What was the last Hrithik Roshan movie you
watched in a theatre?
SUPER
30
CAST-
Hrithik Roshan with bootpolish on his face and
a questionable Bihari accent, Mrunal Thakur, Pankaj Tripathi, Inspector Abhijeet
from CID (I googled ‘Super 30 cast’ and his name doesn’t show up on the first
page. Also, am lazy but you get the point) and others.
DIRECTOR
– Vikas Bahl
Let me make one thing clear- I like Hrithik
Roshan. I used to love him, when he first appeared. Hrithik Roshan is the BEST –
no doubts here- The BEST looking Indian male ever. He is that HOT. Hrithik
Roshan is the only Indian actor I can see being James Bond or star in the MI
series. He did star in a remake of Tom Cruise’s Knight and Day (Bang Bang) but
the movie was okay-ish. Hrithik Roshan is the only Indian actor who I can see
being India’s first true super-hero. He was one in 2 super-corny superhero movies
that were a prime example of wasted potential – the Krrissshhhh movies (I am
not familiar with numerology and the number of letters in that clusterfuck of a
title.)
That’s how I view him though- wasted
potential. With his looks, dance moves, killer body and decent acting
potential- this guy should’ve been ruling the industry. He just isn’t. If you
ask me why, I don’t really know. If you are over 25, you would remember the
kind of craze and hype that surrounded him when he made his adult debut in Kaho
Na Pyar Hai. Subpar movies like Na Tum Jaano Na Hum and Aap Mujhe Acche Lagne
Lage were hits only because of his presence. That was back in 2000-2002 (God, I
feel old…). 18 years since then, he has only acted in 22 or so films in major
roles, not considering cameos or special appearances. Now that’s not a
complaint. Another star kid with a bit of potential – Abhishek Bacchan- debuted
around the same time but has acted in 48 films till date and about 15 or so
special appearances. Most of them wear okay movies but still dude’s got more
variety in his portfolio from comedy to political thrillers to drama. Also
Abhishek has worked with directors ranging from Suraj Barjatiya and Ram Gopal
Verma to Mani Ratnam. And as an overall star package, Abhishek is nowhere close
to Hrithik. Maybe Hrithik is choosy about his movies a la’ Aamir Khan or
recently Ranbir Kapoor. But somehow even after playing everything from a
super-hero to a quadriplegic to a Mughal king, the only major iconic role
anyone remembers Hrithik for is the retard from Koi Mil Gaya (Oh shut up, am
allowed to call fictional characters retards). I remember there was a brief
phase after Koi Mil Gaya where his Forrest Gump rip-off role would often slip
into his other roles and I would just wait for him to go into “Maine Koi paap nahi kiya, toh mujhe kyun
sazaa milti hai” mode.
Maybe it was this or somehow seeing such
visual and acting potential being squandered off, I wasn’t being drawn to
Hrithik anymore. At least not enough to get me to watch his movies in a
theatre. I literally had to google his filmography to remember the last Hrithik
movie I watched in a theatre and it was Agneepath. That also I had watched
because Sanjay Dutt looked menacing and well Katrina’s figure is best witnessed
in widescreen. Although Hrithik was great in the movie- unfortunately, again it’s
not a role I would remember him for. I think this is Nature bringing balance to
life. One cannot have everything in life. Being blessed with such Greek god
like looks and acting potential, Nature deems it that people will just not find
your work really memorable. Or maybe it’s just me.
Keeping all this in mind, when I first saw
the Super 30 trailer- I was turned off. Like really really off. The concept was
interesting, being based on a true story and all. But wanting me to believe that
the guy who is India’s equivalent in terms of talent and looks to Tom Cruise,
is suddenly playing a poor Bihari professor is just too much of a leap of faith
to make. So out of sheer boredom, when me and wifey decided to just watch some
movie – Super 30 was the winner of a sheer elimination process. (Fuck Kabir
Singh, No Lion King coz I don’t want my childhood ruined and fuck Marvel for already
ruining Spiderman for me). When I walked into this movie after purchasing
tickets at the counter and not using Book my Show like a peasant, I desperately
walked in wanting to give Hrithik a chance, coz I still genuinely like him.
