Well, I watched it! I hated it! And not just because I was planning to hate it. I really did hate it, even after giving it a fair chance and sitting straight through. Also, I was really really really really bored. I checked my phone 5 times, the first time after the first 20 minutes because I thought surely the first hour at least must have passed. Honestly, the best part of the whole experience were the trailers (A Gentleman, looking better and better!). And now I am sitting in the mall food court, eating lunch and writing this very fast so I can leave the whole horrible experience behind me.
Whole plot in one sentence: Ranbir Kapoor is the coolest best teenage boy ever and beautiful 25 year old women need him to rescue them.
Whole plot in one paragraph:
The framing device is a book fair at which Katrina is telling the story of the comic books about Jagga Jasoos, claiming he is a real person. Jagga (Ranbir) was raised in the hospital where he was born and his parents abandoned him until he saves a man, Saswata Chatterjee (who must have had a shock going from Kahaani to this), after he falls from a train and brings him to the hospital. Saswata adopts him, they have a brief period of happiness, then Saswata abandons him at a school in Assam after being given a mysterious offer by a strange man, and sends him birthday video tapes every year teaching him special agent skills. Katrina arrives in the Assamese town, an investigating reporter who constantly needs to be rescued, Ranbir helps her, she promises to help him whenever he needs anything. Ranbir’s father dies, he is approached by his father’s superior who says his father was a secret agent, working for him. Ranbir does trust the guy, convinces Katrina to work with him to find his father on their own, they go to Africa to his last known location. The father’s superior chases them, they learn that he is an ex-RAW agent who is now a full-time blackmailer and was just using Saswata to help get information on the top arms dealer so he could blackmail him. Ranbir and Katrina also track down this arms dealer, there is a chase on trains, and then Ranbir and Saswata are reunited. Which brings us back to the framing device, the bookfair where Katrina is telling this story to bored children, and Ranbir and Saswata are brought out. And then twist ending, the lights suddenly go out, and come on again to show Ranbir and Saswata kidnapped by the arms dealer they were chasing, who is played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui in a 2 second cameo. THE END.
Do you know why Ranbir’s hair goes like that in the poster? Because it is the way his father, Saswata, used to brush it when he was a little kid and he misses his father. The film shows us that once. And the rest of the time, we are just shown the hair. This is what I meant in my post on the trailer about showing us the sign for the sign of the thing, instead of any real “thing”.
Instead of seeing Ranbir miss his father, or feeling that emotion from him, the purpose of the missing is just so we can get this cool hairstyle that the director liked the look of. The look comes first, and then the meaning, in everything. There is a lot of sung dialogue. The in universe explanation is that Ranbir stutters and has to sing. But we get plenty of scenes of him stuttering and talking, and plenty of scenes of other non-stutterers singing. I’m not saying it is illogical, just that again it feels like the idea was to have cool sung dialogue, and then the stutter came after.
It’s not just the emotions that came after, EVERYTHING came after the “look” of the film. The script is in so many different parts, you could have cut all but the last hour and lost nothing. Lost nothing except a bunch of really “cool looking” action scenes. Well, not that cool, some of the green screening is really not good. But if they had tried to do it with real effects, it wouldn’t have been as “cool”, so we the audience have to settle for poor green screening instead. And the dubbing is really bad! They spent all this time on the “cool” sung dialogue and then didn’t make sure it actually matched the character’s lips when they sung/spoke.
But mostly it’s the emotions that came second. Our main characters are animals, who stroll through the world connecting to nothing and no one outside of their own selves. People are gunned down in front of them, and it doesn’t matter, it’s just a cool adventure. You may not notice that when watching the film, but that’s the point, that you DON’T notice that. The filmmaker has no humanity, no sense of the broader connections of human beings, all humans (besides his 3 main characters) are just props.
