If you know about Christopher Nolan, the storyteller par excellence, you must have seen most of his popular celebrated movies. However, I still believe one of his finest works is Doodlebug. If not seen yet, do check it out, for it defines Nolan’s craft to the best. Fearless and fantastic!
Good (read: great) filmmakers, like a certain Nolan or a Rajkumar Hirani give hope to millions of cinema lovers, on how even during changing times, a good story can always hold a part in human memory. Lighting up senses in most morbid times, giving strength in despair, like fireflies in a dark night.
Beautiful cinema, like Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 12th Fail in recent times, is timeless. Sweet bitter concoction of emotions leading to an epic cathartic moment tugged in heart forever.
However, we are human, after all. Mind over matter, they say, but the mind has its mysterious ways of working. The biggest of empires have fallen, and the brightest of minds have faltered. The mind that can give hope can also be gripped with hubris. As is the case with Dunki, the movie, I feel.
For ages altogether, suffering has always been at the core of storytelling, be it on celluloid or books.
Rajkumar Hirani, be it 3 Idiots, Munnabhai, Lage Raho Munnabhai, among others, has been able to serve tales of suffering quoted with sweetened moments of laughter, thus successfully depicting hope in despair, like balmy sunshine on rainy days.
However, on wearing a critical hat, and as a lover of cinema, you will realise that Hirani has been repetitive in his narrative, movie after movie, albeit in a new context, finally hitting a mundane point of saturation with Dunki. His Jadoo Ki Jhappi lasted forever.
Here comes the hubris part, where you believe that what you touch will always turn gold and that you can never go wrong. It’s not about box office numbers, it’s about deserving treatment from demigods of filmmaking, like Nolan who also could not hit home with The Tenet.
The great Shah Rukh Khan chose not to promote the film, assuming a similar fate to Jawaan and Pathaan. Once hit by a lukewarm (read: cold) response on opening days came justification on how the genre being a social drama, SRK told Hirani to expect different results compared to Pathaan or Jawaan (as per media reports). I believe, even 3 Idiots was a social drama which went onto dent cash registers like no other.
You can fathom that the ship has sailed when one starts chest-thumping about Worldwide Gross numbers in bold fonts.
‘It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one,’ said the great George Washington.
Here, it is important to mention the magic of Vidhu Vinod Chopra and his pivotal role in making most of Hirani’s films immensely likeable, acceptable and thus successful. There is no denying that Chopra adds a certain flavour which hits home and stays for long with the audiences. Poignant and perfect!
Hirani or Aamir Khan (Laal Singh Chaddha case in point), minus Vidhu, seems a tad patchy and less nuanced in fine-tuning the contours and edges that make an average screenplay a great one.
And what saddens most is the apparent and abject disregard for the fact that Dunki is boring and Hirani has botched up big time. No amount of post-release justification can clothe reality.
But does that mean Hirani has lost his Midas touch? Well, first of all, none really has a Midas touch; that’s why it is mythical. Having said that, Hirani is a fine director (enough evidence of that), and he should make the right choices, go back to being fearless, recount his FTII days, stick to the basics, understand the changing socio-political dynamics of the country, and get back to with his Doodlebug soonest (not another 4 years please).
And for SRK, get back to Smasshingggggg!