Raanjhanaa starts with a frame where Kundan (Dhanush) is shown lying on stretcher being carried to hospital with face all wounded. He starts narrating his story and takes us back to Banaras ki galiyan. Child Kundan is too cute and the movie is full of smart dialogs. You may want to remember them to put it on Facebook as your status messages to showoff, that’s the running trend now-a-days.
“Namaaz mein who thi, par laga dua hamari manjoor ho gayi”
Between all this somewhere the thought of should a ‘better looking’ conventional Bollywood actor be casted instead of Dhanush?, creeps in.
You definitely don’t want to accept the school going Dhanush as shown in the movie, as your mainstream hero who would romance with beautiful lady in a movie. He is not well built in-terms of physic and is nowhere close to the likes of Hrithiks or Shaheed Kapoors of Bollywood industry. Neither he looks chocolaty like Aamir nor over personifying Shahrukh or Amitabh. We were also not expecting him to go Emraan Hashmi way to lure the heroine sensuously and create a niche identity. These are the set definitions for actors in Hindi film industry and if we look at the debutantes over last one year, they fall in either of the above categories.
While all this was going on in your head, you get lost in the plot of the movie. Hats-off to the way story is built. In that madness and clamors of Banaras, is a cute romantic love story. By the time Dhanush receives his 16th Thapaddin the movie, you start liking him for his simplicity.
“Humein apne gaal pe thappad se zyada uske gaal pe puppy ka sukh tha.”
As the plot unfolds and story starts building, you want to see more of him. There is a sincerity in every dialog, every action. Abhay Deol gives another dimension to the movie and brings some more freshness. By this time you are in love of the music, characters and characterization. You just pray to God that the movie doesn’t end up as another cliche Hindu guy-Muslim girl set formula.
“Tumhara pyaar na ho gaya..UPSC ka exam ho gaya.10 saal se paas hi nai ho raha!”
Everytime the story takes a turn, Dhanush surprises with his acting skills. There is see-saw of emotions. Heart is broken, love is lost, he is ignored, thrown out of his house, media chases, he is beaten, yet his selfless heart wants to see Zoya (Sonam) happy and get what she wanted. Clearly by now, you can guess why he is a superstar of South Indian movie industry. While Kolaveri di song might have made him a star overnight, Raanjhanaa movie sets him as an actor class apart in Bollywood.
The other angle to film industry is the ability to generate commercial success for a movie. I feel no matter how many good movies he gives, he would still remain a second rung actor for the audience in the Hindi film industry.
The first league of actor is dominated by Amitabh, Shahrukh, Salman and Aamir and who are now passing on the baton to next gen to the likes of Ranbir Kapoors, Ranveer Singhs and Arjun Kapoors. Actors like Irrfan Khan, Abhay Deol, Konkana Sen Sharma are not perceived as huge stars by the audience. They somehow don’t move to the first league. While there is no doubt in my mind about the versatility in acting of Konkana, she still cannot occupy place of the current Katrinas, Kareenas or Priyankas.
I think a lot has to do with how Bollywood has evolved and the way audience perceives their Hero and Heroines. We have audience who has always worshipped Dharmendra, Jitendra, Rajesh Khanna and the gorgeous Madhubala, Hema Malini or Madhuri Dixit, etc. It is always about the look, about the charisma. Larger than life portray of beauty to rule million hearts.
With passage of time and with more maturity in the views and perception, I think this trend may change in a decade or so. Box Office opening is one of the key parameters that movie pundits use to categorise a movie as Flop/ hit/ Super-hit. Good opening means movie will be screened for a longer duration of time and thus generate more revenue. A Salman Khan or a Ranbir Kapoor starer guarantees good opening and then movie may pull more crowd if the reviews are good. But for actors like Dhanush or Irrfan Khan it is the other way round, at-least in Bollywood. Box office opening depends on marketing and if the reviews are good, people may start going to theaters.
fOoD fOr ThOuGhT: Can Dhanush change the way we look at Bollywood heroes? Can his star quotient rise enough to get houseful opening and super-hit box office collections in Hindi film industry too?
“Mere seene ki ye aag ya to mujhe zinda kar sakti thi ya maar sakti thi...
Par saala ab uthe kaun... Kaun firse mehnat kare - dil lagane ko, dil tudwane ko...”
Par saala ab uthe kaun... Kaun firse mehnat kare - dil lagane ko, dil tudwane ko...”
