Salman Khan Was The Original Baaghi

This post was first published on Filmcompaion portal: Salman Khan Was The Original Baaghi (filmcompanion.in)

Much before Tiger Shroff played a Baaghi in 2016, and even before Sanjay Dutt played the Baaghi in 2000, Salman Khan was the original Baaghi way back in 1990. It was the initial years of his career, and the idea germinated from him. The movie was about a wayward son, who gains purpose after falling in love, and how he rebels for a cause.

Salman had just started out, and was full of energy. Even his choice of movies, be it Patthar ke Phool or Love, Saajan or Suryavanshi, was character-driven and focussed on the story and script. It was never about him, it was about telling a different story each time.

In such an endeavour, Baaghi was like breath of fresh air. Here was Saajan Sood, not burdened by his father’s business legacy or grief-stricken childhood or someone who had to sell his soul in exchange for something; none of that drama. On the contrary, his father, Colonel Sood, played by Kiran Kumar, isn’t happy that his capable son isn’t joining the army and is totally undisciplined with no goal to chase. Meanwhile, Saajan has a chance meeting with Kaajal, played by Nagma in her debut feature. It’s love at first sight for him and his eyes keep searching for her.

But the second time he meets her, it’s in a shady brothel. Never had he imagined that the sweet innocent girl would turn out to be victim of a body-scavenging racket and forced into prostitution. And this is where he turns a rebel. The unassuming nature of Saajan, his shy smile and iron fist, made for an interesting watch. It was like Salman was preparing to play Radhe and Tiger, from back then. In the movie, it didn’t look like Saajan had a chance against Dhanraj and Jaggu, played by Shakti Kapoor and Mohnish Bahl, respectively. His angry young man look also came as a surprise to his female fans, who had only seen him as a chocolate boy in Maine Pyar Kiya, which had been released the previous year.

In fact, at some level, Baaghi paved the way for Mahesh Bhatt’s Sadak, which is on similar lines. Sanjay Dutt, with his fitness and build, took it a notch further. But in the romance quotient, Baaghi trumps Sadak. Salman did not have the ripping muscles, it was not a requirement back then. But he had enough power in his eyes and the noble intention was felt through his body language. Playing a virtuous lover, modest in his manners, and a complete greenhorn, to transforming into a baaghi with all grit and determination was made believable because of good direction by Deepak Shivdasani. The way Saajan takes on the world, without any style, but deft inner strength and with the help of his friends was a departure from the past where heroes would go all alone in their mission.

Salman was choosy about his roles and he took risks early on in his career. There was no genre that he stuck to. Also, his natural boyish charm stayed and stuck on for so long that he still cashes in on it. What he added to his repertoire was the six-pack and the shirtless look. After that, he has never had to look back. But it all started here, with Baaghi, his first action hero role.

 

Radhe (2021): Old Wine in an Even Older Bottle

Review first published in portal MadAboutMoviez: Radhe

Some stars have made careers out of making “masala” entertainers, like Rajnikanth, Mithun, Akshay to some extent; and audiences don’t really care for reviews or others opinions on their movies, since they want to watch unadulterated entertainment. Our most wanted bhai’s movie, also falls in this category.

Of course, in last 5 years, Salman has given us some very watchable movies like Sultan, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Bharat, Tiger Zinda Hai etc; but these are few and far in-between. Rest of the other movies like Kick, Race3, Dabanng series are just money making ventures, and everyone involved knows it.

Coming to Radhe, this movie works more as a sequel to 2009 movie “Wanted”, where Salman played the cop Rajveer, who goes undercover as Radhe. In this movie, he is known to be a no-nonsense cop with 97 encounters to his credit. And he seems to be the only cop who can cleanup Mumbai.

So, we are back in the 1990s and 2000s when drug business was notoriously handled by cartels. In movies like Sarkar, it was shown, how an outsider comes with the idea of dealing in drug while the crime syndicate had limited themselves to kidnap, extortion, and hafta-vasooli. Similarly, Rana makes his entry in a new city to start drug distribution. They don’t show the source of the drugs, from where its coming, and how the cash is being handled, because they don’t want the innocent audience to worry about the business model.  Just take it that, drugs are being used heavily by teenagers. How they are lured into, also goes unanswered. So, we should assume that it’s like Lay’s chips and no one can eat just one.

