The Return of a Prince - R…Rajkumar

The Return of a Prince - R…Rajkumar

Vinitha Kattungal

With a string of flops behind him, Shahid Kapoor has finally shed his ‘chocolate hero image’ for an ‘archetypal action hero’ - stoic, rugged, unshaven and muscular. In R…Rajkumar he is paired with the current lady luck of Bollywood, Sonakshi Sinha. The film is directed by the Prabhu Deva, the most commercially successful filmmaker in Bollywood at present.

R…Rajkumar is a typical Prabhu Deva movie, with plenty of action, great dance moves and some witty dialogues. The hero beats all the rogues to win back his lady love.  With effortless chemistry between Shahid and Sonakshi, and the one thing the duo has in common - their love for dance.

Prabhu Deva movies are incomplete without an item number. But this time, there is a double treat for his fans in the forms of ‘Gandi Baat’ featuring Charmee and ‘Kaddu Kataga’ with villain ‘Sonu Sood’, in store. Hopeful that the new pair can work some magic with Prabhu Deva.

Just in

Review: The initial reports of the movie have come in and there is nothing different on offer. The directors who proclaim themselves to be ‘masala’ directors are going to the cheaper and gandi end of the spectrum. The story line is inspired from the masala movies of yesteryears, with a villain who lusts over the heroine and a hero who weighs in to save her. If you are the kind of person who does not mind being given predictable storylines, clichéd dialogues, tried and tested music beats and your only interest is in taking time off your hectic work, then maybe you should check out the movie.

S for Sundeep

S for Sundeep

M K Sinu

When Sundeep Kishan worked as an assistant director with Gautham Menon, before making his on screen debut with Sneha Geetham, little did he know that he had to prove himself each time before the audience accepted him as an actor. Having said that his ambitions and aspirations has always been towering the moon. 

With unconventional and scrawny looks, many would have cast him aside after his first film, but critics saw great potential in him. Prasthanam, his next film, directed by Deva Katta, propelled him into the league of actors. For Sundeep, investing in that kind of a story with texture got him noticed. Albeit the movie found few takers.

Raj Nidimoru & Krishna D.K took notice of Sundeep’s acting prowess and cast him as ‘Savan’ in the Hindi movie Shor in the City, a portrayal that is unmistakably a strong one, and as an actor, he went sky-bound like a butterfly.

Nothing venture, nothing gain. So then Sundeep ventured and how? Reaping the fruits of his hard work was with the movie Routine Love Story, a reasonably successful film in the rom-com genre. A good-natured and thoughtfully constructed film. After which Sundeep did Gundello Godari, here again an earnest performance by him. The film premise was against the backdrop of devastating flash floods of 1986 set in a hamlet on the coast of river Godavari.       

With the success of Venkatadiri Express Sundeep Kishan has finally arrived. You cannot classify him as an A lister in the Tollywood bandwagon nor park him anywhere below. If only a director can now serve us a masala movie straight up with him as hero. There he is.  

Cashing in on Nostalgia: Padmarajan and ‘The New Generation’

Cashing in on Nostalgia: Padmarajan and ‘The New Generation’

Nandini Raja

The late P. Padmarajan is undoubtedly the most celebrated writer-director in Malayalam film Industry. Even though most of the Padmarajan’s movies were not huge commercial successes, he has a huge fan following, especially among old and new filmmakers alike. It is interesting to note that some of ‘the new generation’ film makers have created blockbusters celebrating his films, dialogues and characters. Many aspects of these films are inspired from movies like ‘Thoovanathumbikal’ and ‘Namukku Paarkkan Munthirithoppukal’, which have already become clichéd. So the question arises, can ‘creative freedom’ or ‘tribute to legend’ always be cited as the reason behind such clichéd representations? Or are these filmmakers capitalising on the ‘legendary’ status of Padmarajan to sell their own ware?

How a member of the audience interprets or gets affected by a film is very personal and subjective. In that sense we cannot really say that somebody has ‘misread’ a work of art. But when one looks at the way some of the film makers have understood and represented a film and its premise, it comes across as very conservative. In such contexts we feel cheated and we say that the film maker has ‘misread’ the character. Because Padmarajan’s body of work as a film maker is a study in cinema itself.

One glaring example of that misuse is the bringing back of Thangal, the character played by Babu Namboothiri, which was a bold attempt by Padmarajan. Padmarajan’s portrayal of Thangal, a person who supplies prostitutes, is so poignant that it could open a new way of making sense of the character. Even though we are not given much details about Thangal, we are made to believe that he has heart wrenching backstory and he is not the usual pimp that is portrayed in mainstream Malayalam movies. But, Thangal reappeared in a recent film as a mere pimp, somebody who does not have the emotional depth that was visible in ‘Thoovanathumbikal’. Few old dialogues and similar background music is not enough to re-create the character, even if you call it ‘tribute’. To add, what does these so called progressive films try to say – idea of One Woman Man? They conveniently forget Jayakrishnan (Mohanlal) was in love with both Clara (Sumalatha) and Radha (Parvathy) in ‘Thoovanathumbikal’.

Any Malayalam film lover would cherish the experience of watching ‘Thoovanathumbikal’. Many interpretation of the movie has put ‘rain’ as an important character in the movie. Mohanlal, the lead actor of the movie, has mentioned about the same in his memoir of Padmarajan - "Rithumarmarangal". But does the portrayal of the heroine, drenched in rain and sexy, with the famous theme music of the movie playing in background, make the concept of love at first sight "Beautiful"?

Considering this case, one has to say that certain films and characters should be left alone. Remaking or re-creating them spoils the beauty. Because the context in which those films were made cannot be recreated.  Getting influenced/inspired, from genius is not similar to re-creating what they did. Recreating Padmarajan is close to impossible – or almost.