The Hindu : New Delhi News : Some Rambo, some mumbo-jumbo….

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Sunday, Jan 27, 2008
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New Delhi

Some Rambo, some mumbo-jumbo….

ZIYA US SALAM

JOHN RAMBO-4

(Spice PVR, Noida, and other theatres in Delhi and elsewhere)

“Live for nothing or die for something,” says Sylvester Stallone midway through this film. He lives by his word. Not that he has not done much, far from it, for a man who has achieved cult status across the world. Now on the wrong side of 60, he continues to play by his rules. So he still takes on guns with arrows! And comes out a winner!

Of course, he re-invents his popular avatar a wee bit, gives it a contemporary touch by talking of the wrongs in Burma. But that is mere window-dressing. At heart, and in action, he remains very much the Rambo the masses saw and first admired many summers ago. The fierce expression, the rippling muscles, the brooding persona are all there: the ruggedness of his demeanour complemented by a carefully casual attire.

This one here is a mere reiteration of a tale well and often told: the luckless are helpless too. The world has villains. And there rises one man who suffers no wrong.

It has been many summers since the last outing. Time flits by, or does it? Rambo or Stallone now lives in Thailand, where he works on a longboat on the Salween river. On the nearby Thailand-Burma border there is a long-running civil war. And can Rambo be kept out of the trouble? If you have seen any of his past forays, you won’t have to guess an answer.

The not-so-young man’s isolation ends when a group of missionaries search out the “American river guide”. It is difficult for even the relief workers to set foot on the land, the missionaries cry out. Rambo steps in, helping out the abducted, seeking out those in distress.

It is all familiar territory. Where this film loses out is in pace. It is slow, quite slow, to begin with. In fact, the first half is used largely to build up the story and Stallone gives only a couple of fleeting glimpses of his talent: untamed energy, and a man valiant and fearless, quite a throwback to the times when being a chocolate boy was not in! Also, there is a dank quality to the early reels: the film appears too dark for too long as the captives are shown in godforsaken land! And there are not many shots of the river during daytime!

The things get better in the second half with the hero getting a free run to show us his worth. There are no surprises in narration, hardly any in drama. Yet you will enjoy the latter reels better as the pace picks up, the action is high-octane. And the film comes to life. Therein lies hope for it at the box office.

Watch Stallone one more time. You loved the first time. You did not mind the skirmishes in the intervening period. Despite its drawbacks, an avid Stallone fan won’t have too much to complain here.

MIXED BAG: This week marks the return of Sylvester Stallone in “John Rambo-4” even as Rohit Shetty’s “Sunday” offers everyday fare.

SUNDAY

(At Fun, Moti Nagar, and other Delhi theatres)

Logic takes a beating at the box office this week. Director Rohit Shetty’s “Sunday” is the kind of film that mocks at human sensibilities, panders unabashedly to the lowest common denominator and ends up as a film that provides only an occasional moment of good cheer and plenty of lacklustre fare.

In some ways, it takes Bollywood’s penchant for wrongdoing a step further. In the past, many films have used handicapped people to evoke cheap laughter. Now it seems to be the turn of people with alternate sexuality. Without ever making a serious attempt to express the psyche of people with a different predilection – the possible exception being Mahesh Dattani’s flawed but honest “Mango Souffle” – Bollywood directors from Karan Johar to the likes of Shetty here have not been averse to using gay innuendos to evoke cheap thrills.

All right, but why single out “Sunday” when dozens of films have done the same, and raked it rich at the box office with a similar masala fare? Simply because one has to cry a halt to this sham some day, and soon. Shetty’s film talking of an amnesia patient – again in a sick, irresponsible fashion – is actually a showcase for three seasoned actors -- Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi and Irrfan Khan -- to tell us they are human and can err in their choice of subject.

While Devgan plays a police inspector without ever threatening to resemble one, Warsi plays a taxi driver and manages to look the part. But post-Circuit of “Munnabhai” he is in danger of being typecast. He is good at what he does, but will soon need to do more to prove he is no one-trick pony. Irrfan plays a wannabe actor who is often a friend-cum-passenger in Warsi’s car. Trying his hand at unadulterated mainstream buffoonery, Irrfan sparkles, giving a crackling touch to the proceedings. The problem is there is too little of Irrfan and too much of Devgan’s rehearsed scowl and brood persona. That is fine, but what about the story? Well, if you insist it is about the missing Sunday in the amnesia patient’s life – oh, forgot to tell you, Ayesha Takia plays that patient here. She spent some time of Saturday with one guy, some with another, but cannot recall what happened on Sunday when a certain somebody lost his life, somebody assaulted somebody. Got it? No. Don’t even bother.

The chances are much before the final shot, much before Esha Deol makes a little appearance, you would have headed for the exit. This Sunday, and all the subsequent days till next Friday, stay home. Shetty’s film of a missing day can be, and should be, missed. Not just for the inane manner of proceedings but as a vote against those guilty of playing with public sensibilities.

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