When I saw the name of the director in the opening credits, I kinda assured
myself that the director of Queen (Shaandar was a big mistake I was willing to
look over) would treat a subject like this with some kind of intelligence.
20 mins into the movie, after bearing with
Hrithik’s boot-polish look and atrocious Bihari accent, there is a scene where
the central character- Anand Kumar- receives some great news. Hrithik acts the
fuck out of that scene. He doesn’t speak but shows a mixture of teary eyed
happiness and relief and excitement at the same time. I was on-board after
that. I told myself- however way the movie goes, Hrithik is gonna own this role
– even with the odd accent. Am sorry I just can’t get over the fact that why couldn’t
they get any other actor to do this role- Nawazuddin, Pankaj Tripathi (who is in this movie in a different role but
who looks more like the real life Anand Kumar) , Rajkumar Rao...hell even Vicky
Kaushal would’ve looked better. But still there are moments where Hrithik
really shines for me, especially when he lets his eyes do the talking. Hrithik
commits himself to the role and I wouldn’t say it’s his best performance till
date, but certainly the character written for him allows him a lot of things to
do. And he does it all. Plus, the script is an ultimate under-dog story and
everyone loves that.
Super 30 is a fictionalized account of
Anand Kumar, a real life hero who started free wing of IIT-JEE classes for poor
students in Bihar and met with fantastic results. Although the movie takes a
lot of liberties and I mean Bollywood level liberties which obviously mean
love-stories and item numbers, the story more or less tries to focus on the
real problems plaguing the education system in India. Issues like prevalence of
Education mafia, the income gap between privileged and under-privileged class
form the main themes of the movie. Although a quick google search will tell you
the HUUUUUGE difference between the reel and real life Anand Kumar, the movie
does not claim to be a biopic. But it doesn’t claim to be a fictionalized take
either.
That is one major issue I had with the
movie. Sometimes it goes into over-dramatic territory with the portrayal of
real problems Anand Kumar must have faced. There are literally scenes where he
has to fight to feed his 30 hungry students. The politicians and the coaching
class people are typical villains who would go to any lengths to stop Anand
Kumar’s free coaching. There is song and dance and some scenes are unnecessarily
dragged out. But just when things look to be going off the rails, the movie
pulls back to kinda show us why the previous scene was necessary. Normally for
a 3 hour movie with such ups and downs, I give the criticism that it should
have been a bit shorter. While I would say the same here, but if asked to edit,
I wouldn’t exactly know what to cut out. The love story obviously has to go. But
the rest, am not so sure. There is a scene towards the end, where the movie
turns into a Home Alone type scenario. While all of it is very cool, I was a
bit anxious to see the direction they were going. It was then I thought that if the movie had just
committed itself to a fantastical tone like Inglorius Basterds or 300, instead
of depicting history, had they depicted a story, it would’ve worked better for
me.
But hey the audiences loved it. Some of the
dialogue was cool and whistle worthy and some of the masala twists did work. Hrithik’s
performances was 100% and by that I mean make what you feel of it. I felt he
left nothing back and even though I feel he was miscast- still it was a great
performance on his part. The rest of the cast- particularly the kids do really
well. Pankaj Tripathi is a seasoned actor now and roles like these are what he
does for practice. New girl Mrunal Thakur has a good presence on screen though
she is just a “love interest” character essential in Bollywood biopics because
film makers feel people wouldn’t watch any movie if it doesn’t have some kind
of pyaar in it. She does do well and
would like to see her in more movies.
All in all, the movie was an up and down
ride for me. I seriously don’t know how to rate it. I haven’t seen a movie in
recent times which has me this divided about it. When it worked, it worked
really well and when it didn’t, it still kinda worked. I guess. I really don’t know.
The music by Ajay Atul although made with a lot of effort, is nothing to write
about and some characters in the story just come and go without any background
or direction. The movie does make math cool and I’ll give it that. But then
goes into ameer-gareeb drama. Urgghhh!
Rating this movie is harder than cracking JEE.
I am just gonna go out and say – Watch this
if you have Nothing to do but also maybe watch it once on Amazon or Netflix or something.
P.S. –
Did you guys know am also writing for an
international website now?
Its www.reelanarchy.com
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