Shamitabh: Same old story

With a filmography of two award winning Bachchan films the audience has high expectations from Balki. However, he falters this time. He has an ensemble that is interesting, a storyline that is absorbing and a framework that is rich and yet the end product is a yawn. Where did Balki go wrong? Perhaps in biting too much and suffering a resultant cinematic indigestion of too much.

The premise of the film seeks to raise the debate between two important factors of the art of cinema: the face and the voice. In the context of our cinema it is perhaps well settled. Over the years we have flocked to watch the good looking guys over the guys with a great voice, till Bachchan came to create a niche for himself. This debate is thrown in the open and it is ironical that we have Bachchan in the midst of the debate. The legendary baritone is sought to be sold in the debate that it the voice that makes the star. Danish (Dhanush) is a voice disenabled and is thus born to a great disadvantage in a dream plan for celluloid. What he may lack in voice he makes up in attitude and a never say die spirit. After a few aborted and half hearted attempts to leave his village and arrive in the tinsel capital, he finally arrives in the city to make real his dreams. Faced with the great challenge of being mute and still wanting to be an actor, he runs into an assistant director Akshara (Akshara Haasan). We then have a trip to Helsinki to establish the core of the film that a voice could be lent to him through a chip. While the chip is the technological step up that gets him going, what he has not bargained for is that the voice gets louder than he imagined and begins to make its own demands. Akshara and Danish zero on the baritone voice of a maverick drunkard (Amitabh) who carries the baggage of rejection. The alcoholic who is literally living in a grave yard is thus employed to play back and Danish is willing to piggy ride. However, the muse and the master decide to keep this secret and unwittingly fall a prey to the demands of the alcoholic who believes that it is his voice that is worth all the success. A clash of interests and egos in the midst of our cinema is part of the journey.

With an idea as novel as this you would have expected the richly endowed Balki to take the issue by its horns. Strangely he falters from one cliché to another and ends up making a parody of most situations. From the moment the aspirant comes to the city and lands up at the film studios to the manner in which they (Danish and Akshara) scout for the voice, everything gets theatric and lacking in punch. It is ironical that a film that takes pot shots at our main stream cinema ends up doing exactly that.

Like ever so often Bachchan carries the script with all its follies and faults. However, he too suffers from a role that fleshes him a tad too much. The time has surely come when Big B needs to tell his filmmakers not to go overboard with him. He is a star above his persona and he must leave behind more genuine performances. He owes Indian cinema that. Interestingly, young Dhanush stands his own and wins an endearing space for himself. It is not easy to stand up to Bachchanesque status even when the script is in your favour. Here he does just that with a script that falters and fails to favour him. His energy levels are an interesting aspect of his cinema and here he is more like his pa-in-law but in a different genre. Like Akshay Kumar, he is one actor who is not overawed by Big B and that is saying a lot about the ‘Raanjhanaa’ boy. Akshara makes a very interesting debut in a film where her role is very badly etched and suffers the test of consistency. She sure has the looks that Sarika failed to take advantage of and the talent of her parents. Hopefully we would get to see her in more meaningful outings.

‘Shamitabh’ as the name suggests is about Dhanush and Amitabh when it could have been a cinematic statement on the conflict between the face and the voice. Instead it is about glitter and sound.