REVIEW 469: COMMANDO 2: THE BLACK MONEY TRAIL

Release date:	March 3, 2017
Director:	Deven Bhojani
Cast: Language:	Vidyut Jammwal, Adah Sharma, Esha Gupta, Freddy Daruwala, Adil Hussain, Satish Kaushik, Shefali Shah, Suhail Nayyar, Thakur Anoop Singh Hindi

It might be natural to assume that the tale of a government-appointed, trigger-happy action junkie on the trail of a murderous, black-money-laundering villain would be a fun ride, especially with His Royal Hotness, His Muscular Majesty Vidyut Jammwal in the driver’s seat.

Jammwal (yes, now with a double “M”) is as good-looking as a man can be. If you watched him on debut playing John Abraham’s bete noir in Force (2011), you probably know that already. As Captain Karanvir Singh Dogra in Commando 2: The Black Money Trail, the character he earlier played in the 2013 film Commando: A One Man Army, he does everything to please a lustful viewer. He executes sleek stunts, repeatedly jumping, spinning, flipping, whirling and twirling his beautiful body through the air. Above all, he wears a ganji in large parts of the film to serve us generous views of his bulky bare arms and shoulders. What more could a hormone-laden viewer ask for?

Finesse in storytelling, perhaps? Hmm, problem alert!

So it goes that India’s Central Government, anxious to show results after the demonetisation exercise, desperately wants to retrieve the crores of black money stashed away in foreign bank accounts and deposit it as largesse in the accounts of the general population at home. The crater-like pothole in its path is the Union Home Minister (Shefali Shah) whose son too has a cache of cash lying abroad. Pretending to work towards achieving the government’s goals, she assembles a crack team of mercenary officials who are at her beck and call. They must travel to Malaysia and arrest Vicky Chadha who is in the business of keeping safe the black money of a large number of corrupt Indians.

Knowing the Minister’s ill intentions, Karan – a trained army commando – sneaks his way into the group. The film is a battle of wits and fists between the honest, patriotic officer who doesn’t mind taking the law into his own hands (when it is for the country, how dare we complain!) and those who would betray the motherland for their personal gain.

Commando 2’s narrative delivers some unexpected twists and turns, but the colours that fill in the outline of the story are weak, amateurishly handled and in the end, amusing in a clumsy effort to play to the gallery. In a film of this sort, aimed at racing pulses rather than thinking minds, it is perhaps pointless to ask why the Home Minister alone is the moving force behind the government’s efforts at retrieving black money from abroad, with the Finance Minister nowhere in sight. But even as the racy action keeps us hooked, it is hard to get past Commando 2’s cliches and loopholes.

Karan & Co zip around Malaysia with such confidence and ease, it would seem that country is in India’s pocket and barely has a police force of its own. Adah Sharma plays Karan's teammate Bhavna Reddy, an irritating encounter specialist who harks back to the old Hindi film stereotype of a south Indian. Bhavna is a double whammy of sorts since she serves as a ditsy, frivolous female sidekick to Jammwal’s grim-as-hell Karan, a sort of female Chris Tucker to every serious white cop in Hollywood history. Besides, the romance between them feels terribly contrived and silly because of the complete lack of chemistry between the two.

Then there is their colleague Zafar, the most awkwardly written, stereotypical ‘good Muslim’ seen in recent years in Hindi cinema, the kind that – in my humble opinion – could only emerge from the pens of writers over-compensating for their deep-rooted suspicion of the community, a suspicion they may possibly not even be conscious of.

The film’s impressive action scenes and pretty hero cannot make up for its limited substance, which matters particularly because the action is not unrelenting. While Karan is bashing up baddies, it is hard to look away from the screen. When he is not, it becomes easy.

Sadly, there is more to Jammwal than that face, body and his fighting skills. Someone give this man a more substantial film, please.

Rating (out of five stars): *

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	124 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/commando-2-movie-review-his-royal-hotness-vidyut-jammwal-in-a-super-silly-story-with-super-action-3313374.html

Poster courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commando_2:_The_Black_Money_Trail

AGEIST BIASES AGAINST ACTRESSES / FILM FATALE: COLUMN PUBLISHED IN THE HINDU BUSINESSLINE

TOO OLD TO BE SEEN WITH?