Rana is ruthless in his approach, has no business ethics, no morality, and definitely no life. He works day and night from dingy locations, so he has no taste for finer experiences of life too. His only aim is to expand his business, but for no apparent reason. No one knows what the big hurry is. If he is suffering from chronic disease that needs cure or some other ailment. That’s a secret, and even the writers had no clue.

So, enter Radhe into the frame, who is exact opposite of Rana. He has a life, is flirtatious, aspiring model, and employed with police department. He has a chance meeting with Diya whom he befriends, unknowingly his boss, ACP Avinash’s younger sister. ACP Avinash is in all his elements as he manages to bring out the inner Johnny Lever in him. A bumbling senior who doesn’t command the respect of his officers, but is bereft of this critical piece of info, since the director hid it from him. So, poor chap puts in a lot of effort, not knowing that in a Salman movie, it will go unnoticed.

Anyways, after few flirtatious sessions, Radhe & Diya are all set to tell the three magical words: Lights, Camera, Action! That’s the clarion call for the climax when all hell breaks loose, and Radhe chases down Rana for the final showdown as he begins the Swachh Bharat movement.

Jackie Shroff as ACP Avinash has the most amount of fun, without sharing any responsibility. He just ambles his way in and out, without any commitment; and that’s how serious his role is. Disha Patani as Diya is like a Russian doll who does exactly what she is meant to do, be decorative, sweet looking, naïve and a bit frivolous. She plays her part well, coming from that small cameo she had in Bharat, she gets to do a little bit more than that in Radhe.

Salman as Radhe is phenomenal, as he sings, dances with Jacqueline in an item number, advices his colleagues about duty, beats up the goons, romances Diya, and becomes hero of the common man. For an actor to carry the movie on his ageing shoulder is no mean feat. But he is ably supported by Randeep Hooda who moonwalks through the show. His raw action sequences, straight out of the 2017 Korean movie “The Outlaws” from which this movie was remade, is gritty. Hooda’s gait and style, his hairdo and the long overcoat, just adds to that invincible feeling of the character Rana, he is playing.

Another thing going for the movie is its length, which is at a merciful 105 minutes only. Its not stretched out needlessly, which means, the director Prabhudeva and his team have made a concerted effort to end the movie before the audience wears out. After all, too much of bhai can be injurious to mental health.

Its old wine, in even older bottle, but the label is brand new. Chalo, whatever is there, is just entertainment. SEETIMAAR !!!

 

Dabboo Ratnani’s Calendar For 2011

 

 

jab harry met sally

.. ek ladka-ladki kabhi dost nahi hote… said Jeevan to Prem in
Maine Pyar Kiya. It was the year 1989 when MPK had released. I wished
to watch the movie in a cinema hall, but alas! I had no one to go
with. Anyhow, I finally got to see the movie on VCR some 3-4 months
later. There was very little action in the movie, one of them was
Salman Khan [Prem] doing a do-do haath with Mohnish Behl [Jeevan] .
Before Prem and Jeevan jumped into the duel, they had a small war of
words. Jeevan was spewing venom with his incisive words while
insinuating that something was definitely on between Prem and Suman
[Bhagyashree] and he uttered the historic dialogue: ek ladka-ladki
kabhi dost nahi hote.

Innocent that I was, I did not get the meaning of it back then. I
assumed that since they were eventually going to fall in love, where
was the need for being friends and even if they were friends why did
Prem feel so hurt. Anyways, I saw the movie quite a few times and was
thoroughly entertained everytime.

In the mid 90’s cable-tv was a rage and even we got it installed.
Movies were beaming 24×7 and on one such day I caught the movie ‘When
Harry Met Sally’ on Star Movies. Just 10 minutes into the movie and
Billy Crystal spoke those ominous words:You realize of course that we
could never be friends.

I went into a tizzy, what was Harry saying! Was he out of his mind.
Harry went onto explain:

Harry: You realize of course that we could never be friends.

