And today, no other Bollywood actor needs a changeover more urgently than the comedy-friendly Akshay Kumar who has delivered five disappointments in a row this year: From Chandni Chowk to China, Kambakt Ishk, Tasveer 8 x 10, Blue and now De Dana Dan.
Director Priyadarshan, who has been hacking out more films than you can count on your toes and fingers, sought to revive his Hera Pheri team, bringing Kumar and Sunil Shetty back with the infallibly feisty Paresh Rawal. Yet, star value is certainly not enough. The inordinately lengthy De Dana Dan (two hours and 40 minutes, no less) bored most viewers to tears. Oddly enough, in the post-interval portion, Kumar was assigned scanty footage as the screenplay chose to keep him (literally) hidden in a hotel suite’s closet. Not only did Kumar’s loyalists feel let down, but supporting characters like Shakti Kapoor and Rajpal Yadav ended up dominating
the show.
Also, the dialogue did not have the sparkle essential for a laugh-raiser. The finale, showing a flooded five-star hotel in Singapore, was extremely tacky in a bid to replicate the glug-glug aqua effects of say The Poseidon Adventure. Don’t even think of Titanic, please.
Clearly, Kumar — who can be overwhelmingly funny and adept at action stunts — needs an enterprise that can rescue him from the career doldrums. His saviours could well be directors Vipul Amrutlal Shah, who is completing Action Replay with him currently, and Farah Khan, who will film Tees Maar Khan with him in March next year. In fact, the alliance between Kumar and Farah has sent shock waves in showbiz circles since the choreographer turned director seemed to be working exclusively with Shah Rukh Khan (Main Hoon Na, Om Shanti Om).
It is no trade secret that Kumar has always longed to become as popular, if not more so, than Shah Rukh Khan. There is nothing wrong with wishful thinking.The actor needs smarter public relations, since there isn’t sufficient buzz about him in the
market.
He is striving to project himself as a family man, and inevitably ends up doling out tedious interviews about his wife, Twinkle, and their son Araav, and how wonderfully happy they are.
His Casanova image which linked him with a range of actresses from Pooja Batra and Raveena Tandon (it was even rumoured that they were married for a while) to Sushmita Sen and Shilpa Shetty, has been exhumed. If a story is circulated that he has checked into a hotel after a quarrel with his wife, he denies it vehemently and cuts off ties with the journalist who reported the story.
Indeed, the 42-year-old Kumar (born Rajiv Bhatia) can be childish, constantly whining that he is being unfairly criticised.
Once he called up the owner of a newspaper and TV channel to complain that he should not be criticised. If that continued, he threatened, he would cut off relations with the channel instantly.
So, the critic resolved not to write about him at all—to blank him out — but Kumar did not like that either.
Like every actor in Bollywood, he suffers from the praise-me-praise-me syndrome. Unlike others, though, he is willing to see reason and does not turn vindictive. That much I can say about him.
As for the rumours about him editing out his colleagues’ scenes from the final print, they seem to be less vociferous than before. Perhaps, his co-stars have accepted the fact that if they are in a Kumar movie they must be prepared to give him centrestage. Saif Ali Khan, Arjun Rampal, Sunil Shetty, and even Amitabh Bachchan, have found their roles abbreviated in their films with him. Indeed, Kumar even made a self-mocking reference about this ‘editing interference’ in one of his more successful films, Namaste London.
Obviously, after this year’s failures at the cash counters, Kumar needs to reassess his calibre and redesign his projects. He has not been seen in an emotional
drama lately.
A film in this genre could perhaps just do the trick to refuel his stardom. After all, earlier he has been remarkably restrained and impressive in love stories like Dhadkan, Andaaz, and even in a brief appearance in Dil To Pagal Hai. Truly, we have had enough buffoonery and eve-teasing chauvinism in the name of comedy from the actor. He has a strong screen presence and he can be endearing when he wants to be. Honestly, how you wish you’d see a new improved Akshay Kumar very soon. Until then, you can only go oh-no-no over such pains in the neck as De Dana Dan. Ouch.
No comments:
Post a Comment