AAA se OSO tak... rise of new AB: Part Two
Around the same time when I was writing the first part of this blog… one of my close friends, Juno was watching OSO… a few scene into the film, he scratched his head and sent me this sms…
I smiled upon receiving the sms… and refrained from replying anything to him. A few days ago, while watching OSO for the first time… I would have sent a similar sms to an OSO fan.
It is strange… but if somebody asks me my favorite actor… I won't even bat my eyelid before saying AB. And if somebody asks SRK's favorite movie… I again won't bat my eyelid before saying "Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa". And yet, if somebody asks me the most entertaining movie… I will reply- OSO…. Quite paradoxical, isn’t it.
A few days prior to OSO… I had seen a marvelous Chak De India and I just fell in love with it. Around the same time when I was seeing OSO for the first time, I also saw another entertainer Jab We Met (and was mesmerized by effortless and fabulous performance of Kareena Kapoor)… a few days after seeing OSO, I saw a tear-jerker Taare Zameen Par.
To excel in such a company is a hopeless situation.
First screening of OSO and I felt that this movie is forgettable… I saw Jab We Met almost 3-4 times… Chak De almost a dozen times… and actually cried while seeing Taare. Nothing for OSO.
The magic of OSO started when I picked up OSO again… after almost a lapse of two weeks… and in next few days saw it day after day… many times a day. Every scene was enjoyed, thoroughly… from the funny interaction between SRK and Pappu Master & Dress Kaka in the first scene... or the second half melodrama between Deepika Padukone and SRK, when he first tells him about the reincarnation business. Every moment was relished, when SRK says "All wells" & "Yanna Rascala, Mind it" and fights "Bad Cat- Fat Cat tiger"… or dances to the tune of "Dard-e-Disco" and plays "Mohabbat Man".
OSO never pretends… it never pretends that it is vying to become a classic or even a cult movie… it has no compunction about being what it is- an entertainer. It has no remorse for tossing away lessons from the art and science of film making, and establishing its new school of film making- heavily borrowed from Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra and Subhash Ghai.
If AAA had lost and found masala… OSO had reincarnation masala. If OSO packaged AB and AAA with Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor for a just in case scenario… OSO went a step ahead… it presented SRK in a double role and then elicited support from nearly everybody who matters in film industry. If AAA celebrated the stardom and crowd-pulling status of AB… then OSO betted on SRK ability to replicate the AB's phenomena.
I know puritans are going to be critical about the movie… about the lack of finesse in the narration of movie… of drawing humour out of melodrama and hamming. But remember that more than a movie- OSO is a package to test the superstar status of SRK… and a very severe test at that. He couldn’t have undergone a more severe test… absolutely no storyline, mindless screenplay, a new heroine… not the best of the music… not even recognizable villain. Mortals would have wilted under the expectations, and that wilting would have been a proof that SRK is no AB. But he did not… he proved the oft-repeated axiom of Bollywood, that SRK is the new AB.
Some words about Farah Khan… it might seem from this piece that I don’t approve the way OSO was made. But no… I commend Farah Khan for making such a movie… This amount of autonomy while directing a movie, requires a tremendous amount of faith in the ingredients of the movie. She was willing to take a huge risk in making such a movie… she trusted SRK's star power, like Manmohan Desai trusted AB's star power. She actually must be commended for what she did. I bet that the mightiest of the mighty in our film industry can't do this… in Hollywood for instance I have seen this ability in Quentin Tarantino… I have always reserved special place for Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill… (For Reservoir Dogs also, to an extent)… he also has this huge ability to leave his actors free… believe in the concept of his movie and only macro-manage the proceedings in the shop-floor. (Although of course his genre is too different)... Another good comparison can be Steven Soderbergh... who also gives a lot of autonomy to George Clooney... (I have loved him in Ocean Eleven and Ocean Twelve, though am yet to see Ocean Thirteen... he also gave a lot of artist autonomy to Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich... he had faith in the greatness of both George Clooney and Julia Roberts)
OSO is to SRK, what AAA was to AB… it established that SRK can make a wafer thin plot, entertaining… effective and saleable. It showed to the world that SRK can pull off an autonomously produced pack of scenes- presented in a form of a tale. It announced the advent of the new AB.
And to answer your question Juno… did I really like OSO.