Sally: Why not?

Harry: What I’m saying is — and this is not a come-on in any way,
shape or form — is that men and women can’t be friends because the sex
part always gets in the way.

Sally: That’s not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no
sex involved.

Harry: No you don’t.

Sally: Yes I do.

Harry: No you don’t.

Sally: Yes I do.

Harry: You only think you do.

Sally: You say I’m having sex with these men without my knowledge?

Harry: No, what I’m saying is they all want to have sex with you.

Sally: They do not.

Harry: Do too.

Sally: They do not.

Harry: Do too.

Sally: How do you know?

Harry: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds
attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.

Sally: So you’re saying that a man can be friends with a woman he
finds unattractive?

Harry: No, you pretty much want to nail ‘em too.

Sally: What if they don’t want to have sex with you?

Harry: Doesn’t matter because the sex thing is already out there so
the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.

Sally: Well, I guess we’re not going to be friends then.

And then it all came back to me. I understood why Prem and Suman could
not be friends. And I understood what Jeevan had implied.

I did a bit of research about the release of these two movies and much
to my surprise I found that both the movies released in 1989. While
WHMS had released in July, MPK had released in December. But howcome
two people in two different parts of the globe struck the same
concept. I am still perplexed how this happened, similar thought
pattern running in two different minds from two different cultures. Of
course, the Indian version was more subtle and needed some
deciphering.

Later on in the movie, after another 10 minutes of the previous
sequence Harry makes an ammendment to his earlier proposition. The
conversation between them goes like this:

Harry: Staying over?

Sally: Yes.

Harry: Would you like to have dinner?

Harry: Just friends.

Sally: I thought you didn’t believe men and women could be friends.

Harry: When did I say that?

Sally: On the ride to New York.

Harry: No no no no, I never said that. Yes, that’s right, they can’t
be friends. Unless both of them are involved with other people then
they can. This is an amendment to the earlier rule, if the two
people are in relationships, the pressure of possibilty of involvement
is lifted. That doesn’t work either because what happens then is the
person you’re involved with can’t understand why you need to be
friends with the person you’re just friends with. Like it means
something is missing from their relationship and “why do you have to
go outside to get it?”. Then when you say, “no no no no, it’s not
true nothing’s missing from the relationship”, the person you’re
involved with then accuses you of being secretly attracted to the
person you’re just friends with, which we probably are, I mean, come
on, who the hell are we kidding, let’s face it, which brings us back
to the earlier rule before the amendment which is men and
women can’t be friends, so where does that leave us?

Sally: Harry.

Harry: What?

Sally: Goodbye.

Harry: Oh, OK.

The thought that trigerred off this post was a sequence in the movie
‘Rab Ne…’ where we had a drunk Raj/Suri rambling to himself after
Bobby had passed-out, he said ‘ladka-ladki kabhi dost nahi hote’;
implying that sooner or later Taani would fall in love with Raj. And
so, the legend of Harry-Sally lives on.

This post was first published on PFC

 

all khans’ under fire

In a strange turn of events, all 4 Khans’ of bollywood have come under fire from different quarters. While Shiv Sena took on 2 khans’, Aamir and Shahrukh over the IPL issue, the other two were lambasted by different communities of Rajasthan for their irresponsible behavior.

Shiv Sena, in their mouthpiece ‘Saamna’, is outraged by SRK and Aamir statements over IPL. While Aamir bore the brunt because all he said was that merit should have taken precedence over nationality while selecting players for IPL, SRK went overboard in sympathising with Pakistan and said that he felt “humiliated” that no talent from Pak was picked. SRK made ridiculous excuses that he couldn’t attend the auction of players. What an excuse! He is the brand ambassador of Nokia and Airtel, all he needed was to be in touch with his represntatives, but he chose not to. And now that his movie ‘My Name Is Khan’ is ready for release, he wants to win back his fans in Pak and Dubai. He is only serving his self-interest, as he is the co-producer of the movie and he wants to protect his fan-base in middle-east. That also serves the purpose of him dancing in lavish Dubai weddings. SRK’s stand was purely a business-minded decision, and not an emotional one. The irony is that, these very people are gonna circulate the pirated cd/dvd of his movie. SRK was calling for trouble, when he went out of his way in support to Pak. Shiv Sena has called him a ‘traitor’ and torn down posters of his movie. I am sure they will cause problems during release of the movie too.