Age remains a dirty word for women in commercial cinema worldwide, despite occasional flashes of liberalism

By Anna M.M. Vetticad

In an ideal world, being a Bond ‘girl’ would not be seen as a fillip to the filmography of an established, talented actress. This is not an ideal world though. Today’s reality is that mass-targeted cinema is still largely focused on male characters and while age is not a disadvantage for major male stars, even the fittest of fine actresses are sidelined much earlier in their lives than men.

In this scenario, the next James Bond film Spectre and Dil Dhadakne Do (DDD) merit a discussion. Hollywood sprung a surprise on us just months back with the announcement that Monica Bellucci will play Bond’s romantic interest in Spectre. At 50, Bellucci is the oldest actress to get that role, according to Western media reports, and she is even four years older than her co-star Daniel Craig, which would not be news-worthy information but for the fact that a premium is placed on female youth in glamour industries worldwide.

Here in India, it should not have made news that Bollywood star Anil Kapoor was playing a grey-haired, 50-plus father of grown-up children in DDD. But it did, because senior male actors in India tend to play characters much younger than their real age. While Kapoor deserves the kudos he is getting for evolving beyond that, it’s telling that nary a whimper has been raised about the casting of a much younger Shefali Shah as his wife.

Because Team DDD seems to be a progressive lot, it is more important than ever to ask: was no actress of Kapoor’s age found suitable for that role?

Allow me to get briefly literal and mathematical to illustrate my point. Shah is 42 and Kapoor is 58, according to various online sources. In the film, they are parents to a girl and boy played by 32-year-old Priyanka Chopra and 29-year-old Ranveer Singh. If Shah was really their mother off screen, she would have been 10 at her daughter’s birth and 13 when her son was born. Biologically you know that’s a stretch, legally of course this would mean kids born out of wedlock or in a child marriage. You could have dismissed these calculations as fussy and silly if it weren’t for the fact that the screenplay writer is clearly not oblivious to this matter and makes a subtle effort to justify the casting by pointedly assigning the following ages to the four principal characters: Dad 52, Mum 48, kids mid-20s.

When reports earlier emerged that 48-year-old Madhuri Dixit-Nene and 51-year-old Sridevi had turned down Shah’s role, the media was critical of them. The two “got queasy” and Shah “has taken up the challenge”, said a report in a leading national daily. A dear film critic friend is of the view that “Madhuri was being un-adventurous” with her decision. But no one has asked if any Bollywood director would have dared to offer the role of Priyanka and Ranveer’s father to John Abraham (who is the same age as Shah), Akshay Kumar (who is less than a year younger than Dixit-Nene) or the three Khans who all hit 50 this year.

Longevity for female stars is not a favour being granted to them, but every major film industry in the world is guilty on this front, though some are worse than others.

In India, not only are older actresses given limited roles by producers and writers, but older heroes want to romance heroines young enough to be their daughters. It’s as if actresses their age are not worth being seen or worth being seen with.

In his last three films, Tamil legend Rajinikanth has starred opposite Sonakshi Sinha, who is 36 years his junior, Anushka Shetty (31 years younger), Deepika Padukone (age gap: 35 years) and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (age gap: 23 years).

In interviews I’ve done with them over the years, both Kamal Haasan and Salman Khan insisted they are merely giving in to audience demands by acting with younger heroines. But how can you claim viewers have made a choice, when you almost never give them that choice? And if the audience does indeed make a regressive choice, could you at least have the courage to claim helplessness rather than endorse their illiberal view?

Unlike several Hollywood heavyweights, Indian actresses have rarely been critical of this phenomenon, partly because not every woman is convinced of the need for gender justice, but mostly because it is risky for them to question the status quo in their respective male-dominated industries (which are, let’s admit it, even worse than Hollywood).

Not that gentleman feminists have it easy. It has been four years since Prithviraj Sukumaran, then 29, gave an interview to Asianet in which he bravely called on his senior colleagues in the Malayalam film industry, Mohanlal and Mammooty, to “start playing their age”. Fans of both stars, gender chauvinists and status-quo-ists are still skewering him for the comments.

