The latest song
promos of ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ are going viral on the Internet. Is that really
surprising? Firstly, the film has Salman Khan in the lead and that statement is
enough to say how popular the film has become weeks ahead of its release. Then,
almost anything that catches the fancy of a largely unpredictable movie-going
audience simply goes viral on the Internet, leave alone Salman Khan himself.
That said, I am equally aware of a parallel trend of
people favoring the release of Anurag Kashyap’s sequel to his sleeper hit
‘Gangs of Wasseypur’. Some are even willing to look beyond the colorful and
snazzy promos and posters of this Friday’s release ‘Cocktail’ and wait
patiently for Kashyap to roll out his next firecracker and get it blazing.
Or maybe it is just me and a handful of others. There is
no denying the sheer cult status that Salman has earned over the years, belting
out blockbuster after blockbuster. When the country celebrates Eid, devoted
fans celebrate the arrival of yet-another Salman Khan starrer. It does not
matter if the film is essentially the same old wine served in a newly packaged
bottle. The film is nothing more than a pompous, self-indulgent celebration of
the male hero and what can he do and asking us, ‘Why Can’t He Do That’? Indeed,
in each of his films, you see Salman shaking a leg to a new dance move that he
may have ad-libbed and the rest of the world takes a cue from him, showing
their adulation and blind devotion to a man who thrives simply on his star
image and nothing else.
So, they quote his lines, make his songs chartbusters
and do much more. But when I first cast a look at the trailer of Salman’s
latest film, I ended up having mixed feelings. On one hand, I think that the
movie will be little more than a montage of slick action sequences, ridiculous
one-liners assigned to the leading man to pout with all seriousness, a gorgeous
heroine, gorgeous locations to match her beauty and, do we need to say, those
bad, ruthless and mean villains. On the other hand, I am wondering what does
the plot of ‘Ek Tha Tiger’- something
about Salman being a secret agent sent by India to thwart a conspiracy- has to
do when such things are already there.
This also makes me feel a bit doubtful about just what
the film makes of such a premise. As the ads put it, it couldn’t have come at a
better time. Only today had I read an article in the papers about how India has
usually sent a number of spies in its missions against terrorism. The plot, if
I have been following the trailers correctly, has all the tension of a Robert
Ludlum novel. Tiger may be facing a mission which he needs to complete or he
may face consequences-like being discredited by his spymasters. It all sounds
so familiar- one can go through Ludlum’s books or the Bourne franchise of films
to get an idea. But the Bourne films and books are known for sticking to the
whole seriousness of the idea, while giving us a whopping good time. On the
other hand, the premise in ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ simply seems as window-dressing or a
new bottle for old wine.
Kabir Khan is directing the film and I can’t help
wondering if he can do the job or not. Look at his last two films. His debut
‘Kabul Express’ was a fairly promising thriller-cum-adventure set in post-war
Afghanistan but the film’s constant muddling between shallow complexity and
awkward writing ruined the game, making it just a visual marvel. He followed up
with the more successful ‘New York’; once again, it was full of promise as an
edge-of-a-seat thriller but it fizzled out thanks to its largely incompetent
cast and a plot that felt derivative. But in both films, you have to admit that
Khan has actually managed to weave a fairly compelling story around a premise
concerning real issues. It needs to be seen if Khan can at least make something
out of a plot that looks promisingly like a smart spy movie and not just
escapism.
Indian films of late are finally doing a good job of
being realistic. Realism in cinema is all about being convincing, coherent and
convincing while never worrying about trying hard to preach something or even
being trivial. Look at some of this year’s releases. ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ is
set against a backdrop of coal mafia and politics in Bihar but it is also
mainly a classic story of revenge told with macabre humor and this suggests how
it manages to make actual sense. ‘Shanghai’ is a whodunit thriller told against
the backdrop of collusion of political and business interests; ‘Ishaqzaade is a
contemporary small-town love story set aptly against the country’s warped
attitudes towards inter-religious and inter-cast relationships; ‘Vicky Donor’
was as much a charming and breezy romance as a light and comic look at sperm
donation and infertility clinics in India; ‘Kahaani’ seemed a bit far-fetched
in its suggestion of bio-chemical terrorism, in a nation still threatened by
bombs and explosives but its urgent visual style, smack-of-the-real locations
and gripping characters made it convincing enough.
‘Ek Tha Tiger’ may suffer from a problem. It has a lot
of potential to be a film which would be convincing as well as entertaining.
But there is a chance that it may not make any sense at all. It is fine. This
is a Salman Khan film after all. But why does it then promise to be so
portentously serious? Khan and his writers could have agreed to simply let
Salman having a good time. Or maybe I am wrong. This may be Salman having a
good time. It is just that we are given the same wine in a new bottle. He has
been a smart-ass cop, a dead-serious bodyguard, a warrior from ballads than
history textbooks. And now he is a spy against terrorism. Hurray!
But I am still feeling bad. This essentially seems like
a waste of ideas, a film which would try hard to make some sense, while its
hero simply beats up the bad guys with ease. Comparisons are being made with
‘Agent Vinod’ that much maligned film which sunk in no time. Indeed, Salman’s
presence may make this film a bigger hit but at least Sriram Raghavan’s film
does not try to be pretentious. It was modeled on a yesteryear Bollywood spy
film which itself had taken a cue from the James Bond series. At least,
Raghavan knew how to make it all James Bond than Jason Bourne. It is a pity
that his male lead is no more convincing and the plot ended up being an
uninteresting affair.
But what about Salman’s Tiger? Is he a bumbling Bourne,
or a serious Bond or both? Let’s find out for ourselves.
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