It’s incredibly colonial. In that, all the world is an adventure waiting to be had by our “golden boy” hero. This is the same thinking as Tarzan, as Kipling, and the reason in the real world we all idolized that murderous sociopath Henry Morton Stanley (“Dr. Livingstone, I presume”). The film is supposed to be anti-arms dealers, but it does so in a way that supports the underlying reasons that arms dealers thrive.
(Put Ranbir’s head on Stanley’s body, and this could be a still from Jagga Jasoos)
We never learn why the Assamese around Ranbir might want to rebel, might not be satisfied with their life. We never learn the underlying economic and social reasons that the African country they visit might have such a gun problem. It’s Africa! They’re just like that there! We never think about why Katrina is at a bookfair with well-dressed well-fed children selling a book written in English in a country with a massive illiteracy and poverty problem. Because that would require actual thought, actual feelings, when it is so much simpler to just glorify the perfect intellectual hero.
It’s always the intellectual hero, isn’t it? The director standin? The boy who reads and wears glasses and has a hard time relating to others? I don’t mind that as a hero, what I mind is that I am supposed to relate to him because he reads and wears glasses and has a crush on a pretty girl. No further effort required. As though all the world, and the whole audience for this film, is made up of people who are just like that. Because in Anurag Basu’s mind, it is. The entire world is just a mirror image of himself/his hero, everyone else is there merely to shine a light on his own wonderfulness.
The issues are all intellectual-spoiled-male issues too. The most important relationship is a boy and his father. Not a child and parent, a boy and his father. Katrina’s family? Who knows! Doesn’t matter! Women don’t need parents. All the woman in Ranbir’s life who helped raise him before and after his father appeared? Don’t matter! Literally the first thing we see “grown” Ranbir do is coldly investigate the murder of one of his female teachers by the other of his female teachers. That is how little they mean to him.
Oh, and let’s take a moment for “grown” Ranbir. It’s very disturbing. Why would a grown man feel the need to play dress up as a teenager? The only times I found him a pleasure to watch onscreen were the few moments when, accidentally, in the middle of a song or another sequence, he dropped the “little boy” act and made a gesture or an expression that belonged on a 30-something man’s face.
This is also when I realize how incredibly UNtalented Ranbir is. He is great in Wake Up Sid. He is great in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. And then you watch Rockstar. And Tamasha. And start to realise, I think he can only play teenage boys? Either as an actor, or maybe as a person altogether, he doesn’t know how to grow up. How to play the responsible one, the one in control of his own life, the one that doesn’t have to be graded on a curve of “well, he’s doing very well for his age.” Because, he’s not! He is 35 years old. That’s the same age as Priyanka Chopra. And Prithviraj. Why do we hold them to such a high standard, and Ranbir still gets “time to grow up”? Especially with this movie, a 35 year old playing small child, and surrounding himself with a small child’s view of other characters (well, that’s more Basu’s fault, but Ranbir is the one who agreed to star and produce in the film).
Katrina Kaif suffers the most through authorial disinterest. As an actress, she was fine. Did what she was directed. But what she was directed was OH MY GOSH!!!! I honestly thought, after her introduction, that there might be a freeze frame and a voice over saying “ha-ha, that would be silly if we did that! Obviously a smart woman who falls down all the time and a beautiful girl who wears glasses are the kind of thing that aware people joke about now because they are such stupid tropes.” And then it didn’t happen. That really is her character. Not pretty because she wears glasses. Not perfect because she falls down and needs to be rescued.
(See the way she is sitting behind him and holding on? That’s what she does for 90% of her screentime. Because all intelligent successful 25 year old women just need to cling to teenage boys who are showing them the way)
Does Anurag Basu not know how to read? Or does he not know how to read English? Has he never heard of the “Mary Sue”? Never read any of the many many many many many articles pointing out the stupidity of the “beautiful clumsy woman” idea?
