GHAYAL ONCE AGAIN: Where Pain replaces the Punch! [1.5/5]

Nothing hurts more than a second-rate sequel to a classic. I am not being unreasonable here with mediocre script, sloppy direction and forgettable performances; they come and go like seasons in Bollywood but how you can be so careless and recreational while even trying to replicate the magic of one of the most powerful ‘anti-system’ revenge dramas on Indian screens. If I would love to remember Rajkumar Santoshi’s GHAYAL for its sheer intensity in the hovering emotions that could turn a common man into a roaring, raging, rebellious bull, GHAYAL ONCE AGAIN for me is just a poor example of outdated, formulated and shamefully flawed filmmaking.

Ajay Mehra [Sunny Deol] has served his 16 years’ sentence for killing Balwant Rai [Amrish Puri] and now runs Satykaam- a news agency that dares to stand up against injustice of all kinds. Satykaam is more of an organized anti-crime movement with a technically sound work-base buried under ground and hundreds of activated members flaunting their ‘I am a Satykaam’ badges and stickers. Ajay is seen fighting with his reminiscences from the troubled past [in a set of weirdly conceived and poorly executed graphic visuals] until his friend-cum-admirer Joe D’Souza [Om Puri from the original cast] gets murdered. The war is inevitable between a powerful businessman [Narendra Jha] on one side and the man himself with Dhai kilo ka haath and four youngsters [They have captured the crime accidentally] on the other. And the whole city will stand still to watch the grand show.

Sunny Deol gets a deserving applaud for setting his story in a present day. The timeline of the events looks credible. Ajay Mehra has aged, but not in his anger management. The corrupt syndicate between the business world, politics and media is hinted well. One such easygoing news channel has office walls painted with famous Bollywood dialogues. I have no idea who’s on the receiving end. But that’s the only thing positive about the film. Once he decides to build a gripping story around all this, he gradually loses his sense of authenticity to the conveniently bad filmmaking.

Some films are a visual treat; GHAYAL ONCE AGAIN is a visual [graphics] disaster. Imagine Sunny Deol banging his head on the wall with exactly 5 visual windows playing old footage of GHAYAL around his head! The pain is so transmittable, I tell you. The editing jerks could be an additional chapter in any film school syllabus. At one, Sunny is trapped in a traffic jam only to appear in the very next scene controlling a hijacked helicopter. Don’t leave the theatre if it offences your intellect; wait until he rams into a skyscraper abode of the villain. Now, you can.

One of the very few watchable moments has Narendra Jha playing the influential businessman and a father in a catch-22 situation. He is no typical villain who loves to share every move with his family. He hides his drink when his little daughter shows up. He gets worried as a parent when his drug-addicted son commits murder. He is no Amrish Puri to Gulshan Grover or Dan Dhanoa. Jha proves his fitness for the part but the writing is so one-dimensional, you only have sympathies for him. Sunny Deol directs himself and makes sure he sets the screen on fire especially with the action sequences. Watching him entering into a frame running towards camera in slow-motion is the only part I can relate to the Sunny Deol of GHAYAL. For the rest, he doesn’t bring anything electrifying or amply satisfying. In fact, the scenes showing his emotional outbursts are amusingly testing.

Overall, GHAYAL ONCE AGAIN lacks the punch. The same punch that GHAYAL still manages to knock its viewers out even after 26 years in a row. The man had his own share of stardom with the film. The film deserved a better tribute from the man. [1.5/5]

AIRLIFT: Feelings in. Fake Jingoism out. [4/5]

It’s August, 1990. Kuwait is hit by Iraq’s invasion helmed by Saddam Hussein. More than 1,70,000 Indians are stuck in the war-zone with no hope left to see their motherland again. Even India as their country merely has any clue or clarity on how to evacuate them all from the Iraqi-invaded Kuwait city. And then rises a Hero!

To disappoint the classic star-driven, formula-forced, clap-causing Bollywood, he is not some Sunny Deol roaring his guts out to intimidate enemies in their own den or just another muscular giant showing-off his well-marketed humanity label to set things right. In fact, Raja Krishna Menon doesn’t even consider it to go explore that territory. AIRLIFT gets lifted up in that very moment. The merit also lies in casting Akshay Kumar who deliberately decides to underplay his unapologetically self-interested image for a while and gives us a character that’s more human than just feeding off someone’s unchallenging starry ego. He’s not new to the flavor though. BABY and SPECIAL 26 have done quite well for him in the past. AIRLIFT is a greater addition to the list.

Ranjit Katyal [Akshay Kumar] is a downright capitalist of Indian-origin all the rage in Kuwait’s political circle. He doesn’t leave a chance to proclaim himself a ‘Kuwaiti’ until Iraq’s unfortunate invasion shatters his power, position and well-established prospects in Kuwait. Before he could sense it, he’s caught in a situation with as much as 1,70,000 more Indians. First to rescue his family, then his people and finally to his countrymen; Ranjit goes every extra mile beyond his caliber, control and concern. AIRLIFT in that sense, is more of a human story than a patriotic political thriller. The patriotism portrayed here is never too pushy, preached or purposefully painted. No matter how millionth of times you have seen a tricolor being hoisted up from soil to sky, you’re tend to feel the ‘get-up-and-go’ force within you but Raja Menon gives it all a reason, more unadulterated and uncontaminated.

