REVIEW 307: ACTION JACKSON

Release date (India):	December 5, 2014
Director:	Prabhudheva
Cast: Language:	Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha, Manasvi Mamgai, Yami Gautam, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Anantharaaj, Guest appearances: Shahid Kapoor, Prabhas, Prabhudheva Hindi

Ingredients:

–      hero (dubbal role mein)

–      heroine (in fact, do do heroine-ay!)

–      vamp (bahut hot si)

–      villain (ek aankh waala)

–      gaana

–      bajaana

–      bade star ka guest appearance

–      romance (hero no. 1 ka)

–      dukh bhari back story (hero no. 2 ka)

–      maa (Yami isme Mummy banti hai)

–      weird bhai-behen ka weird pyaar

–      Mumbai nagri

–      phoren locayshun

–      badey-badey sets

–      chhote-chhote kapde pehni hui girlz

–      shirt utaarke abs dikhaane waala bwoy

–      Punjabi gaana

–      godown mein fight

Bhala aur kya chahiye logon ko?

Well, how about coherence and originality?

Director Prabhudheva’s Action Jackson is an unbelievably disjointed, unimaginative, unamusing wonder that chucks into the cooking pot, all sorts of ingredients that have worked in formulaic films of the past. Virtually storyless though it is, here’s a spoiler-filled shot at relating the plot…

So first we meet one Vishy in Mumbai who beats up people in gravity-defying style and does do-numberi-ka-kaam, as his neighbour Aunty says. Then a bubbly girl called Khushi (Sonakshi Sinha) sees him in a clothing store trial room where he is (get this!) trying out underwear, and later when he emerges from a toilet after doing susu. I don’t know which clothing store in Mumbai allows people to try out chaddis, but be warned if you go shopping in that city.

So anyway, Khushi has seen Vishy’s thingie, which somehow turns her fortunes. Which makes her want to see his thingie again before an Amreeka-based boy comes ladki dekhne ke liye, because she thinks Vishy’s thingie is a good-luck charm. But Amreeka-based boy doesn’t stand a chance because he is not played by a major Bollywood star. Plus, Vishy is played by Ajay Devgn so how can she fall in love with anyone else, you silly-question-asking people.

Khushi soon falls for Vishy because when she falls unconscious in his house, he doesn’t change her kapda but maintains her laaj by getting neighbour Aunty to do the deed. Besides, he does nice things for poor people, being bad guy with heart of gold and all that, you know. You know?

Enter: second Ajay Devgn. Whoa! What a twist! He is first Ajay Devgn’s humshakal. Why? Bichhda hua judwaa bhai, you ask? No no, he is humshakal because he is humshakal. You didn’t ask questions when it happened in Don in 1978 so why discriminate now, stupids?

Bangkok-based AJ works for ek aankh waala gangster. He also has a girlfriend-turned-wife (Yami Gautam). Enter: ek aankh waala gangster’s bad sister Marina (Manasvi Mamgai) in thigh-revealing outfits and cigarette between lips. Now phillum launches into Fatal Attraction-type obsessive love saga complete with daayin laugh in background and girl kissing boy as though her lips are “a vacuum cleaner” (not my words, his).

Vishy and AJ meet. Lots of people get beaten up. Arms and necks are twisted. Ajay as Vishy clowns around while bashing up local goondas. Ajay as AJ takes off his shirt and poses about artistically to bash up international gangstas. Beech-beech mein, lots of people dance to loud songs in loud costumes on gaudy sets featuring every single colour of the rainbow. Uskey beech mein Vishy’s sidekick (Kunaal Roy Kapur) appears – to be funny – and disappears.

The unwitting star of Action Jackson – in a good way and a bad way – is debutant Manasvi Mamgai, former Miss India. When she’s trying to look ominous, she’s a hoot. Not her fault, the film is just THAT silly. In fact, she’s featured in a scene that teeters on a precipice between offensive and laughable: AJ has come to save Marina from being raped by a hooligan and while he’s fighting them, shirtless of course, she’s ogling him through a curtain of her hair! Ugh!

But don’t write her off. In that scene in which she raises a leg shoulder-high to kick a man out of a high-rise building’s window, she displays a skill that ought to find a place in A-class action flicks. And in the song You’re my gangster baby, notice how uninhibited she is, how completely not body-conscious, so lost in the moment that she makes Ajay look like a prop. Of course the impact of all that is vastly diluted by the fact that AJ casually kicks Marina aside at one point while she lies on the floor. Yes, rips off his own shirt, fires a gun and kicks her. I kid not.   

At the end of this mind-numbingly unentertaining film, I consoled myself with the closing credits in which Prabhudheva (kindly note the spelling) appears in his dance-wiz avatar playing choreographer to the lead cast. He’s so vastly superior to Ajay in that department, that you can’t help but appreciate Ajay for sportingly demonstrating his shortcomings to the world.

What he was thinking when he accepted this film though is a mystery that may never be solved!

