The first full song promo from the Hindi language version of Siddique's Bodyguard is out, and I found it interesting to compare it to the same song setting in the original Malayalam version.
Here's a little bit of background to the setting of the Malayalam song: Jayakrishnan (Dileep) arrives at the home of Ashokan (Thiagarajan), a businessman who has been reformed from a shady past, wanting to be his bodyguard. Ashokan feels he has no need for a bodyguard, and sends Jayakrishnana away. However, a threat to Ashokan and his family suddenly materializes, so Ashokan hires Jayakrishnan on to be the bodyguard for his daughter Ammu (Nayanthara).
Ammu, keen to rid herself of the bodyguard, decides to invent a “secret admirer” for Jayakrishnan, calling him from a private number so she cannot be traced as the source of the calls. What starts out as a game for Ammu, and an annoyance for Jayakrishnan, slowly blossoms into an actual romance; Jayakrishnan falls in love with this mystery girl, and Ammu slowly realizes that her bodyguard is a very sweet, shy guy, and she, too, finds herself falling in love.
This sets the stage for the song "Arikathayaro". At this point in the film, the bodyguard, Jayakrishnan, is clearly in love, but he has no idea who his secret admirer is:
And now, here's the Hindi version, the song "I Love You":
What I absolutely love about the Malayalam Bodyguard is how Dileep takes this very one-dimensional bodyguard with definite ideas of how he should behave and do his job and peels back the layers to reveal the very sweet, decent man hiding underneath. And the one thing I find baffling is seeing Salman Khan in that role, because if Dileep reminds me of anyone in Hindi cinema, it’s Govinda – it’s a role that calls for sweetness, gentleness, the occasional bit of slapstick, and an ability to turn in some pretty serious “dishoom-dishoom” as required (although, of the two, Govinda is far and away the better dancer. Sadly, he's also too old for a role like this).
That said, you can see clearly from "I Love You" that the Hindi version knows clearly who the audience for this film is, and what they expect to see from Salman Khan, right down to that little touch of the deflating football.
And now, I suppose that I should stop pilfering from my Bodyguard notes and actually put up that post about the film, eh?
I have been waiting with almost breathless anticipation for the film Dabangg ( 2010, dir. Abhinav Kashyap) --and I think that's pretty much an interesting reflection on how my feelings about its star, Salman Khan, have changed in the last few years.
Because there was a time, not too long ago, when I'd pretty much avoid anything with Salman Khan in it -- and then came this shift. I'm not sure I can put my finger on what it is exactly, but I think it's a combination of a few things. First, there was Partner (2007, dir. David Dhawan) -- I watched it for Govinda, but was pleasantly surprised to find that I actually enjoyed Salman's turn as the Love Guru more than Will Smith's original in Hutch. And the buddy relationship with Govinda was just delightful. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I am immensely grateful to the Khan brothers for standing by Govinda and giving his career a shot in the arm when it needed it badly.
So there was that. And then, there was last year's Wanted (2009, dir. Prabhu Deva). I'd pretty much decided that Partner was a glitch in my Salman watching, and hadn't planned on going, but changed my mind, and oh, I was ever so glad I did. I loved it. It was an incredible amount of fun, and got me thinking that if Salman was willing to play with his badboy tough guy image, and maybe draw on the South Indian hero type to reinvent himself a little, well, this was a place I was willing to go with him.
Which meant I was immensely pleased when all the promos started for Dabangg, because it looked like, once again, the team behind this film, including producer Arbaaz Khan and the film's star Salman Khan -- it looked like they were playing on that Southie film style once more, and it was looking like the film would be an enormous romp.
(I'll admit it, too: as an unabashed fan of Anurag Kashyap (SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: SOMEONE PLEASE ARRANGE IT SO I CAN ATTEND A SCREENING OF THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS AT TIFF THIS YEAR. I TRIED, OH I TRIED TO BUY TICKETS BUT THE ONLINE ORDERING SYSTEM CRASHED. PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE) I'm kind of curious what his brother Abhinav will do in his directorial debut.)
That said: I kind of had this tickling at the back of my head, wondering if Dabangg might be another remake of a South Indian film, as Wanted had been. Now, I don't have a problem with remakes, as long as credit is given where it's due, and the folks doing the remake manage to retain the essential sensibility of the story in doing so. But I'm still curious to see how films get remade and changed to suit slightly different audiences.
And when I first went searching, I could find no trace of anything for Dabangg -- until recently, that is, until the promos for the film really started to shift into gear. And that's when the rumour started going around that the film was a remake of the 2003 Tamil film Saamy, directed and written by Hari and starring Vikram and Trisha.
I know the Vikram posse out there is more than familiar with his films, including this one -- but I'd only seen bits of it, so decided to make an effort to see it to see what I thought about the remake rumours.
