Friday, August 22, 2008

Bollywood's Hit, Definitely a Miss

The numbers game is always played out in Bollywood - who's number one, two and zero among the actors? The one who delivers the most hits is naturally The Number One, in popularity and earnings. The current favorite appears to be Akshay Kumar, who's been around for some time but only really gained recognition in recent times due to his excellent comic timing. Apart from this, his USP lies in the fact that he does all his stunts and doesn't use a double.

Having said all that, I completely fail to understand why his recent movie "Singh is Kinng" was such a resounding success. The only redeeming features are Katrina Kaif's beauty and Snoop Dogg's rendition of the title song. Even the reviewers seem to have got it right. As one of them put it, "this isn't worth your car fuel or cola-corn double whammy". However, when you look at the director, Anees Bazmee, you begin to get the picture. His film "Welcome", also starring Akshay Kumar, has a similar feel and is as avoidable.

It's a sign of the times that there were Sikh protests in Amritsar against this movie, even though the makers had tried to ensure that the community found nothing objectionable about the depiction of the Sikhs. There was a time when Sikhs were known to have a good laugh at themselves and enjoy "Sardarji" jokes just as much as the next person, which stemmed from the fact that they were pretty much secure and happy with who they were. Now a small minority seem to have lost their sense of humor. Let's hope they remain a minority!

No comments: