eight people in the cinema hall which is definitely an indication that senseless hype alone is not enough to bring in the audience.
Nowadays, the publicity of any big-budget film begins almost two years in advance and in a bid to attract attention, everything about the film is overhyped and they end up revealing every detail in the trailer leaving no surprise element in terms of story and song picturization. The trailer itself is like a mini movie and maybe many viewers prefer to stay away and wait for its OTT release and not take the trouble to go to cinema halls.
Ranbir Kapoor, whose film is coming after a gap of four years, gets to play a double role for the first time, that of a father and son. Much was expected from this talented actor. However, that is not the case. Though he acts well, he does not add any zing to the characters and has not made any attempt to give any distinct identity to both the roles. Further, the two Ranbirs don’t get to share screen space because the son appears only after the father dies leaving no scope for any scenes of either confrontation or camaraderie.
The story of the film is set in the year 1871 in a fictious city of Kaza and it is about the people of a fictional tribe, called Khameran, and their oppression and sufferings not only at the hands of the British but also the Indians who worked for the British. Added to that was a ‘caste’ angle as the Khamerans belonged to the lower caste, the Hindu upper caste were more against them than the British also. Which brings us to the so-called deadly villain, Inspector Shuddhi Singh, played by Sanjay Dutt. He gets a vicious pleasure in torturing the Khamerans and loves working for the British.
The Khamerans become dacoits and start looting the upper caste of the society and the latter in turn appeal to the British to capture them and get back the looted treasure. With the help of Sanjay Dutt, the British capture them and keep them locked in a walled fortress and now these people have not only lost their freedom but are also subjected to extreme torture. Their leader ‘Shamshera’, fails in his plan to free them and is killed and they have to wait for 25 years before Shamshera’s son ‘Balli’ succeeds in freeing his tribe.
Though there is no novelty in this plot, yet the story could have been turned into a thrilling entertainer had the writers concentrated on an engaging screenplay with a taut narrative. But unfortunately, the screenplay is linear, there are no surprising twists, no extraordinary fight sequences, no visually spectacular scenes, and even the romantic track is quite pathetic. With the result, after the first few minutes into the film, the viewer knows exactly what to expect in the next two and a half hours.
Ranbir in the father role should have been given a lot more screen time -maybe the entire first half-as his character seemed a little more intense but he is killed off in a hurried manner and the son Ranbir enters too early. With the entry of the son, the screenplay becomes very slow and loses the grip for a long time. Surprisingly there seemed to be no youngsters of his age in the tribe, and he is shown playing the fool with small children which didn’t make much sense.
When every other person is tortured and made to work Ranbir somehow gets away singing and dancing and also escapes getting caught. Added to this, why he is kept in the dark about his father’s sacrifice is not explained. Ronit Roy in the role of Shamshera’s trusted friend could have been a great character but again he had a very small role and could hardly leave an impact. Similarly, Saurabh Shukla also looked a misfit in his role.
Such a story would have maybe found an audience in the 1950s when films on lower caste and upper caste would have worked but today this done-to-death plot of oppression by the British was too boring to watch from the first scene to the last. The running time of 2 hours and 38 minutes was quite harrowing as many scenes could have easily been edited out. The torture scenes inflicted on the poor people just don’t connect with the viewer and hence the heroic struggle of the father and son had no impact on our emotions. By the time the first half ended, it seemed like an eternity and the second half dragged even more.
Sanjay Dutt as the villain sports ‘vibhudi’ and a red ‘tilak’ and keeps shouting and frankly looks more like a mentally deranged and comical character rather than the evil oppressor he is supposed to portray. There is no menace in his body language or expressions. He is also not shown to age with the passage of time. (We do so miss our super villains like Amrish Puri and Pran!)
Vaani Kapoor has not been given a good role. She is a talented actress capable of much more as seen in her films Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui and Befikre, but she is just used as a glam doll who has to dance. The romance between the lead pair seems contrived and is forcibly incorporated in the story and does not do much for the film.
The 10-minute commentary with some painted visuals in the beginning of the film to narrate the background story was also not very appealing. Some scenes in the film did not even look like they belonged to the era in which the story is set. The climax fight scene was too long-drawn and Sanjay Dutt with his huge physique and brute strength was just not ready to give up.
Why do a flock of crows appear every now and then to help Ranbir remained a mystery! Towards the end there is a fight scene against the British army and in the ensuing chaos, a pregnant Vaani manages to hide inside a tree trunk and lo and behold! even manages to gives birth to her child inside the tree trunk without any problem… This scene is so ridiculous, one wonders how did the writers come up with this one?
Surprisingly, music is a plus point and the songs are quite catchy but the songs are really not essential to the plot and only end up dragging the narrative further. But for a few minutes, they do come as a breather in the otherwise lame proceedings.