Saamy (=God, but also the name of Vikram's character, which affords much wordplay during the film) is about a District Commissioner of Police -- an honest man who finds himself forced to work the system of corruption and bribery in order to more effectively serve the local population of the latest town he's been transferred to -- those transfers being the result of him trying to resist the corruption and remain honest, something that just wasn't working for him.
Saamy's rule is this: he takes only from the bad guys, and uses the bribe money to help those who need it most. And he manipulates the system only so that he can deal with the local don, Perumal Pichai.
And along the way, he falls in love with Bhuvana (Trisha) and marries her.
The film is well crafted and well written -- no loose ends left dangling, and there's even a subplot involving the brother-in-law of Bhuvana, the local priest who goes around delivering social commentary, mostly on the problems of the caste system and the importance of education, in the guise of comic relief.
But mostly? Saamy is a film about style -- it established a new genre of stylish police films that apparently did not match the success of the original.
So what is Saamy style?
Yes, you've got it. Essentially? Saamy is saamy. God. And when he's not fighting the bad guys? He's dancing with his lady love Bhuvana:
All this, however, does not answer the essential question: is Dabangg a remake of Saamy? As an aside, there has been a Telugu remake of Saamy, called Lakshmi Narasimha, which plays with the story a bit, while seeming to retain its essential Robin Hood core.
Yeah, I wrote Robin Hood -- it's going to be hard to avoid, what with the fact that Salman Khan's character in Dabangg is Chulbul Pandey, AKA "Robin Hood Pandey":
Well. Obviously I can't know until I see the film when it opens next week. And reading the plot summary for Dabangg, I'd hazard a guess and say that the film is certainly inspired by Saamy's central premise of a purportedly corrupt cop working the system to benefit others, else why play with that idea of "Robin Hood Pandey"? But there seem to be enough changes to the essential framework of the story that I'm guessing that we're not dealing with a frame by frame remake. And the film certainly seems to play with the Saamy style -- in a way that makes me very happy actually.
I will confess, though: the one thing I don't want to see happening is a whole bunch of people complaining about Hindi films remaking South Indian ones, and comparing Vikram to Salman Khan and finding one or the other or either film wanting. Mostly, I'm writing this and thinking about it because I'm curious -- I really enjoyed Saamy, and I'm betting that Dabangg will be just as much a romp as I'm hoping it will be based on that trailer. I can watch both films and enjoy them and not need to find one or the other wanting in some way. Same but different is fine by me.
"Now the end is near. Just a year ago, in May, the lodger came to us and said to grandmother that he had finished his business here, and that he must go back to Moscow for a year. When I heard that, I sank into a chair half dead; grandmother did not notice anything; and having informed us that he should be leaving us, he bowed and went away.
"What was I to do? I thought and thought and fretted and fretted, and at last I made up my mind. Next day he was to go away, and I made up my mind to end it all that evening when grandmother went to bed. And so it happened. I made up all my clothes in a parcel -- all the linen I needed -- and with the parcel in my hand, more dead than alive, went upstairs to our lodger. I believe I must have stayed an hour on the staircase."
"He thought I was a ghost, and rushed to give me some water, for I could hardly stand up. My heart beat so violently that my head ached, and I did not know what I was doing."
"'Listen,' he began, 'listen, Nastenka, I can't do anything; I am a poor man, for I have nothing, not even a decent berth. How could we live if I were to marry you?"
"Listen, I am going to Moscow and shall be there just a year; I hope to establish my position. When I come back, if you still love me, I swear that we will be happy. Now it is impossible, I am not able, I have not the right to promise anything. Well, I repeat if it is not within a year it will certainly be some time; that is, of course, if you do not prefer any one else for I cannot and dare not bind you by any sort of promise.'
"That is what he said to me, and the next day he went away."
"Good God, can I do nothing to help you in your sorrow"' I cried, jumping up from the seat in utter despair. 'Tell me, Nastenka, wouldn't it be possible for me to go to him?"
"Would that be possible?' she asked suddenly, raising her head."
"No, of course not,' I said pulling myself up: 'but I tell you what, write a letter."
"No, that's impossible, I can't do that,' she answered with decision, bending her head and not looking at me.
"'How impossible -- why is it impossible?' I went on, clinging to my idea. 'But, Nastanka, it depends what sort of letter; there are letters and letters and....Ah, Nastenka, I am right; trust to me, trust to me, I will not give you bad advice. It can all be arranged! You took the first step -- why not now?'
"'I can't. I can't! It would seem as though I were forcing myself on him...."
"Listen; how would you write?"
"Write what?"
"This letter."