Oh, and on top of that, we also get the “25 year old woman sexual attracted to a teenage boy”. They dress it up a lot, but that’s what it is. Because isn’t it the fantasy of the whole audience for a beautiful older woman to fall in love with them as teenagers? Oh, just the fantasy of straight former teenage boys? Well, that’s the only audience that matters anyway!
All of that is why it insults the intelligence of children. Children know when something is real and when it is fake. Maybe they can’t understand all the ins and outs of a story, or have the maturity to grasp a full moral conundrum. But when someone is being lazy, when someone is saying “oh, it’s just a children’s story, they don’t care about characters/deep thoughts/cohesive plots”, then children can tell.
(I’m not talking about Cars 3, that’s not trying to be anything more than it is. I’m talking about movies like this, and those really boring books your spinster aunt always gave you as a kid because they were “good” for you and told “wholesome” stories)
The reason it insults the intelligence of adults is something else entirely. Through out the film, at the “book fair” framing device, Katrina is bring out this chorus of child actors to do incredibly choreographed songs and dances. Which, by the way, is another thing that is not for kids! Kids like seeing kids onscreen, sure, but they like seeing kids having a good time, running around, DOING stuff. Not little perfectly regulated performing children, that’s what adults who don’t like children, like. Anyway, halfway through some of the “audience” children get bored, and Katrina responds by leading a song about how “we don’t care about all the ills of society because we have a magic token by our door that protects us.” As in, “recognize your own blindness and the futility of the superstition that you are protected.”
(Also, if you need to see adorable performing children, this is the way to go. Notice that the kids get to actually “act” and DO STUFF in this show, not just stand there like little robots singing)
Okay, fine. But if you are saying that I am bored watching this movie because I don’t care enough about the problem of illegal arms sales, then I think you missed the point. As a filmmaker, it is your job to MAKE me care! I don’t have to want to watch your movie, and if I don’t want to watch your movie, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about what it is saying. It means this is a BAD movie. And it is a bad movie because instead of actually putting some effort into making it a good movie, you put in a song directly telling us that we should enjoy it and if we don’t, the fault is ours.
One final thing. I stayed through most of the credits, as I always do. You know one big issue the film did not address onscreen and contributed to off screen? The death of the Indian economy. From two directions.
First, OH WOW did they overspend!!!! Something as simple as the number of staff listed for each of the stars, much much higher than I am used to seeing in end credits. Even the top stars, we are talking, like, 3-5 staff members. I think Jackie Shroff in the last movie I saw him in had, like, 1. And then the music houses and the VFX and everything else, SO MANY PEOPLE.
Like I said, I always watch the end credits. So this isn’t me being unaware that end credits include everyone on a film, even the random intern. I know that. Even by that marker, these were way way too long. This was people being given way too much money and spending it on whatever they wanted, like some kind of prom queen in a mall (did I mention I am writing this in the mall food court?). No thought for tomorrow, no thought for sustainable profit, no thought for anything but taking everything they could grab today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INlFAejde6s
(this is Anurag Basu and Ranbir Kapoor shopping for this picture. Except not, because Alia’s character was smart enough to know what looked good on her and what were the best brands, not just spending money because Western press told her you just had to have a sound mixer, even if he had never dealt with Indian style dubbing before)
Secondly, NOTHING WAS DONE IN INDIA! VFX, music performers, everything that could be done overseas, was. And not because it was cheaper or anything, just because it is “better” overseas. They used a choir from Nashville! Oh, and of course they could use that choir because the film was so so so so so American. I can’t think of a single moment that was unique to India, either as a setting or as a style of filmmaking, in the entire movie. Including the music. Well, Pritam did a good job, I have to say that (music was the best part of the film), but the director’s vision restricted him to this stupid sung/spoken choir type style which is just not Indian. Remember my Arijit Singh concert experience? Indian singing isn’t about a choir, it’s about one incredibly well-trained and talented person, sometimes working with one other incredibly well-trained and talented person. Not 50 people who kind of know how to sing joining together so their voices sound impressive.
