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Sunday, Aug 17, 2008
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A mix of Godly gracious ladies and redeemable lads

Ziya Us Salam

GOD AND GRACE: A little divine intervention in “God Tussi Great Ho” and youthful charm in “Bachna Ae Haseeno” at the cinema this week.

BACHNA AE HASEENO

(At Delite Diamond and other theatres in Delhi and elsewhere)

Bollywood is changing. Bit by bit, but the pieces are adding up. After a live-in relationship set in Australia in “Salaam Namastey,” it now makes bold to show one in our own Mumbai. Again it is from the same house, the same man. Of course there have been noises, feeble but audible, from other quarters too.

Just recently, Mallika Sherawat, that epitome of disdain for convention, swung merrily to “Main tally ho gayi…..” Now, here in Siddharth Anand’s movie under the Yash Raj Films banner, the heroine takes a couple of steps further. We have Bipasha Basu – one of three love interests of the young hero Ranbir Kapoor – who lives on her own in Mumbai and wants to be an actress. Soon the walls come down and the New Age girl moves in with her boyfriend next door. Of course she retains a modicum of tradition: see, she wants to marry him after all! But, hey, the New Age heroine has a mind, and not just a body, of her own. So she wants to marry the man despite being told of his inability to sire kids! Ah, the winds of change!

Change over from Mumbai to Australia, and the wind assumes the form of a little gust. Here Deepika Padukone, as an MBA student, drives a taxi by night and has an evening job as a counter salesgirl. All this to finance her education. Goodbye to those stints of giving tuitions to the children of the villain, the way they did way back in the 1960s and ‘70s.

But, hey, the more things change, the more they remain the same. So we have Anand offering us a love story which has one hero and three heroines: luckless Minissha Lamba brings up the third part of this all-feminine triangle. And he gets Ranbir to reprise some of the roles his father made memorable in the 1970s. What’s more, as a lover boy Ranbir’s dialogue delivery, particularly in those high-pitched sequences, is very much like Papa Rishi’s. But he is sturdier, and in the long run will just prove adept at things beyond romance too.

As the hero meets his first girl in Switzerland, it is back to good old times for the Yash Raj banner, the house that brought Switzerland to our drawing rooms years ago. Then the hero goes hopping to Mumbai to meet his wannabe actress friend! Of course it is to be succeeded by a trip Down Under for the third girl. The package is smart enough to keep the desi and the NRI crowd happy and munching.

As for the film, well, it is a steal. There is a nice momentum to things which does not allow you to think too much about issues of morality: the film is almost always in the realms of grey. The hero dumps one girl, then another! We know he is a hero so he cannot be a hedonist and at some stage will be touched by scruples. But along the way, the journey provides some exhilarating moments. And we get ample proof that here is a film that has its heart in the right place. And the director’s approach is focused with his target audience clear in his mind.

Watch “Bachna Ae Haseeno” with friends. Light at heart, breezy with the works, it is a nice hang-out zone for teenagers and those drawing their first salaries.

GOD TUSSI GREAT HO

(At Golcha, and other theatres)

Life is all about worshipping One, hating none. Submitting yourself to the will of the Almighty because He alone knows what is best for us. His knowledge is unlimited, so is His mercy. Yet man is foolhardy enough to believe that he can step beyond his mortal being, decide what is good for him, be the master of his destiny. Not to be. The pawn can never succeed the King…. That sums up Rumi Jafry’s long delayed “God Tussi Great Ho,” a film that comes with dollops of trademark Salman Khan humour.

It is also a film that makes a colossal waste of Amitabh Bachchan’s enviable talent. If the film is all about projecting the power of the divine, the director commits a no mean crime by under-utilising Bachchan to the extent that you end up feeling, ‘Hey! Have we come to see a Salman solo?’

However, though weak in script and floundering with forgettable dialogues, the film has several perky moments. Salman plays an electronic media journalist who must come up with a show that gets the best TRPs. With him is his colleague, Priyanka Chopra, who delivers the same even as the guy fumbles badly. Every time he fails, he blames it on the Almighty – played with poise by Bachchan. When his dad screams at him for doing nothing, the Almighty is to be blamed. When his boss fires him, God is to take the flak! All until one day God decides that He will temporarily give His powers to this floundering man!

It is a nice premise, amply borrowed from “Bruce Almighty.” However, despite situational humour a la Salman, the film falls short -- way too short. When all that the director needed was a focused narration of the evolving relationship between man and God, he introduces a love triangle – Sohail Khan, with his usual corny fare, wants Priyanka too! Then the director adds some lustreless songs that do nobody any favours. Except those popcorn stalls in the cinema lobby which are frequented by people to get rid of the boredom of pedestrian music.

Even as Salman goes from one mistake to another, then redeems himself in the nick of time, Bachchan as God just stands and stares, almost a bystander to the fortunes of earth’s denizens. He is too shackled to lift the film in his sporadic and fleeting appearances. As for Salman, he does his screech-and-scream routine, the kind of good-boy-bad-boy thing he specialises in. Bina Kak, however, slides into the sandals of a good old Bollywood mother with laddoos and puja ki thali with ease. And Anupam Kher hams the way he has been doing for more than two decades.

Sorry, but this take on man and God has no divinity about it. And not enough clean laughs to last the distance. A few moments of mirth and merriment is all it offers for two hours of mediocrity. Worship the Almighty at home rather than waste your time seeing His supremacy on the big screen.

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