So, I watched two Hindi movies this past weekend, after a long time, ‘Gabbar Is Back‘, and ‘Byomkesh Bakshi‘; and even I couldn’t believe myself in saying that only ‘Bakshi…’ was a disappointment.
Major reason for this is that I had very high hopes from ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’, considering the TV series was and still is, one of my favorite.
And, why I was not at all disappointed by ‘Gabbar’ has more to do with the fact that it was as full of s%#t as I was expecting it to be.
See glass is always full.
Today, I will not talk about ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ though. You know just because it will pain me to write down what went wrong. So leaving it behind, let’s talk about Mr. Gabbar.
‘Gabbar Is Back‘, is directed by Krish and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. This is a remake of Tamil film ‘Ramanna’.
Akshay Kumar is Gabbar, who is supported by Shruti Hassan, Sunil Grover, Suman Talwar and gorgeous Kareena in a cameo. Well, all the stars appears to be in a cameo considering every bit and every frame is focused on Akshay. This is so much happening with all the big stars films now that you no longer even remember the names of other stars.
Story? There is no story as such. To sum it up in one line – Gabbar is modern Bhagat Singh with a twist that he prefers to kill others (many others) before sacrificing himself for good of the nation.
He is a crusader on a mission of anti-corruption, and his screen-name (Sorry too much of online gaming…. but you get the point, right?? ) is Gabbar. To clear the air, why he calls himself Gabbar is not even explained logically. So, in reality, he is a college professor who teaches his students to become honest and idealistic nationals.
This is all in all an Akshay Kumar’s film and every frame of it will remind you of his ‘Khiladi’ time action sequences. It is a treat to watch Akshay back in his Khiladi avatar but this is also the problem with this movie. Now, when all the big stars are doing action movies with high-class 3-d action sequences, Gabbar falls short of technology and that Jaw dropping action moment. All that this movie lacked was actually – Rohit Shetty.
A special mention to Chitrangada Singh for rocking ‘Aao raja’. Babe, you look sensual, but you deserve much more than this.
My husband loved it and I hated it but still it was a good time-pass with popcorn. ‘Bakshi Ji’ if you are listening…. don’t make me write about Gabbar.
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I’ll be interested to see your review of Detective Byomkesh Bakshi = while I’ve not done my own review of the film yet, I have seen it – and liked it enough to send away for a book of the Bakshy short stories.
I liked the film and its atmosphere, and was disappointed only by the ending.
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You are bang on. I was so taken aback by its end. Whole story was flowing like soothing music to my ears and suddenly a detective story is turned into patriotism and so much complexity. So many things didn’t made sense, which was crucial for a detective story. But I was quite impressed with Sushant Singh Rajput’s rendition of Byomkesh. 🙂
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Hi! I don’t know if you have seen the old detective show that used to come on Indian Television starring Pankaj Kapur if I remember correctly. I knew who played the heroine but have forgotten her name but her role was called Kitty and when you compare it with Bakshi, because that is the prejudice one is bound to go the movie hall with, I don’t think you will really find Bakshi that interesting.
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That was Karamchand show. I liked it alot but If you have seen there was one tv show based on Byomkesh Bakshi where Rajit Kapoor played the lead role (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byomkesh_Bakshi_%281993_TV_series%29) that one was also one of my Fav. And this movie is nothing compared to these two detective serials.
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Well you have more knowledge about Indian TV than I do, as I have none. I can only recall attending a film showing in the 80’s at The Asia Society in Park Avenue in New York, and the ‘new thing’ in India was the state run TV – which was called doordarshan at the time. Beyond that I know nothing.
So it is understandable that you can bring some background into a discussion of Bakshi that I cannot.
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It doesn’t seem that you have little knowledge of Indian Cinema. 🙂 Basically, cinema has a common language. It’s just that Indian Cinema has more drama and songs embedded in this language. 😛
Indian Cinema has grown so much in this past decade. Movies that are coming today are, from so different genre that no one 10 years back could have believed that such movies can be successful in India. I remember the time when every movie was about a rich/poor boy falling in love with poor/rich girl, sacrificing love for society and finally getting married against all odds in the end. Thats all. every movie with the same story. That was fun. 😛
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It is actually so true how everyone is trying to make a Salman Khan movie as in a movie just about the action, no story, one extremely cheap item number and the good guy doesn’t always do the good things, with other big stars as in this example Akshay Kumar. Now thaw Khiladi has come into the picture just imagine Khiladi 786, another run of the mill. I actually liked Baby. It was really a nice movie with a fantastic plot. But I guess these people never realise the kind of notions they promulgate through these movies. Not that we can do much about it.
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You are bang on 🙂
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