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"Kitne aadmi the?"…
"Basanti, in kutton ke saamne mat naachna"…
“Ghayal hoon isliye ghatak hoon.” …
“Rehman Dakait ki di hui maut, badi kasainuma hoti hai.” …
"Hum mard hai… ladna hamara kartavya hai"…
Jay, Veeru, Gabbar, Thakur, Ramgarh, Hamza Ali, Jaskirat, Sanyal, Jamal Jamali, Raheman Dakait & yes, Lihari !!
All above Hindi lines are not quotes (rare for my sharing) but are dialogues & even the Gen Z knows first two lines though they were said nearly fifty years & next three lines even the senior’s generation which is over fifty years of age (like mine) knows & the names along are the characters & two imaginary places, yet all these feels very much part of real life, this common link between two generations which covers span of five decades, is subject of my sharing! And after long it’s about movies & rather its more about one movie as about the other one a lot has been already shared & I won’t strain your mind much, first lines are from Sholay (plz don’t goggle for it) & last three lines are from Dhrandhar (again plz don’t google), as if you don’t know about these two then no point in reading ahead though you can read just to understand about movies in general, the way most of us read life coach’s words (sarcasm)! Sholay was released exactly fifty-one years back & made history rather still making after re-re-release while Dhurandhar (part one &two) is re-writing history of Bollywood! Though when Sholay released there was no concept like Pan India Cinema or OTT & the only way you can know about movie was watching it & reading reviews in newspapers & some privileged people as access to movie tabloids like Start Dust or Filmfare & such, that’s all! While today you already know everything about a movie the day it gets released & with Wi-Fi & smart phones everybody is a critic & by the last show start running on the release day, most of the world has decided fate of the movie already! It’s a boon as well curse as on one side if there is too much info available then people do lose interest in going to movie in theatre (read as multiplex) which is a costly affair & when you know in a month or two you can watch it practically free in your home or anywhere! But at the same time in India people still love real world experience as the vibe & emotions matters a lot while you watch a movie or a sport (read as cricket) & people are ready to spend time & money for that, after all we watch movies to forget our daily grind, & for that, going in theatre & feeling that mahoul is more important, isn’t it?!
Ohk, first the reason for writing about Dhurandhar, many will say FOMO (plz google) & I won’t object as writing on social media just to show that you have seen that movie & you have your opinion is everybody’s right but one I share my views not to judge the movie, definitely not in the week when it’s been released but what is my take from the movie & I write in length which only a real reader take efforts to read & not for insta of fb users, so be it (just a disclaimer)! About Dhurandhar (prat 1 & 2), everybody know by now the figures it has earned etc etc & those figures does mean as this is not a documentary or art film which has been made for knowledge or something (many will say it’s a propaganda film, but about that aspect later) but it’s a commercial film which means it has to make money then only you can call it a successful film & on that scale it’s a topper, no two minds about it! And this is my first aspect, as when you make any product, a movie or a car or a book then if your purpose is clear that you must make money with it then stick to that purpose. Full marks to Aditya Dhar for sticking to basics, he didn’t give any patriotic interviews or made such claims about the movie, but it’s a commercial movie, spy thriller & that’s all! Once you as a producer (or as a businessman) are so clear about the product then you can focus in a right way on your product the way Aditya has been with Dhurandhar, right from first frame to ending it in the way which people (read as viewers) has liked it, he has done a professional commercial job! Here is where I can’t stop comparing Dhurandhar with Sholay & agreed, there was no 100-crore club thing when Sholay was made but had it been then also it would have been on top for sure as then going to theatre was the only way to watch any movie, means more revenue! And Ramesh Sippy also has made a perfect commercial film professionally! Here are two films which has everything a Indian movie watcher wants to see, it has action, it has emotions, it has romance (though in background) as focus is action, it has sacrifice, it has betrayal, it has pain, it has loss, it has patriotism & it has a tight script which binds all these things in place! Here is a product which is going to be a hit ninety-nine times out of hundred, which they eventually did!