Speaking up is always a lonely business at first. It is time more men and women slammed film industries worldwide for turning age into a dirty word for actresses but a badge of honour for men. No, it is not a big deal that a 50-year-old woman will romance Bond. And no, Madhuri was not being “un-adventurous” by rejecting DDD; she was simply doing what any sensible male star of her stature and age would do.

(Anna MM Vetticad is the author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. Twitter: @annavetticad)

(This column by Anna MM Vetticad was first published in The Hindu Businessline newspaper on June 20, 2015)

Original link: 

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/watch/too-old-to-be-seen-with/article7329772.ece

Photograph courtesy: (1) Spectre – Sony Pictures Entertainment (2) Dil Dhadakne Do – https://www.facebook.com/DDDTheFilm

Note: This photograph was not sourced from The Hindu Businessline

REVIEW 334: DIL DHADAKNE DO

Release date:	June 5, 2015
Director:	Zoya Akhtar
Cast: Language:	Anil Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Shefali Shah, Rahul Bose, Zarina Wahab, Anushka Sharma, Farhan Akhtar, Aamir  Khan, Ridhima Sud, Vikrant Massey Hindi

’Tis the season for an unconventional take on relationships in Bollywood. Just weeks after director Shoojit Sircar’s Piku came to theatres with the story of an exasperating father and his indulgent daughter, Zoya Akhtar brings us Dil Dhadakne Do (DDD) which revolves around a philandering opportunist, his doormat of a wife who is too hypocritical or perhaps too lethargic to shake him off, and the two children they’re both bent on suffocating. The standard term for such folk these days is “dysfunctional family”, but that begs the question: which family is not?

Anil Kapoor in DDD plays Kamal Mehra, an industrialist keeping up the appearance of wealth with an extravagant lifestyle even as his company teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. He cheats on his wife Neelam (Shefali Shah) who too is obsessed with maintaining a façade of happiness. Both prioritise this outward show and the survival of the business over even their kids’ welfare.

Matters come to a head on a 10-day cruise to Europe organised for relatives and friends to mark the Mehras’ 30^th wedding anniversary, with the children – Ayesha (Priyanka Chopra) and Kabir (Ranveer Singh) – rebelling against their oppressive, dictatorial parents. For the record, Ayesha is a successful businesswoman in her own right, living in Mumbai with her husband Manav Sangha (Rahul Bose) and mother-in-law (Zarina Wahab), while Kabir works for his father’s company and lives in the family home in Delhi.

From her very first film, Zoya Akhtar has shown a penchant for a naturalistic style of storytelling. Events in both Luck By Chance and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara flowed at what felt like a pace that mirrors real life, without contrived attempts at twists and turns to heighten the melodrama. Ms Akhtar is part of a small but expanding band of Bollywood film makers whose works remind us that drama is intrinsic to all relationships and there is no need to artificially up the ante for effect. DDD follows the same route, with just one difference: a crazy, slightly silly (and confusing) climax that appears improbable on the face of it, but is so clearly deliberately designed to unapologetically be what we call “filmi” that I suppose it works as a kinda sorta cheery ode to conventional Bollywood madness. 

At almost 171 minutes, DDD is longer than most Hindi films are these days. It is to the credit of Akhtar and the pace she sets from the word go, that not one of those is a minute of flab. Each member of the film’s star-studded cast – including supporting players Anushka Sharma, Farhan Akhtar, Rahul Bose and Zarina Wahab – and every single character get their due, without the effort to do justice to them appearing heavy-handed in any way. Even the narrator Pluto Mehra works for the most part, not counting one somewhat preachy portion where he discusses differing social attitudes towards men and women who sleep around. But you know what, when you are that huggable, you are allowed one passing slip-up.

Aiding the director in maintaining her engaging narrative is the superlative cast. Anil is superb while striking a fine balance that calls for him to be despicable yet hard to hate. It is a challenging role but he plays it as if it is who he really is. God bless this era in Bollywood when a senior actor of his stature can get the role of a hero in a film without having to degrade himself by playing a character much younger than his real-life age.