The writing makes sure you sink your teeth into the uncontrolled situation of a ticking time bomb in as real atmospheric manner as it could be. Leave a ‘chot lagti hai toh maa hi yaad aati hai’ expression alone, and you will never find an over the top jingoistic dialogues in your way. It is a relief, trust me. Even so, AIRLIFT does bother you more than a couple of times when it falls in its own trap. Inaamulhaq, an accepted capable actor plays an Iraqi Major with a strained accent that can get in your head like most of the caricature-ish villains have succeeded with in past. It is as misfit as Akshay Kumar playing a ‘Bollywood’ hero in a song where he could play any musical instrument he just picked up and sings exactly in the same voice a professional singer has been performing in at the very start. Nimrat Kaur playing Akshay’s not-so-selfless wife takes the stage for an opponent-beating monologue and though it may have been intentional, I wish she had been more ‘less’ into it.

AIRLIFT also carries the first worthy nomination for the year’s best supporting/surprising/underrated performances in Purab Kohli. He’s unbelievably good and the orchestrator in one of the scenes that leaves you with moist eyes and a lump in the throat. Kumud Mishra’s as the sensitive, sympathetic and supportive Indian government official is a spotless performance. Prakash Belawadi as a nagging and way too alert citizen does have some funnily irksome dialogues but I fear, the shoes he’s in are an old pair. Ajay Kumar marks his presence as Akshay’s subordinate.

At the end, AIRLIFT is a nice, well-intended break from loud and fake jingoism in Hindi cinema. It works well as a fine thriller and as a human drama too. Watch out for Akshay’s growing proficiency in playing characters that have less to speak but lots to converse! A story is told in a way it should be. Well, mostly. Do not miss it! [4/5]       

SINGH SAAB THE GREAT: Loud, melodramatic, outdated action potboiler! SINGHAM saab the great!! [2/5]

With a catchy phrase of ‘‘badla nahin badlaav’, this SINGH SAAB THE GREAT fights against corruption & more but in his own way. He saves a girl from an obsessive lover-turned-acid attacker and pours the bottle in his pants, only to realize later that it was cleanly swapped with absolutely harmless nontoxic water. In others, he hits back to ill-practices of hefty donations for higher education, crime-syndicates indulged into food adulteration & illegal storage, the in-vein bribery in bureaucratic system etc.

At one stage, he also doesn’t forget to comment on TRP-driven media with ‘aap journalist hain…thodi toh samajhdaari dikhayiye’. Sounds good?? Yes, sounds good but loud too…in fact, extremely loud! & that’s the problem with SINGH SAAB THE GREAT! Everything that happens, happens with a noisy-ear deafening sound beyond the range of decibels set for normal human hearing.

Anil Sharma’s SINGH SAAB THE GREAT is a loud, melodramatic, over-aged action potboiler that is best enjoyable at single screen theatres where claps set the mood for anything outrageous and compensate for the most of inconsequential parts. A supposedly comeback vehicle of the real action star Sunny Deol, film seems to be going forward with a noble cause of social reformation as its structural content base but fails to built an inspiring legend out of it to meet its desired end. A mediocre script filled with run of the mill plot-subplots & superfluous emotional sequences including hero’s women affiliations i.e. lovely wife, bubbly sister!

Story written by GADAR fame Shaktimaan smells rotten & out-dated where an honest district collector Saranjeet Singh [played by Sunny Deol] sweats his blood out to stop corruption personified by a local dominant king of all illegal actions Bhoodev Singh [played by Prakash Raj in his regular avatar as if coming straight from the sets of Singham & Dabangg 2]. In one scene, when the villainous Prakash Raj tries to twist Deol’s character Saranjeet Singh’s arm by kidnapping his sister, Saranjeet Singh hits back with taking Prakash Raj’s wife & daughter into his custody. Now, isn’t it something we all have thought as an escape-plan to our emotional to the core Bollywood heroes? But surprisingly it’s one of the few exciting moments in the film that brings an effortless smile on your face.

On the performances, Sunny looks every part of his character. He succeeds in charming you with his personality and the honesty dripping off his face. Prakash Raj, when not chewing off his lips, sure entertains you in bits & pieces especially in an item song where he dances with his left feet following ‘dance like no one is watching’ attitude. You have to see it to believe it [Considering his real life better-half Pony Verma being an established choreographer]. New face Urvashi Rautela is mostly there as a regular heroine material with her plastic smile best for advertising the new toothpaste in your nearest supermarket. Amrita Rao is inconsistent but looks quite impressive. You also need to have some kind of magical powers to deal with unbearably annoying sidekicks of both on screen & that includes actors like Johnny Lever, Manoj Pahwa.

I wish if it would have been released soon after GADAR, it would have become an instant crowdpuller but as of now when everyone looks so done with SINGHAM era, it is just another of the league! You can even re-coined its name as ‘SINGHAM SAAB THE GREAT’! Watch if Sunny’s Roar can evoke electrifying energy in you! For me, it’s just OK! [2/5]