And agreed, in India it’s very difficult to predict which movie will get hit & which politician will get elected but then there are producers & directors who has given repeatedly hit films & there are politicians who keeps getting elected from same constituency for years & this means there is success formula for both! Problem is, finding that success formula & using it in right way & this is what we too have to learn as in every field there are lesser successful people & more losers but had it not been so then there wouldn’t have been any value or respect for success, right? This is where the comparison scale between Sholay & Dhurandhar again comes in my mind, which is reason of this sharing! Let’s start from the script, both films have got lead characters which are criminals i.e. wrong men in the eyes of law & both are shown morally right. Though I admire Sippy as he didn’t wasted time in showing why Jay & Veeru (plz don’t google) become thieves in the first place & yet they have shown men with character & value. In Sholay Jay & Veeru are inseparable friends & balances each other for wrong & right, which in Dhurandhar are Jaskirat & Hamza Ali (again plz don’t google), both of them exists in lead role. If Jaskirat is a simple boy from a mediocre village family & good heart, then Hamza Ail is hard man who understand only one thing, his survival & his mission & can go to any level to achieve it! Both movies are very long on time duration scale, Sholay even with cuts was three & half hours which still was nearly forty-five minutes bigger than the movies being made then. While Dhurandhar I admire most on this front as it needs courage, guts & confidence to make movies of three hours forty-five minutes in era viewer’s interest can wash away in mere twenty seconds! Yet it’s the script & its flow which make viewers forget the time they are spending in watching the movie!
Then comes the action (read as violence) part, both movies are action movies & if I remember the then sensor board has held the certificate for Sholay for too much violence in it. Today watching Dhurandhar that wasn’t an issue but fifty years back chopping hands of a person on screen was as big a taboo as showing bold love scene & yet crowd loved the violence aspect then also & today! This shows somewhere deep within all of us, the darkness rules, we do get silent kick when Thakur thrash Gabbar with shoes having nails & we do get high when Jay shoots Dakus’ through their head. And today also when Jaskirat kills entire family of an MLA for raping his sister, we love it & doesn’t mind the brutality of those killings. I admit, Dhurandhar does made me sick for the way people are killed (or murdered), where heads are chopped & kicked like a football, todays sensor board may allow it but if we like to watch such display under name of action then somewhere as a society we are moving backward & not forward for sure & yet the makers have been successful to hit this bulls eye of viewers dark side make them watch it with ease because they blended violence with emotions! We justified Thakurs & Veeru-Jay’s violence as answer to Gabbar’s cruelty & today we justify Jaskirat’s violence as that’s the only way left to him to avenge his family & Hamza Ali’s violence we justify under patriotism, well, it means we accept that violence is the only solution to every wrong doing, isn’t it?
One more similarity in Sholay & Dhurandhar is, people have stopped believing in the system (read as govt or justice) so they accept only wrong can be used to stop more wrong! In Sholay, a dedicated Inspector Baldevsing Thakur tried to stop Gabbar & in return lost his hands along with entire family in Sholay! In Dhurandhar, a dedicated defence man Sanyal tries to stop Pakistani terrorists & in return lost his pride though not hands or any family loss! And both of them decides to fight their war with the wrong thing by placing another wrong person in place, isn’t it bit depressing? As why can’t the then Thakur took help of Police force of which he himself was part to nail down Gabbar & free the Ramgarh from his terror & why can’t Mr.Sanyal uses his all authority to demolish terrorism network which is supposedly run by the local politicians in our own country which allows flow of duplicate currency, drugs & weapons from outside of our border! Why the might of govt itself needs to take help of some petty thieves or a X-Military killer to fight with enemy of country or society, isn’t we accepting failure of our system by making these movies hit, think over!
Last but not least, about the tag of propaganda movie, which fortunately wasn’t said about Sholay but Dhurandhar has been released in era where social media rules our life & everything is judged here! I will say rather Dhuradndhar commercially used the happenings in our country very smartly to take ahead script of the movie, especially the demonetization of currency part! And this has been repeatedly done successfully in many hit Hollywood movies so why not accept it the way it is & then if using present PM’s speech is propaganda then let’s not forget that it’s the very same govt’s era in which an innocent Jaskirat has been forced to become Hamza Ali by depriving his family justice it deserved, right? So, lets focus on the success of Dhurandhar & apply the logic to become ourself successful for whatever mission we have undertaken as sure there will be more Dhurandhars’ coming to meet us but are we going to learn anything from them or just waste our four hours with money spent on popcorn & coke; choice is ours, adios with this concluding note!
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Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
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