Blockbuster season ahead?

If you are an ardent follower of Bollywood then chances are that you are actually counting hours to 26/1/2018. The reasons are that in the last week we all have been treated to two superlative trailers. ‘Padman’ and ‘Aiyaary’. Both the movies are as different as chalk and cheese. Yet, both have been put forward to us as extremely entertaining products.

I for one refuse to be drawn into the unnecessary, negative and immature discussion of which movie will draw bigger numbers. I have always felt this is a superfluous point to focus on. There are many movies which have clashed on the same day like ‘Ghayal’ with ‘Dil’ and in the recent past a ‘Secret Superstar’ with ‘Golmaal Returns’. All these movies made their mark, made money and are good entertainment products. For the audience it does not matter as long as s/he is entertained. In fact, crowds walking in for two movies can generate bigger repeat audiences for both movies.

‘Padman’ is a film with a social message. Akshay Kumar, and who would have thought this even five years ago, has comfortably positioned himself in the category of a hero who does action, comedy and gives a social message with ease that more than him today the ardent lovers of Bollywood are praying that his purple patch continues.

‘Padman’ is the story of a man who fought social taboos, personal relationship frictions to win respect and more important be the redeemer of women being subjected to humiliation because of their bodily function. The beauty of ‘Padman’s trailer is that it made the story interesting. R Balki remains one of our master storyteller when it comes to making us understand women and their right to dignity and therefore equality. His stories including the rich romantic comedy called ‘Cheeni Kam’ and then the epic ‘English Vinglish’ made us fall in love with those strong women.

The reason – his ladies are not the boring, hypocrite loudmouth feminists you run into your average Rotaract, roundtable or rotary club meetings. His women are natural and graceful they by default make you love them and respect them. With ‘Padman’, Balki has taken the game a few notches above by making a male fight women’s battle in a scenario, where women are helpless and trapped – in any case it is a true story. ‘Padman’ therefore is a story which will get in audiences. ‘Aiyaary’ is pure brilliance.

From the trailer it appears to be super voltage cinema for those who love action suspense thrillers. The trailer of ‘Aiyaary’ has the capability to pull all action suspense buffs by the collar and it took us on a 168-odd seconds ride, and after that most of us are yet to catch our collective breaths.

‘Aiyaary’ comes across as an epic tale of a disciple went rogue and a committed passionate mentor coming for him. The trailer promises conflict, intrigue and action. There is nothing run of the mill in that trailer and the plot oozes with a very fresh, fast and slick treatment.

‘Aiyaary’ is also eagerly awaited because Neeraj Pandey, that big daddy of thriller mixed with patriotism cinema, returns to his favourite genre after a long gap of two years. Last time he hit us with ‘Baby’ and none of us suspense thriller buffs have seen ‘Baby’ less than twice. The most compelling part of ‘Aiyaary’ is that the trailer leaves us with a mysterious question that what exactly did the student who has gone rogue hear in his snooping missions that he decided to apparently betray the army and his country?

Manoj Bajpayi has, in that brief trailer shown that he still has tonnes of fire power left inside him when it comes to delivering conflict based intense roles. The man who awed us in ‘Satya’ and ‘Shool’ is not yet low on energy. Add the fact that in ‘Naam Shabana’ and ‘Special 26’ we finally realised that Neeraj Pandey and his team have learned how to use Manoj Bajpayi well.

You bet that the first week starting January 26 you will see crowded cinemas in Bollywood, trust me the popcorn seller and the audience will not complain. Unless something goes very, very wrong these two movies have blockbuster written on them with a capital B.

By: Rahul Deo Bharadwaj