Harish Shankar’s love for commercial cinema can’t save Mr. Bachchan. The commerciality of punch dialogues before and after energetic slow-mo fights are fun to watch just before they become redundant.
Harish Shanar was proud that he was remaking Ajay Devgan’s Raid to the extent that people wouldn’t even recognise it as a remake. He also said that people might remake Mr. Bachchan again despite it being a remake. For better or worse, he successfully made an unrecognisable remake of Raid. He was speaking from a love for commercial cinema. But, is love enough to make a good commercial cinema that can be a balanced act of good storytelling and mass moments that can boost the impact of a good story?
Harish Shankar did in fact remade a movie beyond recognizability, Gabbar Singh. That might be his best work yet. If you see his filmography, Harish Shankar’s merit lies in writing scenes. Even if you take Gabbar Singh, it is a series of scenes crafted to be celebrated as the best fanboy moments.
In Mr. Bachchan too, Harish succeeded in making a decent watchable first half which is entirely driven on comedic and heroic scenes and not by plot. After establishing the energetic heroism of ‘Mass Maharaja’ Raviteja as a honest arrogant Income Tax officer, the series of scenes in the imaginary Kotapalli village designed by Brahma Kadali are entertaining enough from the commercial point of view. There are many references of that unspecified era with posters of Deewar and Gangleader. There are cheerful tributes to Amitab Bachchan and Kishore Kumar, Kumar Sanu, SP Balasubramanyam etc with the songs ‘Saanson Ki Jarurat Hai Jaise’, ‘Maine Pyar Tumhi Se Kiya Hai’ and many more as long as Mr. Bachchan is playing Kotapalli’s Kumar Sanu.
After these fun tributaries and fan service, the main plot point of Raid begins, i.e., to raid the biggest corrupt politician, Muthyam Jaggayya (Jagapathi Babu) and slowly discover the hidden black money from the house as a thriller. In Bachchan, the moment the story is set to begin, it fades away to entertain, at least engage. What an irony!
The ego clash of an honest Income Tax officer and an arrogant politician/goon is just relegated to loud in-the-face shouting and smoking. When this formulaic writing is executed commercially, we know what is going to happen in the climax. It destroyed the entire thrill element in the original Raid. I witnessed a half a dozen people walking out of theatres as the movie is climax-ing and a sense of frustrated gasping at the moment when they guessed an unnecessary song and it happened too, as expected. Mickey J. Meyer’s music is good in bits but nothing but a too much instrumentalisation powered with lyrics that seems to have been generated by AI after Harish fed it half-century’s music of ‘commercial cinema’.
The editing by KGF fame Ujwal Kulkarni, needed to be more crisp and short in the second half where the predictability makes it feel lagged. It is no wonder that a few people couldn’t sit in theatres when they can foresee what is going to happen in the climax. Ujwal reminded me of his stylistic editing of KGF during the short montage shot in the warning scene of Jaggaya’s brother.
Bhagyashri Borse as Jikki, is also relegated to what actresses are relegated to in commercial cinema. She blushes when the hero kisses her on her cheeks. She cries and kisses him all over face when she meets him after two days. She even devours the smell of cigarettes by forcing her female friend to smoke just because she misses the hero’s presence. However, in this underwritten character Jikki, Bhagyashri acted well in romantic scenes with her minute facial expressions and her energetic dancing was also something that today’s audience are appreciating well.
Mr. Bachchan neither stays true to its original Raid, not to successful commercial cinema. When Harish says that Mr. Bachchan will be beyond recognizability of original Raid, please trust him.
Mr. Bachchan is now playing in theatres.
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