Rating (out of five): 1/2 star (for the scenes that were so bad, they made me giggle)

CBFC Rating (India):	U/A (this rating epitomises the double standards of a Censor system that awarded an A certificate to the Rani Mukerji-starrer Mardaani for its relatively brief scenes of violence in comparison with the grossly bloody Ghajini from 2008, Force in 2011 and now Action Jackson that have all got away with a milder U/A)
Running time:	145 minutes

Poster courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Jackson_(2014_film)

REVIEW 58: DELHI BELLY

Release date:	July 1, 2011
Director:	Abhinay Deo
Cast:	Imran Khan, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Vir Das, Poorna Jagannathan, Vijay Raaz, Shenaz Treasury

There’s nothing particularly more “ashleel” about this film’s “bhaasha” than other Bollywood offerings we’ve seen before – methinks that phrase has been used as a publicity hook by the film makers. I mean, yes Delhi Belly does give us a close-up of human shit (no no, I don’t mean that figuratively, I mean literally a pile of human faeces belonging to a man suffering from diarrhoea). And yes, the characters do use foul language without inhibitions, but I can assure you that my limited vocabulary of English and Hindi abuses has not been dramatically enhanced by watching this film: I don’t recall hearing swear words in Delhi Belly that we hadn’t already heard in Shor In The City, Bhindi Baazaar Inc, Shaitan or Yeh Saali Zindagi released earlier this year.

Ah well, perhaps I don’t understand film marketing techniques as much as I think I do. And none of this should take away from the fact that Delhi Belly is an enjoyable, unconventional Bollywood film! For starters, it’s not in Hindi.* The language is primarily English with a smattering of Hindi, and flows smoothly, sounding just the way you can expect the various characters to sound if you bump into them in Delhi. So the first round of applause should go to the dialogue writing. The story revolves around three friends Tashi, Arup and Nitin, the sight of whose filthy flat could make you puke. Tashi is a journalist who is marrying his girlfriend under family pressure. Nitin is his photographer colleague with lax morals and worse eating habits. And Arup is a frustrated cartoonist in an ad agency whose girlfriend has just unceremoniously dumped him. Their lives go into a karma-spurred spiral when a pouch of diamonds enters the picture and gets mixed up with a stool sample.

The mix-up that leads to everything else is a trifle too convenient to be credible, but that doesn’t alter the fact that Delhi Belly is unrelentingly amusing and telling at the same time. In fact, the film is so well done that it’s hard to believe it’s been made by the same director behind that Abhishek Bachchan-starrer Game. Must say Aamir Khan as a producer seems to have a good influence on the directors he signs up.

The film’s title of course is a reference to a term used to describe what could happen to your stomach if you are not careful about your eating habits in the nation’s capital – both literally because of Nitin’s stomach upset that lasts throughout the film and figuratively because of the dirt the story digs up. Now a round of applause please for the film’s casting director who has handpicked each actor with affection and attention, giving us a cast that fits their parts to a T, a U and a V. Imran Khan as Tashi has been more effectively used here than in any of his films since Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. Here’s an actor with a likeable screen presence but a so-far limited range who clearly benefits greatly from associating with a good director. Khan needs to work on his Hindi diction for other roles, but as the primarily English-speaking Tashi in Delhi Belly he is just fine. Kunaal Roy Kapur (Nitin) is a natural. And Vir Das is so inherently funny, that I don’t feel like analysing his acting skills: he just made me smile … a lot.

But the stand-out performances in Delhi Belly come from a newcomer and a veteran. Poorna Jagannathan who plays Tashi’s colleague has a casual ease before the camera that matches her casual, un-self-conscious sex appeal. And Vijay Raaz as a gangster is so damn good that I hope he’s on every Best Supporting Actor nominations list when the awards ceremonies come around by end-2011.

Delhi Belly is as much a celebration of basic human goodness as it is an essay on how “shit happens” unexpectedly for no fault of ours. If you withdraw a blackmail threat because your intended victim turns out to be a nice guy, you couldn’t be all-bad, right? The USPs of the film are its wry sense of humour and refusal to mince words while saying what it has to say. On the downside, there is a certain repetitiveness that bothered me when it seemed like the director had discovered a device he found edgy and wanted to make sure we noticed it. In the opening scene, Arup and Nitin are in bed – separate beds – in their flat, heads enveloped in sheets, and the camera gives us a shot of Nitin’s (I think) butt crack. But just in case we didn’t spot it the first time, it’s shown to us again, and then again! Okay, I got it, you’re cool enough to show an Indian audience a man’s half-exposed bum! Now move on, please! Likewise, it was entertaining to see Nitin seated on a commode the first time, and perhaps even a second, because we’re not used to seeing such things in Hindi films – but then Tashi’s girlfriend is also shot on a pot, then Nitin is back in the loo, then his stomach gurgles, then he’s back on the toilet seat, then his belly grumbles again, then … and then it just felt childish.

The closing song-and-dance featuring Aamir also felt like an unnecessary and irrelevant add-on. Was he not confident enough of this film that he felt the need to make it more saleable with an item number? Oh no! Et tu Aamir?! Instead, I wish I wish that Ram Sampath’s delightfully raucous DK Bose song had been better used.

Koi nahi, as Delhi-ites would say. Never mind, because in the ultimate analysis, Delhi Belly is frank, funny, in-your-face, unapologetic and unafraid. I had such a good time watching it. My pick of the film’s hilarious moments involves Kathak, a ceiling fan and a very poorly constructed building. Now tell me, what’s yours?

Rating (out of five): ***1/2

CBFC Rating:                       A without cuts (yes, would you believe it?!)

Running time:                       96 Minutes

Language: *                          English with a few Hindi dialogues (the producers have also released a Hindi version of the film)

Photograph courtesy: http://www.facebook.com/delhibelly?sk=photos