Well the answer is… borrowed from the film… Sachhi Muchhi.
"Watching Om Shanti Om, Did you really like it???"
I smiled upon receiving the sms… and refrained from replying anything to him. A few days ago, while watching OSO for the first time… I would have sent a similar sms to an OSO fan.
It is strange… but if somebody asks me my favorite actor… I won't even bat my eyelid before saying AB. And if somebody asks SRK's favorite movie… I again won't bat my eyelid before saying "Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa". And yet, if somebody asks me the most entertaining movie… I will reply- OSO…. Quite paradoxical, isn’t it.
A few days prior to OSO… I had seen a marvelous Chak De India and I just fell in love with it. Around the same time when I was seeing OSO for the first time, I also saw another entertainer Jab We Met (and was mesmerized by effortless and fabulous performance of Kareena Kapoor)… a few days after seeing OSO, I saw a tear-jerker Taare Zameen Par.
To excel in such a company is a hopeless situation.
First screening of OSO and I felt that this movie is forgettable… I saw Jab We Met almost 3-4 times… Chak De almost a dozen times… and actually cried while seeing Taare. Nothing for OSO.
The magic of OSO started when I picked up OSO again… after almost a lapse of two weeks… and in next few days saw it day after day… many times a day. Every scene was enjoyed, thoroughly… from the funny interaction between SRK and Pappu Master & Dress Kaka in the first scene... or the second half melodrama between Deepika Padukone and SRK, when he first tells him about the reincarnation business. Every moment was relished, when SRK says "All wells" & "Yanna Rascala, Mind it" and fights "Bad Cat- Fat Cat tiger"… or dances to the tune of "Dard-e-Disco" and plays "Mohabbat Man".
OSO never pretends… it never pretends that it is vying to become a classic or even a cult movie… it has no compunction about being what it is- an entertainer. It has no remorse for tossing away lessons from the art and science of film making, and establishing its new school of film making- heavily borrowed from Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra and Subhash Ghai.
If AAA had lost and found masala… OSO had reincarnation masala. If OSO packaged AB and AAA with Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor for a just in case scenario… OSO went a step ahead… it presented SRK in a double role and then elicited support from nearly everybody who matters in film industry. If AAA celebrated the stardom and crowd-pulling status of AB… then OSO betted on SRK ability to replicate the AB's phenomena.
I know puritans are going to be critical about the movie… about the lack of finesse in the narration of movie… of drawing humour out of melodrama and hamming. But remember that more than a movie- OSO is a package to test the superstar status of SRK… and a very severe test at that. He couldn’t have undergone a more severe test… absolutely no storyline, mindless screenplay, a new heroine… not the best of the music… not even recognizable villain. Mortals would have wilted under the expectations, and that wilting would have been a proof that SRK is no AB. But he did not… he proved the oft-repeated axiom of Bollywood, that SRK is the new AB.
Some words about Farah Khan… it might seem from this piece that I don’t approve the way OSO was made. But no… I commend Farah Khan for making such a movie… This amount of autonomy while directing a movie, requires a tremendous amount of faith in the ingredients of the movie. She was willing to take a huge risk in making such a movie… she trusted SRK's star power, like Manmohan Desai trusted AB's star power. She actually must be commended for what she did. I bet that the mightiest of the mighty in our film industry can't do this… in Hollywood for instance I have seen this ability in Quentin Tarantino… I have always reserved special place for Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill… (For Reservoir Dogs also, to an extent)… he also has this huge ability to leave his actors free… believe in the concept of his movie and only macro-manage the proceedings in the shop-floor. (Although of course his genre is too different)... Another good comparison can be Steven Soderbergh... who also gives a lot of autonomy to George Clooney... (I have loved him in Ocean Eleven and Ocean Twelve, though am yet to see Ocean Thirteen... he also gave a lot of artist autonomy to Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich... he had faith in the greatness of both George Clooney and Julia Roberts)
OSO is to SRK, what AAA was to AB… it established that SRK can make a wafer thin plot, entertaining… effective and saleable. It showed to the world that SRK can pull off an autonomously produced pack of scenes- presented in a form of a tale. It announced the advent of the new AB.
And to answer your question Juno… did I really like OSO.
Well the answer is… borrowed from the film… Sachhi Muchhi.
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