This is the movie that drove Disney out of India, that drove Siddharth Roy Kapur out of UTV, that drove Ranbir out of producing, that drove Katrina away from Ranbir, and I have to say, now that I have watched it, I can see why.
(But hey, just because it was the worst experience of my life watching it, and the worst experience of their lives making it, that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it!)
dontcallitbollywood 
Wait, it has Saswata Chatterjee AND Nawazuddin Siddiqui? It sounds like a Kahaani reunion.
And, does anybody else think Saswata Chatterjee looks like Garrison Keillor?
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https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=imgres&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiY296vqIzVAhVIOD4KHbQZAVMQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcontent.time.com%2Ftime%2Fspecials%2Fpackages%2Farticle%2F0%2C28804%2C2042134_2042159_2042148%2C00.html&psig=AFQjCNH3W_nbC3cwP0VEG9INn-1GnWZNLQ&ust=1500243403933135
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwidmKTBqIzVAhXSCD4KHXV7CswQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newkerala.com%2Fnews%2Ffullnews-111356.html&psig=AFQjCNGSU9uJIKJZCch1L1q5SwAu7ebKMA&ust=1500242898303897
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I goofed up the links. I forgot how to do it??
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The fact that you didn’t put up a non-spoiler review tells me that you didn’t want to think about this twice. Right?
The people who “loved” it, loved it for Ranbir’s performance and the cinematography. You don’t seem to think much of the “cool” effects (I just skimmed your review), but did you say anything about the performance? Do you think Ranbir deserves all the plaudits he’s been getting? Even Kat got some good notices.
Beyond that, I was wondering if you think the Indian audience who like it, like it because they’re not familiar with Hollywood films? (which doesn’t apply for the people who comment online, which are the only comments I’ve read). And I guess it doesn’t apply to the critics as well.So what, besides payoff, explains the amazingly glowing reviews?
How does it compare to Tubelight, Bombay Velvet, Besharam? Does Ranbir have a future in Bollywood? If so, why? 🙂
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There will be a no spoiler review at some point, this one was supposed to be no spoiler, but then it veered into spoiler territory and I just went with it.
As I saw it, the cinematography was frankly nothing special. Would have been cool before Big fish, Amelie, and anything by Alfonso Cauron or Guillermo Del Toro or Terry Gilliam. There’s taking Hollywood stuff and changing it and making it into something new by merging it with Indian sensibilities, and then there’s just trying to cheat the audience that hasn’t seen as many non-Indian stuff as you so they don’t realize it could be better. Befikre, Airlift, Neerja, those were all way way more inventive and effective in telling their story.
And Ranbir was terrible. That is, this is the role that made me realize he might really be terrible. He did a great job running through all the expressions you learn first day of acting class, “sad!” “happy!” “thoughtful!”, but he never actually made me feel anything for his character. Plus, it was literally disturbing watching him play a teenager. It suddenly made me wonder if he actually needs therapy or something. A 35 year old man, playing a teenager, it’s just wrong.
Bottom line, both his acting and the style of the film are incredibly noticeable and showy. Which means it is a bad film. In a good film, the acting and the cinematography are there to support the story, you aren’t sitting there thinking “acting!”, you are just lost in the characters. And you aren’t sitting there thinking “camerawork! CGI!”, you are thinking about the story that is being told onscreen.
As for all the people who liked it, I guess I would say they are wrong? There is a certain kind of film that you think is good, and you think you should like, because it seems like the kind of film you should like. It’s different than anything you happen to have seen before (because you haven’t seen the other better versions), and it has a performance that is different than you have seen before (but does different mean better?). You don’t know what to do with it, but you don’t want to risk being behind the curve, so you say “oh yes, brilliant!” And then ten years later you look back and think “what did I ever see in that movie? why did I say that?” It’s the Traffic/Life is Beautiful/Silent Movie/whatever high concept curse.