In the four years that Ranbir was away from the big screen, a lot of talented actors have arrived on the scene and there is so much talent on OTT platforms where actors are exploring all kinds of new and refreshing characters. He should choose his roles wisely in future otherwise he will lag behind. Shamshera has been a huge disappointment and he needs to introspect. Incidentally the film was simultaneously released in Tamil and Telugu languages as well.
All eyes are now on his much-touted Brahmastra: Part I Shiva where he plays the main protagonist. As with Shamshera, the trailer has given away the entire story and the main song has been released on You Tube and been viewed many times. What fate awaits this epic film remains to be seen…
Her mother Naseem Bano had herself been a big star of the industry in the 30’s and 40’s and was renowned for her stunning looks. After the birth of her two children Saira Banu and Sultan Ahmed she and her husband parted ways and both Saira and Sultan were sent to Delhi initially and London later on for their education as she wanted them to grow up far away from the world of films.
Sarat Chandra Chatterjee (Chattopadhyay) is said to have written the story around 1901 when he was about 25 years old but had to actually wait for 16 years to have it published in 1917!!! He wrote several short stories in Hindi and Bengali and many of these have been made into films but none came close to the success which ‘Devdas’ got. In a way the film was a big boost to the author’s career also otherwise he would have remained just another name in the list of the literature giants of our country who never really get the fame and appreciation which they deserve.
-Interestingly there is nothing ‘heroic’ about the hero of our story ‘Devdas’- who is portrayed basically as a defeatist, is fickle-minded and impulsive in nature, faces the consequences of his actions and decisions by taking to alcohol to drown his sorrows and finally dies a dejected lover. Yet, in spite of his flawed character, our heart does go out to him when he embarks on his last painful journey in deteriorating health just to fulfil his promise made to Parvati to meet her before he dies but unfortunately dies near a tree outside her house without even catching a glimpse of her.
-Later in the story, when Devdas’s father dies, she comes to meet him again in the middle of the night and pleads with him to give up drinking and to allow her to nurse him back to health. For a married woman to freely come and meet her lover like this must have been unheard of in those times. In the last scene when she comes to know that the man who had died in front of her house was none other than her Devdas, she starts running towards the main door not caring about her marital status, her position in the society or the fact that by running like this she had exposed her eternal love for Devdas. 
-It is rumoured that Gulzar had also wanted to make his version of ‘Devdas’ with Dharmendra, Hema Malini(Parvati)and Sharmila Tagore(Chandramukhi) !Wonder how that one would have turned out to be…
-The Bhojpuri version had the audacity to change the ending by not only showing Parvati actually crossing the threshold and meeting Devdas but also had Chandramukhi joining her in to cry along with her !!! Which makes us wonder how do these people get the right to deviate from the story so much?
He was just a young man of 25 or 26 when he became a superstar overnight, had 16-17 super-hit films in a row and probably was not even equipped to deal with the kind of frenzy he whipped up. With the result he could never really grasp the real reason behind his extraordinary downfall either. To his credit he handled these extreme phases as best as he could and over a period of time actually came to terms with it gracefully.
My article is but a small tribute to this visionary genius…
The film had an all-Marathi star-cast. Dattatreya Damodar Dabke, a Marathi stage actor, in the title role of the king, became the first hero of Indian cinema and as women were unwilling to act in front of a camera, a delicate looking male cook working in a restaurant-Anna Salunke, donned the garb of a woman to play the role of the queen and technically he became our cinema’s first ‘heroine’.
He faced many a hurdle during the course of making the film even coming close to losing his eyesight due to strain but his spirit never dampened. He rented a flat in Dadar to shoot the scenes. He wrote the script, designed the sets, wrote the scenes, chose the locations and artistes, directed the shots, handled the camera, edited and produced the film and after seven months, 21 days, aided by a hard working team, managed to complete the film. 
As a young lad, he had worked with the painting genius Raja Ravi Verma as an apprentice for some time when the latter was staying in Mumbai. In 1893, Ravi Verma opened a printing press ‘Ravi Verma Pictures Depot’ with a view to mass produce his paintings so that his art would reach out to every person in the country irrespective of caste and status. At that time many young students from J J School of Art were working with him the brightest among them being Dhundiraj Phalke.
The founding father of our cinema did not get the distinction he deserved during his lifetime and passed away in 1944 much before our country became independent. Today there are awards constituted in his name and the recipients of the award take home large cash prizes. An yet it is with a heavy heart we realize that the very man who pioneered this gigantic film industry of ours spent his last few years in misery and died almost unnoticed far away from the industry in Nasik with hardly a handful of people attending his funeral…
In a country like ours which gives so much importance to the tenth standard Board Exams, this final year of school becomes a do-or-die year for many children, especially the ones belonging to the lower strata of our society and the marks they secure in these exams can actually make or break their careers. 
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