A... Avoidable

The streets of modern India are bloody. Violence is the contemporary creed and the reasons are not far to seek within the precincts of the dark film theatres and the growing cult of misplaced heroics. Violence is up for worship. Mournfully our heroes are the Khans, Kumars, and Kapoors who are cosmetically designed to violence.

The resultant product is a nation that is resigned to large doses of gory violence. News casts scream, newspaper headlines mourn, social workers indulge in the blame game, politicians are busy finding scapegoats and the arm-chair philosopher is busy finding theories. Meanwhile, the Gangs of ‘Bullet Raja’ and ‘R..Rajkumar’s are out making the mega bucks and inviting not just attention and praise but even awards and recognition.

Mera Bharat Mahan… A nation that was once proud of non-violence now is flaunting its freedom (read expression of violence!!). The pitch and the energy that constitutes the spirit of Prabhu Deva’s choreography unfortunately translates into the storytelling style. A script that swings from song and dance to bouts of shoot and kill and some preparatory statements leading to either is an inadequate platform to launch a full-fledged film.

This exactly is what Prabhu Deva does. Flaunted as his first non-remake film in Hindi, it is difficult to discern anything different from his earlier films - his physical presence included. The hero Rajkumar (Shahid Kapoor) comes without a past, geography included and gets to this town where everyone is a trigger enthusiast. So you have the usual conflict of dons: Shivraj – Sonu Sood and Parmar- Ashish Vidyarthi. Rajkumar comes in as the brain and brawn combine to the Shivraj group and from there the magical touch only angers the Parmar group further.

He falls in love with a girl who sways in and out of his life each time leaving a swooning effect on him before long hate turns into love. All is fine and the guns are doing their job while dust and smoke is raised aplenty, even as the lovers are busy with the smooch song dance drill. Hell breaks loose when Shivraj too gets smitten with the love bug and who else to fall in love but Chanda (Sonakshi) who is already in love with Romeo Raj Kumar!! The long drawn unbelievable violent climax makes you cringe. All along the film brandishing guns and axes, yielding lathis, showering bullets is the grammar. The hero woos the heroine in a fashion that went out with the 60s and that generation of Kapoors.

Today such behaviour is socially unacceptable and politically wrong. Not for Prabhu Deva. The director is finding one moment after the other to have his stars perform a well choreographed song and when enough is not sufficient the audience is transported to the tasks of the stunt master who keeps chewing everything that he can bite. Throw in a myth and violence is a justified festival.

Call it Ram Leela, get Dasara in and lo and behold, we have violence. The script is sensitivity abusive. Of the cast: Sonakshi is back to her Reena Roy days and this is no compliment to a person who is at a crucial stage in her career. Sonu Sood does his job with class. It is Shahid Kapoor whose sincerity and talent that takes the film up a few notches.

While the action scenes where he is making pulp of people looks a tad difficult to swallow, his emotive skill sets and sense of timing for humour are wonderful. Add to this is his graceful dance, you wonder why success eludes him. Notice how the guy with a great sense of humour and a sense of timing, both with his expression and his dance turns the film around him and you would see a great star being needlessly deprived of his lawful place on the top.

In the film Raj Kumar says: Silent hoja nahi to violent hojaonga. Perhaps the hint lies there. With such large doses of violence being dished out regularly, about time we made some noise!!