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As a general rule I can’t bear dialogues that are sung so that has put me off straight away. And Ranbir playing overgrown schoolboy.
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Like I said, it’s actually disturbing to watch. I mean, it’s a 35 year old man in a school boy uniform! This is different from seeing a 40 year old in college, at least then everyone is over the age of consent and stuff. But, yuch!!! A clearly more-than-grown man sleeping in a dormitory with a bunch of children? [shudders]
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And although Hrithik played the man/boy-child in Koi Mil Gaya, there was a reason for it . Then Jaddoo ‘fixed’ him and he became his age.
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yes, and also hrithik was only 29. Somehow man-boy at 29 seems less unhealthy than man-boy at 35.
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Pingback: Jagga Jasoos Review (NO SPOILERS): Behind the High Concepts, The Emperor Has No Clothes | dontcallitbollywood
I have not watched Jagga Jasoos and has no intentions of watching it either.Granted the Kapoors have been producing stars for generations and they have done a stellar job of entertaining us.But Ranbir and Kareena are the only ones who have the capacity for any amount of depth or subtlety.But both of them are not really willing to upset the apple cart and do more (experiment) different roles (much).They would rather stick with what’s comfortable (their bread and butter) and experiment a little just so they can say “I’ve dabbled in parallel cinema too.”
Ranbir has a tendency to do what I call Peter Pan roles.Him being unmarried tends to merge his real self with his roles.But he is capable of so much more.Just consider Rajneeti and Rocket Singh.In the former he played a character Samar (or Summer as his girlfriend calls him),who not only accepts his responsibilities but steps up as the head of the family after his father dies.His mother and elder brother follow his directives.And in Rocket Singh not only does he come up with a brilliant idea but sells it to his clients and colleagues who consider him young and their junior.Unlike Samar he does not inherit his position and authority here.So the problem is not that Ranbir is not talented.But he does not have the talent for picking the right roles,experimenting more often.And plain unlucky to boot.
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Rocket Singh worked on so many levels. It was original. The story was original. We wanted to know what happens next. We were emotionally involved in that character because we’ve all had bosses like that and work problems. Ranbir looked like he accepted the challenge of the role. Kareena has the excuse of Indian cinema not writing good, female roles. Ranbir, on the other hand, has the advantage of being a male, a star kid, a few hits behind him, enough connections to have a good solid film made.
In choosing what you correctly call Peter Pan roles he’s being lazy. He’s being uninterested in his profession.
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Most people in India (and even the rest of the world) get into films for the same reason most people go into any profession or job — to make a living, sometimes a very lucrative living. They’re not in it for “Art” with a capital A, despite calling themselves artists whenever they want some privilege. So I don’t get where this whole business of wanting actors to “stretch themselves”, to “experiment” is coming from. In one way I find that to be a very self-indulgent and even irresponsible exercise. Cinema being a collaborative medium, the livelihood of everyone involved in the production are dependent on the film doing well. (Need I remind everyone the trouble Anushka Sharma had in getting paid for her work in Bombay Velvet after it crashed, despite her fee being exactly one tenth that paid to Ranbir, which was paid up front?) For a lead actor, and especially a director (as happens more frequently in Hollywood) to indulge in some personal vision or ego gratification is jeopardizing the lives of hundreds of people, who don’t have the kind of cushioning these people do. On top of being a collaborative medium, film is also a medium of mass communication — meaning that, the exercise isn’t complete until the film finds a receptive audience. So, if Ranbir, or any other actor, has found a comfortable place where he can be sure of getting hits one after another, why shouldn’t he keep repeating such roles? Some people might get bored and stop watching his films, but as long as there are significantly more people who want to watch him in those roles than not, why should he stop? What right does anyone in the audience have to demand experimentation or stretching from the actor?
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Is he getting hits though? Is he making the kind of profits that would justify doing the same role over and over again? If the motive is to make money and you’re not really making enough money what’s the point exactly?