Now, coming to Saif Ali Khan, his involvement on ‘black buck’ hunting case has caused some discontent among sections of Rajasthanis who felt that he should not have been awarded the Padma Shri. Since he has not been proven innocent in the case yet, and he isn’t the most deserving candidate for the award, his effigy was burnt.

Lastly, theatre screens acorss cities in Rajasthan were ransacked duty to wrong portrayal of the ‘rajputana’ clan in the movie ‘Veer’. Hence, the mischief mongers smashed glass windows and tore down posters of Salman Khan.

 

London Dreams : Khuli Ankh Ka Sapna

The dope is that the premise of the movie is based on Abhimaan, except that instead of a couple we have two friends. Ajay and Sallu are both friends in different parts of the world. While Ajay, just as BigB, is popular in London as a singer of a band, Sallu plays at weddings in his hometown. But Sallu, just as Jaya Bachchan, was much more talented than Ajay.

And Ajay makes the mistake of inviting Salman to join his band. What happens next? Salman is an instant hit and a crowd puller; and nobody wants Ajay anymore. Ajay is consumed by this jealousy and big ego hurdle. He plans a vice to cut down Salman’s grwoing stature. He pushes Salman into hedonistic liefstyle with booze and babes, just before a crucial concert.

While the troop movies from Paris to Amsterdam and other places, Salman slides further into this couldron of sleaze. Will he recover? Even if he does, will Ajay realise his follies? Will Salman forgive Ajay and will their friendship hold them together?

That’s what the movie is about. Oh! I missed out on Asin. She is the lead dancer of the band. Ajay loves her, but she falls for the rural innocence of Salman Khan. That adds to Ajay’s woes, first Sallu steals his limelight and then his ladlylove. So, who finally wins over Asin!

 

nice songs from recent music releases

I have not had the time to write about the recent music albums, just so tied up with work. But I did find enough time to listen to the songs of Blue, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Aladin, Tum Mile and Main Aur Mrs Khanna. I tried listening to Jail and All The Best, but just couldn’t finish with them. They were so darn boring.
Anyways, my favourite song these days are Chiggy Wiggy and Yaar Mila Tha from Blue. There is something weird about the Chiggy Wiggy number, I just can’t stop listening to it. It has a great start, fantastic vocals by Kylie Minogue and a superb bhangra twist by Sonu Nigam. The rhythm is just right to set your mood, fine stuff. Rahman sounds truly international with the opening 2 mins of the song and then does a bhangra fusion. The lyrics are dumb, but I can do with that as long as I enjoy the music. Whats with this:

Khaatoon ki khidmat mei khiladi ki hai khwahish … eeks!

Yaar Mila Tha is another modern fusion of rural/folksy sounding lyrics orchaestrated to genX music, much like Gendaphool in Delhi-6. The lyrics sound a bit chauvanistic, but I am sure they have been tagged to a pre-created rhythm. And the background chorus makes this song really work, infuse energy into this rustic number while Udit Narayan and Madhusree do total justice to the song.

Two other good songs in album were Rehnuma and Fiqraana. I am unable to follow the lyrics of Fiqraana, too damn difficult. But I love listening to it. Shreya Ghoshal sounds really sweet.

Moving onto APKGK. It has a racy start with Main Tera Dhadkan Teri …. Ab Bacha Kya sung by KK. This is the most catchy of the 14 songs in the album. I don’t really like the beginning piece by Hard Kaur, that actually works against the song, but the moment KK’s vocals get into the musical notes, a new life is infused to this song. 5 of the 14 tracks are remixes, total waste.

Kaise Batayen song is so jaded, sounds like a bhajan. And then Atif Aslam gets into action, Pritam’s favourite. The song is just about tolerable. Another Pritam favourite Neeraj Sridhar croons Prem Ki Naiyya and sings about it being Ram Ke Bharose. That’s all I can recall from this album, rest are just boring stuff.

