A weekend spent slouching on the sofa and watching movies. Supposed to be fun, right? Not if one of the movies you are watching is about a dumb, grinning Sardar, whose idea of a fight is dribbling a guy (like basket ball) before throwing him away. Now wait a minute. Let me just back up. Did I just write that? Dribbling a guy??? I dropped off my comfortable sofa, startling S who was mercifully (for him, that is) making perfect dosas in the kitchen, when I actually saw that scene! No kidding.
Did you guess the movie yet? It's Ashwani Dhir's (who is he?) moronic offering to unsuspecting viewers, "Son of Sardar". These movies should come with a statutory warning - Watch it only after disposing your brain, your sense of logic and your very sanity.
Generally, generally I read reviews before watching these hair-pulling, eyes rolling, heights of absurdities. And so I stayed clear of this movie when it was released. But when they aired it last weekend on a Hindi channel, I thought, what the heck, it's not like I am spending money to watch this, and sat down around dinner time to watch it. This movie could be used as a torture tool to get terrorists talking or perhaps feature in a list of the top 10 roles that action heroes shouldn't attempt when they are fading out.
I could rant and rave some more but I can't because I cheated. Yep, I chickened out after watching the first fifteen minutes. Somewhere around the time when an unconvincing Ajay Devgn (who thinks the-deer-caught-in-headlight look with all of his teeth shown, would make us roll on the ground and laugh) tries to fight a few foreigners in a discotheque, I figured that this movie was not for me. Take this scene and you'll know what I mean - he uses his unraveled turban to hit the guys around him. Mind you, he doesn't even touch the end of the turban to guide the cloth; it simply twirls with a mind of its own and pulls the ground from under the bad guys. Take that haram khor, courtesy Son of Sardar! Many such logic defying stunts later, the story crawls forward. Ah well, I use the term 'story' very loosely, here. Jassi Randhwa (Ajay Devgn) brings the action to India where the Sandhu clan is thirsting for his blood, as he is the last of their rival, Randhwas. On the way he meets Sukh (Sonakshi Sinha) and then...then I changed the channel.
It was a no-brainer that Sukh was going to fall for Jassi (because he is the hero!) and not her good looking fiance or probably childhood sweetheart and that all would end up well between the two clans. Thank god, life is not a movie set where waxed, naked chest displaying sardars with a zero sense of humor get the girl. Or do they?
If 'Son of Sardar' boasted masala movie with an aging action hero who I've liked somewhat since Phool aur Kante, then Student of the Year (SOTY) seems to lay the foundation for two heroes to showcase their acting skills or rather lack of it in Hindi film-dom, and hopefully get a fan base.
This was another movie that I stayed away from when it was released. A friend had said it was not too bad and the reviews were quite alright, so I decided to watch it on TV, in spite of planning a movie evening ('Cabin in the Woods', but that's another story) with a couple of friends. This time I was in the kitchen, and S was filling in the details... not that there was much of it.
Karan Johar has money and means to make movies. He has also established his credibility in the industry with movies like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and My Name Is Khan. Known for his flamboyant style of making movies, he doesn't disappoint in this too. In fact it's way over the top, here. I remember when Rani Mukerjee sashays in to college clad in a slip of a dress and high heels in Kuch Kuch Hota, we, the actual college goers were awe struck. For a week after that, we tried wearing well cut, better designed salwaar kameezes and tight jeans and cropped top to college. It didn't last long as our sloppiness and sheer laziness got in the way and we got busy in exams and project submissions. Still, that movie gave us a benchmark of what 'cool' colleges looked like in Bollywood.
Karan Johar's fabled school...not even a college my friends, in SOTY, is nowhere near cool. It, in fact seems unrealistic and wannabe.Where else do you find teenage boys sporting six packs and sculpted muscles and confidently strutting their stuff in barely there undies?? The girls with acne-free skin and skimpy clothes flirt confidently with the school jocks. Teachers don't exist in this school, except for...a coach and a gay principal. So the first A of the 3 As that define SOTY competition - Academics, is simply a premise for the peppy song "Ratta maar" to be launched.
And as for the second A - Arts, I must say the protagonists make up for it.The guys have figured out artful ways to strike a pose, to angle their mouth and eyes towards the camera and drop their artfully designed shirts to reveal perfectly waxed chests and backs. The only person who fails here is K Jo who somehow doesn't explain why, for the wedding ceremony of a billionaire tycoon's eldest son, all of his younger son's college mates with his coach and his wife, and principal tag along, that too to an exotic beach? There is hardly any screen time given for the poor dulha, because the camera is busy panning up and down Alia Bhatt's still blossoming feminine figure as she flirts with the two boys in "Radha wants to party". Ah well...such minor details.
Let's move on to the girls. They not only have to wax and shave and curl and straighten, but also have to walk around in killer heels and over sized handbags which looks incongruous against their wafer thin bodies. Of course, none of the girls complain. Not even when we witness the third A - Athletics, in the competition for SOTY, where they are pitted against strapping, healthy boys with adrenaline coursing through their spandex chaddis, in swimming, biking and running competitions. If this was not the epitome of inequality, I don't know what else is. The girls are not even in the, pardon the pun, running.