When a veteran is on a roll, it’s tough to avoid being overshadowed, but Ranveer manages that feat, delivering a remarkably controlled and nuanced performance as Kabir. It helps that he has an incredibly appealing screen presence which he puts to good use here. This is a young man who is both a born actor and a born star. 

The story belongs to these two gentlemen, not because they get more screen time – they do not – but because they have more interesting, layered characters. Despite the disadvantage, Shefali and Priyanka shine as conflicted women, although it requires a considerable suspension of disbelief to digest a 42-year-old Shefali playing Mom to actors who are 29 (Ranveer) and 32 (PC). Can you imagine a male star of the same age – say, John Abraham – playing father to those two?! In MCP Bollywood, even in a liberal story like this one, that would be unthinkable!

The most charming, endearing relationship in this film filled with relationships is the brother-sister bond. Kabir and Ayesha’s unflinching support for each other and perfect understanding of each other is enough to warm the stoniest heart. It is also nice to see two major mainstream stars playing siblings rather than a romantically involved couple. The last time I remember that happening was with Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai in Mansoor Khan’s Josh.

That casting decision is one of many reasons why DDD is an unconventional Bollywood film. Another is that it has four leads – the family quartet – and none is given more importance than the other. DDD is also that rare Hindi film with an ensemble cast. Among the many exciting actors in smaller roles are debutant Ridhima Sud and TV’s Vikrant Massey (from Balika Vadhu among other serials) who earlier played Ranveer’s friend in Lootera. The two make their mark as offspring of warring families who are among the Mehras’ invitees on their anniversary cruise.

In its own way, DDD is also a gentle slap in the face of misogynists who stereotype feminists as being: (a) only women and (b) people who overlook the flaws of women. Quite to the contrary, the two great feminists of this film are Kabir and Sunny, Ayesha’s old flame played by Farhan. While Kamal Mehra and Manav Sangha are skewered for lording it over their wives, the women are not let off for allowing themselves to be manipulated when they had a choice to do otherwise.

I wanted to applaud – actually, I did – when Kabir calls out his mother’s cowardice in pretending that she was unaware of her husband’s affairs. It reminded me of Amitabh Bachchan’s character Bhaskor in Piku pointing out to his sister-in-law that her frustrations about her life of professional non-achievement were her fault since it was she who chose – despite Bhaskorda’s encouragement and cooperation – not to take up a job which offered her a pay higher than her husband’s salary. Let us not forget that patriarchy survives on the collaboration of such women.

Another noteworthy aspect of DDD is the absence of community stereotyping. The Mehras are Punjabis but hey look Bollywood – they do not yell “Balle balle” or break into the Bhangra at the drop of a hat. Imagine that!

Of course there is a tiny bit of gender stereotyping elsewhere: the gossips in the film are all women, their men are never shown gossipping. C’mon Zoya, you know better than that!

Music directors Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy deliver a relevant and pulsating background score although a majority of the songs in DDD are disappointingly tuneless. Pehli Baar is the only somewhat memorable melody of the lot.

Oddly enough, despite this I enjoyed all the songs within the framework of the film because they fit the situations in which they come up and because the choreography is thoroughly enjoyable, atypical Bollywood. Particularly worth mentioning are the Broadway-style Girls like to swing featuring a cute-as-a-button Anushka who reminded me of Renee Zellwegger in Chicago and the infectious energy of Gallan Goodiyaan in which the entire supporting cast – yes all of them – throw themselves into the dancing with a joie de vivre that is irresistible. Who knew that Rahul Bose and Parmeet Sethi could swing like that? You go, boys! And what a joy to see a grey-haired Anil dancing wildly in that same song.

DDD is not faultless, but barring that nutty ending, I had a rollicking good time watching it because it is funny, believable and sweet, the cast is lovely and most of all, because now that I’ve seen it, I’ve fallen in love with both Ranveer Singh and Anil Kapoor.

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

PS: Good job with the guest appearance, Aamir.

CBFC Rating (India):	U/A
Running time:	171 minutes

Photograph courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dil_Dhadakne_Do