ROCKY HANDSOME: The Rock that doesn’t Roll! [2/5]

I hate this when critics label an actor as a piece of ‘furniture’ in his said professional work. This is really demeaning and an act of character-assassination of serious intensity, I believe. But then, what adjectives could you use for someone who has precisely and only a couple of expressions to showcase? A rock, if not some furniture? Well, it goes well with the title of the film and also describes the neatly oiled and chiseled body of John Abraham playing the main protagonist in the film. Trust me; he is so unshakeable, unflinching and immovable (for all the wrong reasons) that at some point, you might outburst your patience with ‘bhai, kuch toh acting kar!’ Nishikant Kamat directed ROCKY HANDSOME too, has exactly the same kind of after-effect on its viewers. You are left unshaken, unmoved and cold as a rock, again for all the wrong reasons.  

Copied frame to frame from Korean blood-porn THE MAN FROM NOWHERE (2010), ROCKY HANDSOME revolves around a mysterious pawnshop owner [JOHN ABRAHAM] and his unusual bonding with his 7-year old neighbor Nayomi [DIYA CHALWAD]. The tryst of Nayomi’s drug-addict mother [NATHALIA KAUR] with the deadly sharks in the game lands them in an unwanted situation only our mysterious man can get them off from. And then starts a hysterical action adventure having some amazingly choreographed hand-to-hand martial arts combats, knife fights, blood & gore action-sequences and a couple of peppy, foot-tapping, well-shot item numbers! Sounds good? Well, some of it but not entirely. There is always a sense of disbelief floating around throughout the film. It’s like visiting those arty-farty exhibitions where everything looks neat & clean and presentable but you could never make any connections with them as most of it was just an imitation.

I am not sure if the film is an official remake of its Korean original but even then, Kamat known for remaking DRISHYAM in Hindi last year, never actually bothers to use his right side of brain while recreating it. Most of the props used in the film are shamelessly and leisurely gets modeled on the original ones e.g. the noticeable pouch to carry drugs. Kamat’s unimaginative approach is largely overshadowed by stylized action-pieces and a typical cinematography relying always on slow-motion tiger walks in the rain, red-tinted lighting and continuous shots during fights (An impressive one has John running towards a window, jumping on to it, breaking it and making a safe landing on the ground through it…all in one continuous shot). The ear-defying background score is another run-of-the mill tactic Kamat never shows any problem with but I truly wish if the control would have been in viewer’s hands.

ROCKY HANDSOME has a cute looking kid in its major star-cast. Diya is sure a talent to watch out for but the dialogues are so grave and methodical, it doesn’t sync in well with the innocence Diya brings on screen. Kamat himself plays the main villain but could never create any impression with that. Teddy Maurya, despite being a good actor, settles with a regular portrayal of the done-to-death character of a drug-sniffing maniac. Sharad Kelkar owns most of his performance with the right kind of attitude and confidence in him. For John Abraham, read the first para of this article again. There is nothing more to add.

At the end, ROCKY HANDSOME strengthens your believe in ‘the other side of the coin’ theory. For every KAPOOR & SONS and NEERJA, there is always a ROCKY HANDSOME or a JAZBAA. You can call it the balancing-act of Bollywood. Love it, hate it but you can’t ignore its existence. It’s a copy & paste (Ctrl C + Ctrl V) job better left to find a place in your trash bin, soon after watching it if you had already managed to watch! [2/5]   

JAZBAA: Not all Greens are good! [2/5]

The reason behind a remake can be disciplined into more than one intention or culpable justification. Recreating the success story at the box-office now in your favor [HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN…! tops the list] is one. Blessing the original with a new perspective to instate your radical creative expression [DEV D could be the most genre-defining example] is other. Meanwhile, some choose to be unapologetically lazy to create anything at their own. Calculatedly, Sanjay Gupta’s JAZBAA is a lethal combination belonging to each one of the above given grounds but unintentionally it proves to be one of those lame efforts that make the original look a classic while it wasn’t. JAZBAA is nothing but the return of a ‘stuck in his own world’ filmmaker who believes more in styling their actors than in making them dive into the characters they are playing on-screen, to a great deal of depth.

Looking at the vital components in the plot, Korean thriller ‘SEVEN DAYS’ was a perfect film destined to be remade by Sanjay Gupta at any given time. Tainted characters, twisted plot and the dark world of crime to deal with; Gupta has always a ‘green’ eye for such vulnerable subject. Criminal lawyer and a single-parent Anuradha Verma [Mrs Rai Bachchan] never minds taking false cases from evidently guilty clients as only they can afford her services and not the innocent ones. Though we rarely see her best foot being put forward in the court scenes, the tag of being an advocate with 100% success record is forced-feed to us very conveniently. One day, her daughter goes missing and now the abductor wants her to take the case of a rapist and murderer [Chandan Roy Sanyal] and bring him back alive from the death ropes. Anuradha has a ticking bomb in her hands that makes her run, jump and chase to save her daughter. Suspended corrupt cop Yohaan [Irrfan] is the only helping shadow by her side.

Sanjay Gupta with Robin Bhatt doesn’t feel any shame in lifting clues and cues from its original Korean film. While the original has managed to stick on the plot as a plain crime thriller, Gupta does make an effort to make it socially relevant film by raising the burning issue of rapes in India. He makes his characters speak about it. He ends the film with stats and facts about the issue. And this was the only addition apart from the veteran Kamlesh Pandey’s verbal punches but the way Sanjay Gupta deals with it; I think it declines more on the ‘exploitation’ side. Gupta gives you all shiny and well-styled characters that wear sunglasses even at the darkest places on earth, show off their ‘killer’ attitude through the cheesy one-liners that could easily get turned into a cheap ‘Whats App’ picture message and cry out so loud you would start feeling sorry more for your eardrums than her pain. Here, even the most insignificant characters treat you as the punching bag in their drawing room and keep throwing at you heavily philosophical lines about life, death and what not.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in her comeback shows magical sparks in her presence on screen like the way she always has in her. No matter how intense or depressing the scene is, you could never turn aside your eyes from appreciating her flawless beauty. You can count the same a negative in a performance based role like this. Irrfan plays it ultra-cool and takes away all the claps and whistles every time he talks something utter meaningless yet massy lines. Shabana Azmi is as melodramatic as she could be yet her being in the frame itself brings more credence, power and life altogether. Jackie Shroff, Atul Kulkarni, Abhimanyu Singh and Chandan Roy Sanyal are wasted.

In an interesting scene, Irrfan beats a guy when he asks for his right not to be arrested by a suspended cop. Irrfan makes it clear then and there that it is no Hollywood film but a Bollywood one where anything can happen. JAZBAA could have been a good thriller if the melodrama, styling, obsessively done color-correction and uninspiring background sound would have not shadowed the more significant aspect of the filmmaking i.e. honest storytelling. Wait till it premiers on TV and you might enjoy the latest addition in Bollywood’s ‘Khan-brigade’ with all the required swag; Irrfan! [2/5]