Talking about boring stuff, I expected so much from Vishal Shekhar but they let me down with the music of Aladin. The genie rap is such a gimmick, trying to cash-in on Bachchan’s voice but the lyrics are a terrible let-down … aladin…tera bheja hai khali !

O Re Sawariya is another bad song. The only saving grace of the album is the song You Are The One.

You may be
Just a lil bit deewani
Thodi thodi si crazy
but baby you’re the one

Tum jaise hai na koi yun deewani
Thodi thodi si crazy
But baby you’re the one

Vishal Dadlani has written the lyrics himself and both Vishal and Shekhar have rendered the song. They probably did not want to give away this song to anybody else. Nice song this!

Another musical duo, Sajid Wajid, have composed for Main Aur Mrs Khanna. SW feature in most of Sallu’s home production movies, so also this. But as usual, except for a couple of songs they lack consistency in quality. Don’t Say Alvida is a hummable song, melodiously sung by Sonu and Shreya. Another widely unpublicised song that is sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is Rabba Hai Rabba. This is one of the better songs from the movie, in an otherwise dull album.

Finally coming to Emraan Hashmi’s movie Tum Mile, this has some rather disappointing songs. Emraan is known more for his songs than the movie itself, but that’s not the case here. For once, the songs are lack-lustre and did not interest me at all. Except for Tu Hi Haqeeqat and Dil Ibaadat, rest of the song is mediocre. Pritam hasn’t given some uninspiring music. Expected a lot more from him after Love Aaj Kal. By the way, Kurbaan music is just out. Hope it turns out to be good.

 

movies that released this diwali

this diwali has seen the release of 3 big movies, but all 3 are kinda duds. none of them have generated enough interest in me and i think i will be skipping all of them.

i actually did want to watch blue, especially because it had sanjay dutt and akshay kumar together, but the reviews have really not been good at all. sample this:

Blue, directed by Anthony D’souza is a brainless, forgettable action-thriller that quickly sinks without a trace. Let me say this right away: anyone expecting anything other than the sight of Lara Dutta in a skimpy bikini, or indeed Akshay Kumar with his shirt off, is going to be very disappointed.

And here’s some more from the same review:

Blue suffers from a dull script and inane dialogue, and is cursed with characters that are as shallow as the waters they paddle.

read the review for yourself, its here.

And here’s more about the movie from another review:

The plot is supposed to be full of clever twists and turns, but is nothing but preposterous. It is meant to be a razor-sharp adrenaline inducer, but throughout the nearly two-hour film you get the feeling as if you are watching an extended music video with snatches of National Geographic footage.

That review can be found here.

Now that blue was out the question, my next bet was all the best. with a starcast like that and rohit shetty directing it, i am sure it will have at least a few laughs. some good words about the movie:

Comedy is a delicate genre. It needs an accurate combination of fresh banter, palpable camaraderie and gauged response. All The Best isn’t the perfect recipe for laughter but it sure has its Lever-filled moments.

read that review here.

another review that says that the movie is pretty good is here.

an excerpt from that review is below:

Tucked away beneath those pointless songs and some ridiculous, overblown action scenes is a silly yet surprisingly enjoyable tale of misunderstandings and mistaken identities. Like most Bollywood comedies these days, All The Best is far too long, but it has a winning combination of cleverly crude humour and genuine sweetness.

the weakest movie of the 3 is main aur mrs.khanna. the movie looked like a disaster from the dull trailers. and these words have confirmed my thoughts on the movie:

There are dumb scripts and dumber scripts, but Main Aurr Mrs Khanna has got to be the dumbest. You feel nothing for the film’s characters because you cannot understand why they behave the way they do. It’s the kind of screenplay in which every obstacle in the characters’ lives could be overcome by having one sensible conversation which for some strange reason, they never have.

the full review is here.

i am not sure what i will watch, but i definitely know what to avoid.

 

Two States : New Book By Chetan Bhagat

Neither is he a great writer nor do I love his books, but the curiosity factor is there. Invariably, all his books do well. It only gives me the impression that people want to read something light, easy and breezy. Nothing too complicated, no conspiracy theory, no big-fat words; just simple plain old English phrases and ordinary stories.

