Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap – Review

Folklore has it that wherever the Big B stands, the queue begins. It’s time to queue up for a film that reads like a running commentary on the Bachchan legend. Blessed are the generations that get to see India’s most iconic and enduring screen-hero play a variation on all his most cherished roles.

And then some more. To the angry Vijay persona that the Big B created through those brilliantly-written films of Salim-Javed in the 1970 and 80s, the actor still sprightly enough to make all the bachcha-log of Bollywood look like performing midgets, adds dollops of wry cynicism that goes well with our times.

Make no mistake Telugu cinema’s most successful director Puri Jagannath is not just a Bachchan fan. He’s also a master storyteller. To the mix ‘n’ match tale of an Angry Young Man’s journey into his advancing years of unrelenting lividness and self-mockery, Puri brings a crackling contemporary commitment to telling a story that has no room for humbug…only space for hectic hijinks.

Written with supersonic dexterity, the screenplay races through numbered days in the life of a Paris-returned gangster who is called back to Mumbai by a gangster with a serious concentration problem (Prakash Raj) to finish off a particularly troublesome cop(Sonu Sood).

It’s a skilfully written yarn that doesn’t stray into the yawn zone for even a second. Every character, even the relatively minor ones like the Bachchan’s landlady who keeps jabbering to an unseen husband in Dubai, adds a sheen of zing to the shindig. Though the narration seems to leap before it looks, the director actually manages to create a controlled atmosphere of plot development within the chaos of Mumbai’s streets clogged with scampering gangsters, cops and their minions.

Jagannath Puri displays a fabulous flair for the funny and the ferocious. The comic scenes contour the mega-star’s proclivity to laugh at himself and the self-important world around him comprising gangsters, collegians, cops and other on-the-move urbanites. Vishal-Shekhar’s austerely-used music creates evolved rhythms for the Bachchan persona. You can’t miss the insistent beat.

As for the action, the camera (Amol Rathod) moves to the rhythm of the Big B’s super-controlled body language creating for the assorted villains a kind of disembodied dynamism that we see in a far cruder avatar in the South, in the cinema of Rajnikanth.

Here, it is the Big B at work. And boy, that does mean something, doesn’t it! The iconic super-hero maneouvres through his tailormade role with a devastating dexterity, creating a celluloid combustion that leaves a trail of smoking guns, screaming tyres and satiated expectations that audiences felt and experienced in the heydays of the Bachchan Raj.

The reign never ends…thank God for small mercies! “Buddah…Hoga Tera Baap” offers a pleasurable romp into the star-power of the Big B. The rapport that his character builds up through some lovely actresses of several generations (Hema Malini, Raveena Tandon, Sonal Chauhan, Charmee) is so bloody robust and funny, you are left wondering how much of the sly subtle foxy flirtatiousness comes from the star and how much of it was there in the screenplay.

Undoubtedly well-written and directed with sure-handedness that cannot hide Puri Jagannath’s boundless admiration for the Bachchan phenomenon, “Bbuddah…Hoga Tera Baap” is one of those garam-masala products that’s far clever than the outward flamboyance of the main character and execution suggest.

Cut through the blizzard of bravura that the Big B projects so insouciantly and at heart this is an emotional father-son story. See how cleverly the director moves from a kind of italicized derringdo to a clamped emotional finale…. See how skilfully the other actors support the Big B’s towering presence. Prakash Raj as the arch-villain brings a sense of madness to the proceedings while Makarand Deshpande as a quiet gangster is a glorious foil to the Big B’s repartees and rejoinders. Sonu Sood as the cop who keeps running into the old-young super-hero manages to hold his own in front of the Big B. And Raveena as the Big B’s besotted bombshell beloved from the past has herself a blast.

So do we. Right to the last frenetic shootout, we are with the director laughing cheering and saluting the star-power of this super-phenomenon named Amitabh Bachchan.

And when the Big B does a medley of all his old songs it’s time to forget that the Bbuddah has just become a grand-baap all over again. Just get up and dance to the rhythm of the Big B’s star power. Don’t waste time watching the smut. “Bbuddah…Hoga Tera Baap” is the past present and future of mainstream entertainment.

Sanjay Dutt and Vivek Oberoi come face to face

Sanjay and Vivek Oberoi will have a face off in their next, Zilla Ghaziabad. Just like their last film together, Shootout At Lokhandwala even this one has been based on a real story wherein Vivek plays a gangster and Sanjay a cop.