These two movies and a couple of others more which I am not even mentioning here, made me think what the director really wants us to do? Do they want us to take such movies seriously? I'm sure I am not even the kind of audience he is aiming for. But what about the audience they are actually targeting? Son of Sardar was a flop at the box office (whew!) and Student of the Year did not set the box office on fire (thank god!). This only goes to show that what ever the audience, a bad movie is exactly what it is...bad.
P.S: As I was scouting the internet for reviews on Student of the Year and Son of Sardar, I got this really good one on SOTY here:
http://movies.ndtv.com/movie-reviews/student-of-the-year-753
Worth a read.
Did you guess the movie yet? It's Ashwani Dhir's (who is he?) moronic offering to unsuspecting viewers, "Son of Sardar". These movies should come with a statutory warning - Watch it only after disposing your brain, your sense of logic and your very sanity.
Generally, generally I read reviews before watching these hair-pulling, eyes rolling, heights of absurdities. And so I stayed clear of this movie when it was released. But when they aired it last weekend on a Hindi channel, I thought, what the heck, it's not like I am spending money to watch this, and sat down around dinner time to watch it. This movie could be used as a torture tool to get terrorists talking or perhaps feature in a list of the top 10 roles that action heroes shouldn't attempt when they are fading out.
 |
| A grinning Ajay Devgn in Son of Sardar |
It was a no-brainer that Sukh was going to fall for Jassi (because he is the hero!) and not her good looking fiance or probably childhood sweetheart and that all would end up well between the two clans. Thank god, life is not a movie set where waxed, naked chest displaying sardars with a zero sense of humor get the girl. Or do they?
If 'Son of Sardar' boasted masala movie with an aging action hero who I've liked somewhat since Phool aur Kante, then Student of the Year (SOTY) seems to lay the foundation for two heroes to showcase their acting skills or rather lack of it in Hindi film-dom, and hopefully get a fan base.
This was another movie that I stayed away from when it was released. A friend had said it was not too bad and the reviews were quite alright, so I decided to watch it on TV, in spite of planning a movie evening ('Cabin in the Woods', but that's another story) with a couple of friends. This time I was in the kitchen, and S was filling in the details... not that there was much of it.
Karan Johar has money and means to make movies. He has also established his credibility in the industry with movies like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and My Name Is Khan. Known for his flamboyant style of making movies, he doesn't disappoint in this too. In fact it's way over the top, here. I remember when Rani Mukerjee sashays in to college clad in a slip of a dress and high heels in Kuch Kuch Hota, we, the actual college goers were awe struck. For a week after that, we tried wearing well cut, better designed salwaar kameezes and tight jeans and cropped top to college. It didn't last long as our sloppiness and sheer laziness got in the way and we got busy in exams and project submissions. Still, that movie gave us a benchmark of what 'cool' colleges looked like in Bollywood.
 |
| SOTY - too waxed, too svelte, too...everything |
Karan Johar's fabled school...not even a college my friends, in SOTY, is nowhere near cool. It, in fact seems unrealistic and wannabe.Where else do you find teenage boys sporting six packs and sculpted muscles and confidently strutting their stuff in barely there undies?? The girls with acne-free skin and skimpy clothes flirt confidently with the school jocks. Teachers don't exist in this school, except for...a coach and a gay principal. So the first A of the 3 As that define SOTY competition - Academics, is simply a premise for the peppy song "Ratta maar" to be launched.
And as for the second A - Arts, I must say the protagonists make up for it.The guys have figured out artful ways to strike a pose, to angle their mouth and eyes towards the camera and drop their artfully designed shirts to reveal perfectly waxed chests and backs. The only person who fails here is K Jo who somehow doesn't explain why, for the wedding ceremony of a billionaire tycoon's eldest son, all of his younger son's college mates with his coach and his wife, and principal tag along, that too to an exotic beach? There is hardly any screen time given for the poor dulha, because the camera is busy panning up and down Alia Bhatt's still blossoming feminine figure as she flirts with the two boys in "Radha wants to party". Ah well...such minor details.
Let's move on to the girls. They not only have to wax and shave and curl and straighten, but also have to walk around in killer heels and over sized handbags which looks incongruous against their wafer thin bodies. Of course, none of the girls complain. Not even when we witness the third A - Athletics, in the competition for SOTY, where they are pitted against strapping, healthy boys with adrenaline coursing through their spandex chaddis, in swimming, biking and running competitions. If this was not the epitome of inequality, I don't know what else is. The girls are not even in the, pardon the pun, running.
These two movies and a couple of others more which I am not even mentioning here, made me think what the director really wants us to do? Do they want us to take such movies seriously? I'm sure I am not even the kind of audience he is aiming for. But what about the audience they are actually targeting? Son of Sardar was a flop at the box office (whew!) and Student of the Year did not set the box office on fire (thank god!). This only goes to show that what ever the audience, a bad movie is exactly what it is...bad.
P.S: As I was scouting the internet for reviews on Student of the Year and Son of Sardar, I got this really good one on SOTY here:
http://movies.ndtv.com/movie-reviews/student-of-the-year-753
Worth a read.
Comments
@Sri - I had to let out my frustration somewhere! :-)