The hype around his books has also increased because of the fact that two of his three books have been adapted on screen. His book One Night At The Call Center was made into Hello which starred Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sohail Khan, Isha and Amrita Arora. And his first book Five Point Someone is being made into 3 Idiots which has Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Kareena Kapoor in it.

That’s the only reason that I am interested in his new book titled Two States:The Story Of My Marriage. Here’s what the book is about:

Love marriages around the world are simple:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.
They get married.

In India, there are a few more steps:

Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy.
Girl’s family has to love boy. Boy’s family has to love girl.
Girl’s Family has to love Boy’s Family. Boy’s family has to love girl’s family.
Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married.

He has also released a few excerpts, read the below:

“Why am I referred here? I don’t have a problem,” I said.
She didn’t react. Just gestured that I remove my shoes and take the couch. She had an office like any other doctor’s, minus the smells and cold, dangerous instruments.
She waited for me to talk more. I hesitated and spoke again.
“I’m sure people come here with big, insurmountable problems. Girlfriends dump their boyfriends everyday. Hardly the reason to see a shrink, right? What am I, a psycho?”
“No, I am the psycho. Psychotherapist to be precise. If you don’t mind, I prefer that to shrink,” she said.
”Sorry,” I said.
“It’s OK,” she said and reclined on her chair. No more than thirty, she seemed young for a shrink, sorry, psychotherapist. Certificates from top US universities adorned the walls like tiger heads in a hunter’s home. Yes, another South Indian had conquered the world of academics. Dr. Neeta Iyer, Valedictorian, Vassar College.
“I charge five hundred rupees per hour,” she said. “Stare at the walls or talk. I’m cool either way.”
I had spent twelve minutes, or a hundred bucks, without getting anywhere. I wondered if she would accept a partial payment and let me leave.
“Dr. Iyer…”
“Neeta is fine,” she said.
“OK, Neeta, I don’t think my problem warrants this. I don’t know why Dr. Ramachandran sent me here.”
She picked my file from her desk. “Let’s see. This is Dr. Ram’s brief to me – patient has sleep deprivation, has cut off human contact for a week, refuses to eat, has Google-searched on best ways to commit suicide.” She paused and looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“I Google for all sorts of stuff,” I mumbled, “don’t you?”
“The report says the mere mention of her name, her neighbourhood or any association, like her favourite dish, brings out unpredictable emotions ranging from tears to rage to frustration.”
“I had a break-up. What do you expect?” I was irritated.
“Sure, with Ananya who stays in Mylapore. What’s her favourite dish? Curd rice?”
I sat up straight. “Don’t,” I said weakly and felt a lump in my throat. I fought back tears. “Don’t,” I said again.
“Don’t what?” Neeta egged me on, “Minor problem, isn’t it?”
“Fuck minor. It’s killing me.” I stood agitatedly. “Do you South Indians even know what emotions are all about?”
“I’ll ignore the racist comment. You can stand and talk, but if it is a long story, take the couch. I want it all,” she said.
I broke into tears. “Why did this happen to me?” I sobbed.
She passed me a tissue.
“Where do I begin?” I said and sat gingerly on the couch.
“Where all love stories begin. From when you met her the first time,” she said.
She drew the curtains and switched on the air-conditioner. I began to talk and get my money’s worth.

 

BigB Gets Big Bucks For Hosting Big Boss

Its stale news that BigB will be anchoring Big Boss. The fresh news is that, he is commanding a whopping 1.5 crore per episode. That’s like, 126 crore for the 84 episodes that he will anchor.

While SRK got paid 1 crore per episode for Panchvi Paas, which of course failed, both Salman and Akshay charge around 80lakhs per episode for 10KaDum and Khatron Ke Khiladi, respectively. But BigB, being the Big Boss gets the biggest pay packet.

All said and done, the man has some screen presence. His latest ads on tv, for the promotion of Big Boss, looks fabulous. He brings so much grace to the nauseatic reality show, in just the ad; wonder what’s gonna happen in the show. Looking forward to the evictions in the show!