A unit member says, “Both Sanju and Vivek are playing powerful larger than life characters and have quite a few confrontation scenes.” Since there is chin-to-chin fighting, we wonder it will remind them of their earlier personal equation. 

Zarine Khan actually took one of her fans for a bike ride, recently. The young guy, who is a huge fan of the Veer actress, expressed a desire to get a ride on her bicycle and to his pleasant surprise Zarine agreed to do so. The fan’s grin was way longer than the ride he was taken on.

Clash of Titans!

Two Bollywood stalwarts like Big B and Aamir Khan rarely clash at the box office. Amitabh Bachchan’s Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap and Aamir Khan’s Delhi Belly are all set to release this Friday. Both are drastically different films, but interestingly have similar marketing and publicity techniques.

Both have cashed on the burning topic ‘the age limit for drinking in Maharshtra’. While Big B tweeted about it incessantly, Imran Khan announced his plans of filing a Public Interest Litigation. Both have relied on the strategy of abuse or not to abuse. While DB has ‘in-your-face’ songs with abundant use of double meaning words and expletives, AB’s Bbuddah has beeped the abuses. Also, both Aamir and Big B have turned item boys for their respective films. With so much efforts being put in by both parties, it would be fun to see who wins this BO race on July 1.

'Heroine' Ash out, what's next for Bhandarkar?

 

After a grand first look release at 64th Cannes Film Festival, Madhur Bhandarkar’s self proclaimed magnum opus – Heroine – has been stalled due to Aishwarys Rai Bachchan’s pregnancy.

The announcement from the first family of Bollywood came through a tweet from the Big B and Bhandarkar was reportedly in jitters. After apparently spending four crores on the project already, the director now must either stall shooting till Rai is fit enough to return to the sets or choose another heroine and start from scratch.

According to media reports, UTV has said in a press release that the shooting has been stopped for the script requires the female protagonist to smoke, be under the waterfall and run and it is vital for Rai to be in good health now. The grueling demands of the movie that was supposed to wrap up by the 30th of July does not seem to be making any allowances for the pregnant star. The house has declared that she is no longer a part of the movie.

There have been loads of speculations about who may replace her, with the rumor scales dipping towards Priyanka Chopra, who has worked with Bhandarkar in ‘Fashion’. She was apparently rather keen to be a part of the project and the word goes that she approached the director for the role. Priyanka has however put the gossip to rest by tweeting that she would love to work with Bhandarkar again- but this is not it. She wished the star and the film all the best and the matter was laid to rest.

The movie is about the life of a once successful actress called Mahi Khanna and is loosely based on the life of divas such as Marilyn Monroe and Madhubala.

The movie has been controversy plagued from the start when apparently Kareena Kapoor was approached for the role and she turned it down some parts of the script had uncanny resemblances to her own life. And reports also say that Kareena was not comfortable sharing romantic screen space with five separate men.

The casting for the young male lead, besides Arjun Rampal, was also a matter of huge speculation and gossip till Arunoday Singh, of ‘Yeh Saali Zindaagi’ fame, bagged the role.

Media reports claim that Bhandarkar is rather depressed for having to stall the progress of a film that was already 50 per cent done. And he apparently has not congratulated Rai for the good news. Rai on the other hand is supposedly rather upset with Bhandarkar’s single-minded obsession with the movie and the schedule.

Rai is scheduled to deliver in November and she has given the project time till the 30th of July. If dates are to be calculated, Aishwarya must have been well aware of her pregnancy and should have informed the director about it well ahead critical time. With one month to go for the shooting to finish – the announcement seems rather harsh for the production house.

Even if she manages to wrap up the scenes, she will be unavailable for the post-production. It is believed that the scene that requires her to run has already been shot and she can rather easily complete the rest.

The director obviously thinks otherwise. While Rai is supposed to take a sabbatical from Bollywood post the shooting, Bhandarkar is worried about her look in the movie.

Bhandarkar is known for National Award winning films like ‘Traffic Signal’, ‘Fashion’, ‘Chandni Bar’ and ‘Page 3’. He is a critically acclaimed director and every movie of his rides on exceedingly high expectations and ‘Heroine’ – which looks critically in to the massiv world of glitz, glam and money – was no different. Besides the reported four crore sum, much more was pegged on the movie.

Though as one knows, Labor Laws do not allow an employer to fire an employee on the grounds of pregnancy. However in this case, the weight lies heavy on Bhandarkar who will potentially face severe losses. Perhaps it is time for a ‘pregnancy clause’ in Bollywood agreements.