I believe actors also have to worry about their resumes. I like to use Alia Bhatt as an example of what legacy stars CAN do but won’t.
I agree that as producers of the product they have the right to decide if they want to continue making the same film and same character over and over again. Of course as consumers we have the right to say no thanks I’ve seen this film before. I don’t want to pay already overpriced fare (because you’re a star so you get to ask us more than the other non-big star feature playing in the same multiplex) plus 28% luxury tax (plus upto 30% state entertainment tax because I’d rather watch the smaller offbeat film that gives me more value for my money.
In India, cinema is effectively the primary means of entertainment. Our television industry is doing the made-for-masses soaps 24/7 already and they have almost no variety to speak of.
Plenty of our top stars have stuck to commercial cinema. SRK is the biggest example. Even he can’t make masala formula films work anymore can he?
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I don’t think we are demanding it from the actor so much as the star. Like you say, film is a collaborative medium and people need to make money. Ranbir has the possibility of spreading and expanding the reach of the Hindi film industry. But instead, he is staying in one small place, and keeping the films he stars in within that small space as well.
Compare him with, for instance, Ranveer Singh. He did well with cocky young love stories, and could have just stayed in that lane. But instead he took a risk with Ramleela and ended up opening a new market and new kind of genre. And then Befikre failed, but it was something really different. Lootera, Bajirao, all of those were films that pushed the envelope not just for him as an actor but for the industry as a whole. And his star power helped that. And, conversely, they helped his star power. Ranbir feels, to me and I think to the other commentators, like he is stagnating. He isn’t growing as a person, and he also isn’t using the star power he has to help the industry grow.
On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 7:30 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ranveer is either having a bipolar episode or doing coke or some other pharmaceuticals. My family has had people with both kinds of afflictions so I can tell when someone is being a regular energetic guy, when they’re on something and when they’re having an episode.
My bet is on bipolar AND doing coke. I watched him in the commentary box during the ICC Champion’s Trophy and he was bouncing off the walls. It was scary!
Jackie Shroff too showed up literally high on coke on The Kapil Sharma show this once and it was incredibly apparent.
Staying in the topic of drugs in the industry, Tollywood was on national news last week for bring sorta maybe associated with drugs. The news report didn’t name names but Tollywood watchers and outlets that cover south industry brought up names like Rana, Puri Jagganadh, Prabhas, Trisha, Tamannah, and a whole bunch of industry regulars.
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Ranveer definitely does not seem right somehow sometimes. Although it’s still possible that he is just putting on a show of energy because he knows it will get him in the press when he does stuff like that.
Interesting since Deepika has publicly come out and talked about her depression. If he is bipolar, I wonder how they handle that in their relationship, two people with mental issues. I know it’s possible and all that, I just hope they have some kind of backup if their episodes align. Or maybe it’s good for them, to be with someone who can understand what is happening.
On Mon, Jul 17, 2017 at 1:23 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I hope he does get help though and isn’t just self medicating as so many people do. Compared to his Ladies V Ricky Behl days his energy levels have gone through the roof. His eyes almost dart. I don’t know how medication dependant deepika is though. She does have periods of weird eye expressions where I suspect she might be on something and not regular meds.
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Agreed that Ranbir needs to branch out more. He is literally doing the same role over and over again, in different settings, in different stories, but the characterization is essentially the same and he does it perfectly. But we’d like to see more.
Ranveer is a lot more versatile. He can do urban (DDD), masala (Gunday), over the top (Ramleela), or warrior genre (BM). He can do a Lootera, and be flamboyant and likable in BBB and he’s different in different roles, not just changing hairstyles.
Ranbir owes it to his talent to move out of his comfort zone as an actor.
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Oh shoot, I should have scrolled down! Yes, exactly. I am sure he is being offered a wide range of films and a wide range of characters. If he had tried out a variety of things when he was starting out and now, a decade into his career, knew what he could do well and stuck with it, that would be one thing. But I don’t think he ever even tried. He just kind of stays in one lane.
