Tuesday 24 May 2011

Bollywood: 2011 to End on a High?

Big-budget blockbusters, low-budget Indies, films with women in the lead and films made with critics in mind, this year Bollywood holds nothing back to promise us one of the biggest and most entertaining years yet.

For all the talk of how some of the new age films are leaps and bounds ahead of multi-crore blockbusters, the fact still remains that these big-budget films fill the Box Office coffers. Of course on occasions a low-budget film like Tere Bin Laden or a Love, Sex Aur Dhoka will do well at the Box Office, but the real money still comes from these so called biggies.

The first half of this year has been a mixed bag of sorts with some films doing really well and some much anticipated films doing badly. Films like No One Killed Jessica with two actresses in the lead broke all norms and raked in Rs. 40 crore while the much anticipated film Dhobi Ghat starring Aamir Khan failed miserably.

But as we enter the business part of the year, we can look forward to some big films coming our way.


The first to watch out for is Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara starring Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Katrina Kaif and Kalki Koechlin. It is the story of three best friends who set out on a bachelor trip to Spain where they rediscover life and deal with their own problems. Katrina’s character is said to inspire them to live their lives to the fullest and have fun while it lasts. This brings back the fond memories of the all-boys film Dil Chahta Hai. This seems like an interesting film, especially from the urban multiplex audience perspective. This might just turn out to be Zoya’s Dil Chahta Hai.

Next up is Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar starring the current heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor, debutant Nargis Fakhri and Aditi Rao Hydari. Rock Star is about a young super-successful musician who doesn’t believe in love but is advised to fall in love to enrich the expanse of musical experience and become emotionally richer. He does allow himself to fall in love but finds it impossible to fall out of love when asked to do so. With two of the most talented names coming together for a film, it is hardly surprising that the expectations are already sky-high. With maestro A. R. Rahman providing the music score, there is a lot to look for in this film. But it isn’t only the film that is in the spotlight, rumours are flying in B-Town linking Ranbir with Nargis. We will have to wait and see how true these rumours are, but in the meanwhile we can safely say that this film is going to be huge.


Releasing on Eid is Salman Khan’s My Love Story also starring Kareena Kapoor and is a remake of a Telugu film Bodyguard. The story revolves around young Lovely Singh (Salman), who has a very strange habit that is he adulates anyone with a trace of heroism. Whenever he develops an admiration towards a person, he prefers to move with that person as a sort of bodyguard. Salman Khan usually carries a film on his courage of conviction rather than any element related to the film. His fans would definitely patronise this film but the success depends on how forgiving audiences are at the given point in time. His last film Dabanng is one such example where the film was a massive hit only because of Salman’s star power rather than it being a good film. So let’s wait and see how good this might be.

Sriram Raghavan’s Agent Vinod is one which I can’t wait to watch. Starring Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor as his girlfriend it is being said that this film is similar to that of James Bond and I’m sure it will be another one of Sriram’s film noirs ala Johnny Gaddar and Ek Haseena Thi.


Another film am looking forward to is Karan Johar’s remake of the 90’s classic Agneepath. The original was an instant classic and Amitabh Bachhan’s character of Vijay Dinanath Chahaun, the vengeful underworld don, has gone down in the history books as one of the most memorable characters in Bollywood history. The remake has been in the news ever since Hrithik Roshan was announced as the lead, since it was expected that Amitabh’s son Abhishek Bachhan would be the one to emulate his father. Another surprise has been the exclusion of Mithun Chakraborty’s memorable character of Krishnan Iyer MA in the remake. Johar has promised that the remake will be big and on an international stage with shooting all around the globe.  Interesting though it might sound, we will have to wait and watch how well the remake lives up to the original’s cult status.

Last and probably this year’s most awaited film is Anubhav Sinha’s Ra. One starring some of the biggest names in the industry with the likes of Sharukh Khan, Arjun Rampal and Kareena Kapoor in the lead. Sharukh plays the protagonist G. One and Arjun plays the villain. Since Shankar’s sci-fi film Robot was a massive hit, the standards for this film have been raised several notches up. This has the potential to be the biggest hit of this year and the buzz around the film is bound to lure the audiences to screens. Lets hope that Shahrukh's most ambitious project yet isn't like Akshay Kumar's Chaandni Chowk to China.


Happy watching!!

1 comment:

  1. Dear Sambit alias Kunu,
    I saw the article in the morning but could not comment as I was in a hurry to Bhubaneswar.

    Any how, this article is in a trend to professional writing. This has the proper frame. You can try writing bolywood facts in an elaborate way. The Britishers must be having their own cinema industry. I wish, U write something, which is in a comparison with the Indian Industry. May be U will like to compare the hollywood bollywood and the british wood. It is a fact artistic creations are not for comparison. WE are trying here the technical aspects and how a particular theme is treated differently at the 3 corners.

    OK, go ahead. The blog is sent for publication.

    ReplyDelete