Almost a dilapidated dilemma that we are living in after this median of nowhere that Khiladi Kumar has brought up to the box office. The unattachment between Akshay Kumar’s stardom and the dwindling content makes the vexation viable between him and the audience.
Recall the time when it all started; initiating in the 90s, when Khans were taking over, Anil Kapoor, Sunny Deol and Govinda getting on the frontlines absorbing the luminous stardom of what the veterans left by; a rare shooting star glided in the Milky Way.
Kumar was that interdimensional, inclined scoring machine, untainted by the hogwash of any film contact, and he had ample evidence of the rugged, sombre fortitude. So, his only incentive was a burgeoning yearning to demonstrate he could amend the sculpted pathways only for the star sons. He sabotaged the tombstones of all the prevailing actors by trundling his way to the spur in a multitude of action dramas that intrigued both viewers and, most pertinently, the producers and makers.
That balayage of Kumar’s stone continued to radiate for so many years all across the 1990s, amidst sporadic grey plumes for a while until he morphed into a simulated pole star, a one-man industry prominent figure for almost a millennium until maybe 2019, with reasonably constant, myriad back-to-back box office hits. This era was sincerely his, regardless of the continual fusillade of blockbusters from the Khan trinity.
We feel that his entire felicitation of being a ‘superstar’ got him burdened and constantly pressurised to give out hits. Well, it almost got him there, on the mark to eclipse his father-in-law Rajesh Khanna’s record of delivering 17 back-to-back hits. Kumar gave us 12 in a row. But then, what happened after 2019?
His last success was Sooryavanshi, released in 2021, which made approximately 195 crores at the box office. His movie Ram Setu post to that was made on a whopping amount of 150 crores approx. but managed to bag just 64 crores approx. He went on with Raksha Bandhan (34.47 crores approx.), Bachchan Panday (49.98 crores approx.) Samrat Prithviraj (68.05 crores approx.), as mentioned in Financial Express, none could mark at least 100 crores at the box office.
This year Selfiee, starring Emraan Hashmi, Diana Penty, and Nushrrat Bharucha in the other leads, tanked again. All the promotional reels to the iconic song remake ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’, and ‘selfies’ couldn’t make it rise and shine and could only mark 10.3 crores approx. so far.
‘HASTE IS WASTE’
This hyperbolic rush and urge to do films and release them nonstop are what’s getting way too overwhelming. What’s with the chase? What’s with the craze of quick results? Ram Setu’s wishy-washy script, with hideous VFX work and director everything, propelled the movie to drown in the sea. Samrat Prithviraj was ripped apart for its factually incorrect content. Bachchan Panday does not even belong to this era; gangster fantasies no more intrigue youngsters. And Raksha Bandhan! We are in 2023, and this saturates the content, where a brother is restless to get her four sisters married, collects dowry for their marriages, etc…etc…etc…!
None of the films was made on concrete content. It almost looks like a fight to stay relevant and earn validation. More of living in a sad ‘delusionary’ competition! But being an Akshay Kumar fan, we can stand with pride and affirm that there isn’t any need for room to be relevant; AK shall always be!
‘THE LONE WOLF’
Paving a way as a complete outsider for himself in this clannish spectrum was not easy. But he did it! And for decades. Many of his contemporaries faded, but he continued to reign as that rare shooting star in the Milky Way. He is the only actor who could pull off his versatile collar in one stroke! With double doses of laughter, action, and emotion, all rolled up as one Akshay Kumar, making him unflinching in the eyes of the producers.
‘THE IRONY’
Memes on Akshay Kumar making ‘biopics’ aren’t new to internet users. Most of the past hits were made on the country’s prolific social heroes. Akshay Kumar made a showdown of showcasing it in the theatres! He becomes the nation’s most loved ‘hero’, the ‘government’s favourite’, igniting the ludicrous vicissitude. He got labelled as the ‘biopic’ master and someone obsessed with the government, similar to what Kangana Ranaut has been a victim of.
With all the back-to-back flops, starting with Selfiee this year, Akshay Kumar has gotten some big-budget movies piled up in the row, starting from OMG 2, Hera Pheri 3, BADE MIYAN CHOTE MIYAN and others. Will any of these forthcomings return AK’s ‘KHILADI’ fate?