Which only bothers me because, like you say, he has so much critical cred and family power, and he isn’t using it to experiment. If he was, say, John Abraham, I wouldn’t care. Although actually, John Abraham has experimented and tried way more things!
On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 6:38 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Like I said, I look at Alia and I instantly see what the other legacy stars are doing wrong. They’re so stuck in that comfort zone that they’re either not waiting for good roles (and getting busy with the kind of roles they already know so well) or they’re giving the offbeat roles a pass because they’re afraid of their “image”.
Alia as the bihari migrant worker in Udta Punjab hit such a sweet spot. She didn’t need to be the glamorous pretty bihari migrant worker. She could do the dirty, unwashed migrant worker who gets raped over and over again. She could. She made it look like an easy role to do. And she’s out there experimenting and not just sticking to the girl falling in love stereotype.
I think Ranbir’s problem is that he know he can’t do action. There are better action stars already. If a guy in his 30s isn’t doing action in Bollywood and he isn’t doing experimental cinema, there isn’t much for him to do other than chocolatey roles. Which is what he’s doing. Sad.
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I wonder, is he turning down roles that might give him more stretch? Is someone coming to him and suggesting he take the lead in A Gentleman or Judwaa 2 type films and he is turning them down? I assume so, because he is still a big enough name that anyone would want him in any film. On the one hand, I would say that it is good to know what you can do well and stick with that. But then on the other hand, he has experimented so little, it almost seems like he is afraid to even try something to find out if he is good at it.
Comparing it with Kareena, who of course was also launched at a different time and as a heroine which gave her more flexibility, but she did Refugee, Asoka, Kabhi Kushi Kabhi gham, all right in her first few years. Very different roles in very different films. She sort of found her place as the bouncy confident heroine, but right in the middle of that she also made Dev and Chameli. It’s not really fair to compare, because there was so much less pressure on Kareena versus Ranbir, but she did seem to take roles and kind of try things out right at the beginning in a way I don’t remember Ranbir doing.
On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 4:38 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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True. What sucks for Ranbir is that even when he’s got a sort of challenging role, it comes with a story that makes no sense. Like Tamasha. I watched the trailer and that dialogue “tumne mera tamasha bana diya” pulled me into it so hard. It felt like one of the many arguments I had had in the bad messy relationship. I wanted to see what that was about. The raw emotion. The part where neither is wrong or both are. I wanted to know how she made a tamasha of him.
I didn’t get that from the film at all. The film was one WTF moment after another. The power of that one dialogue was just not supported by the story. The character felt like he had a mental disorder more than a mental block. I would hold an intervention for him with men in white coats ready to take him away if he resists.
Ranbir can continue doing the same happy funny guy in a messy relationship story all he wants but there needs to be proper stories for them to be set in and each role needs to be nuanced to feel like a different person. Like what was being talked about in the Prabhas post the other day where it was revealed that he worked on the characterization in Mr. Perfect to ensure the guy didn’t come across as a piece of work for being so uncompromising.
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From what I have heard, I think Ranbir is too much of a director’s actor. He will dig deep and come up with characterizations and all of that. But he doesn’t do the kind of discussion that Prabhas had with Rajamouli or other stars routinely have, where they say “change this plot point, tighten the script here, add a comedy scene, put in a song, and the film will be better,” If it were just the one film where you notice his performance is perfect but the script is a disaster, I wouldn’t blame him, but it happens over and over again ever since Saawariya so I kind of am blaming him. Part of his job is supposed to be fixing the script!
On Mon, Jul 17, 2017 at 1:07 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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“”The character felt like he had a mental disorder more than a mental block.””
True!
I liked Tamasha, but Ranbir left me like : Ok, he can act but what he wanted to tell me? I found his acting and his character incoherent. There was something missing. Maybe it’s not his fault, I don’t know.
And I couldn’t agree more with you all about Ranbir being lazy / scared when it cames to choosing roles.
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Maybe that’s because his survival doesn’t depend on his acting
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@Margaret I’m pretty sure David Dhawan never thought of casting anyone besides Varun in Judwaa2 🙂 But Ranbir so much more talented than Siddharth.Acting in A Gentleman would have been a breeze for him.That is experimenting within the mainstream Bollywood genre.As you say Ranveer has done a stellar job experimenting within the Bollywood genre.Lootera is really the most offbeat he’s ever done.And I wouldn’t necessarily count it among parallel cinema.I really don’t understand why any actor would refuse the chance to experiment.It’s not as if Ranbir has some pressing need for money.To put it simply, if you were given a box of crayons why on earth would you just stick with one colour?
@Asmita Prasad Oh yes.Rocket Singh appeals to all disillusioned idealists who had their eyes pried wide open at work.That aside, I’m so angry at Yash Raj for not giving Shimit Amin another chance.C’mon they’ve forgiven others who have delivered flop upon flop.
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oh sure, Judwaa 2 wouldn’t even be MADE if it weren’t for Varun. But I know you get my point.
I suppose it is possible that Varun isn’t even being offered these kinds of roles. But i just can’t imagine that, as one of the most famous young actors, surely every producer/director wants him and he is being offered a whole variety of roles, and just choosing to stay in the same thing over and over again. I’d love to see him in a smart action comedy, an Andaz Apna Apna type anarchist comedy thing, or a dark heist movie or cop film.
On Sun, Jul 16, 2017 at 9:39 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Lootera was such a treat. One of my favorite stories PLUS the treatment was sooooooo good. You literally cannot beat a good, solid story!!! The outfits made me think of my grandfather’s clothes from old family pictures!!
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Your review was a pain to read. I skimmed through the first few paragraphs and thought, why waste time on this crap. One, you are not a critique (Not a professional one anyway). Two, All we hear is a angry person expecting to see the same old Bollywood style movie where you can predict every single line, action and drama. Three, ITS A MOVIE, enjoy it, if you can’t, go watch something else. Not everything has to be what you like. Ur disappointed? Too bad. Some people do like it, maybe it was meant for them and not pretentious, wannabe, hot heads like you!
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I’m sorry you didn’t like the review, although I wish you had taken the time to read the whole thing, or at least fully read the first few paragraphs, before commenting. I can’t really intelligibly respond to your criticism since you didn’t fully read my content. I am sure it was meant for people who would like it, but it was not meant for me.
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You’re only a real success in the film review world if people take the time out of their busy lives to leave you an angry comment, Margaret!! 😁
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Could you tell us your review of the film dear? 😁 specifically what exactly made the story so great that we should pay to go watch it in theatres. A proper analysis using bullet points would be nice. 😁
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wow, are you for real? someone needs to justify why they liked a commercial hindi movie with a “proper bullet-pointed analysis”? also, have you seen how netflix have moved out of 5-start rating system to just thumbs up or down type system?
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You could have done exactly that here too couldn’t you? Just a simple thumbs up or down on my comment. Why did you have you to write such a long comment?
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Such a long comment?? 2-1/2 sentences. Compared to mile long debates you had with other posters mine’s actually nothing more than a thumbs down.
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Then just use that dude. My debates with other people aren’t about you or aimed at you. Stop taking them personally. 😁
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this so-called intellectual review is the reason why i don’t rely on reviews of random people to decide whether to watch a particular movie or not. thank goodness i watched the movie *before* i read this or i’d have had done injustice to a fairly decent, enjoyable movie by not watching it. i’m sure you’ll defend your review and some blind followers of you will support you but i have made it a point to steer clear of your blog in future.
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Thumbs up for “i have made it a point to steer clear of your blog in future”… and thnks for that decision 🙂
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Dude, it was ukhrul in Manipur. Not Assam. 😂
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