"I tell you how I would write: 'Dear Sir'...I am writing to you. Forgive me my impatience; but I have been happy for a whole year in hope;"
"Yes, yes; that's exactly what I was thinking!' cried Nastenka, and her eyes beamed with delight. 'Oh, you have solved my difficulties: God has sent you to me! Thank you, thank you!'"
"Come, enough, enough! Good-by now," she said, speaking rapidly, '"Here is the letter, here is the address to which you are to take it. Good-bye, till we meet again! Till to-morrow!"
"She pressed both my hands warmly, nodded her head, and flew like an arrow down her side street. I stood still for a long time following her with my eyes. "Till to-morrow! till to-morrow!" was ringing in my ears as she vanished from my sight."
(Okay, I couldn't resist. And, obviously, the Second Night of Dostoevsky's "White Nights" takes up a goodly portion of the story. And the film. And we're only up to the interval at this point. But next up, the Third Night....)
"But the new lodger, as luck would have it, was a young man, a stranger not of these parts. As he did not haggle over the rent, grandmother accepted him, and only afterwards she asked me: 'Tell me, Nastenka, what is our lodger like -- is he young or old?' I did not want to lie, so I told grandmother that he wasn't exactly young and that he wasn't old."
"'And is he pleasant looking?' asked grandmother. Again I did not want to tell a lie: 'Yes, he is pleasant looking grandmother.'"
"Well one morning the lodger came in to see us; he asked about a promise to paper his rooms. One thing led to another. Grandmother was talkative, and she said: 'Go Nastenka, into my bedroom and bring me my abacus.' I jumped up at once; I blushed all over, I don't know why, and forgot I was sitting pinned to grandmother; instead of quietly undoing the pin, so that the lodger should not see -- I jumped so that grandmother's chair moved."
"When the lodger saw, saw that I was ashamed on his account, he bowed and went away at once!"
"A fortnight passed; the lodger sent word through Fyokla that he had a great number of French books, and that they were good books that I might read, so would not grandmother like me to read them that I might not be dull? Grandmother agreed with gratitude, but kept asking if they were moral books, for if the books were immoral it would be out of the question, one would learn evil from them."
"Only after dinner he came to see us; sat a long time talking to grandmother; asked her whether she ever went out anywhere, whether she had acquaintances, and suddenly said: "I have taken a box at the opera for this evening; they are putting on The Barber of Seville. My friends meant to go, but afterwards refused, so the ticket is left on my hands.'"
"By all means, let us go,' said grandmother; why shouldn't we? And my Nastenka here has never been to the theatre.'
"What my impressions of The Barber of Sevillewere I won't tell you; but all that evening our lodger looked at me so nicely, talked so nicely, that I saw at once that he had meant to test me in the morning when he proposed that I should go with him alone. Well, it was joy! I went to bed so proud, so gay, my heart beat so that I was a little feverish, and all night I was raving about The Barber of Seville.
So, over the course of the past few weeks, I've been musing aloud here on the blog about the two big films that released on September 18th: Dil Bole Hadippa and Wanted.
And for the most part, having watched the publicity for both films, I felt certain that the film I would really want to see, that I would really enjoy, that I would find the better film, well, I was certain it would turn out to be Dil Bole Hadippa.
Yesterday, I finally got to see Wanted. And I have to say, I take it ALL back. Every single thing I typed about the film. No, wait, not the bit where I wrote that "Jalwa" was a terrific track and the picturisation with Govinda and Prabhu Deva would be faboo, I meant that, and it was absolutely and completely true.
Oh, okay, I also didn't like the picturisation for "Love Me, Love Me", or at least the clip I saw. And although I will say that it's my least favorite picturisation in the film, the full version comes off better than the edited promo clip. I still find some of the choreography clunky, and I still don't like much of what they've dressed the gorgeous Ayesha Takia in, but overall, the entire clip was all right.
And sure, I poked a little gentle fun at the song "Ishq Vishq", but you know what? It wasn't even in the film.
But I have to say: Wanted was absolutely terrific. I didn't find the posters appealing, I didn't find the trailer appealing, and only the "Jalwa" promotional clip provoked any interest at all. But a few people I know whose opinions I trust went to see the film and raved about it.
So I went -- or, rather, the Tech Guy and I went.
And we thoroughly enjoyed it. Wanted is one ripper of a film. It's well written, the story is terrific, the dialogues are funny and wonderful, the whole package is great. Even the songs, most of which didn't excite me terribly when I listened to the soundtrack, the songs are great in the context of the film. There are lots of them, I liked much of the choreography, and frankly? I haven't had this much fun in the cinema in a good long while.
Even Salman Khan -- I've stated here before, I'm not a huge Salman fan for a variety of reasons, but he was, in all honestly, just brilliant in the film.
Of course, all of this has me thinking about how films are marketed and how we as an audience perceive the publicity and how we use it to make choices about what we'll see -- and about how sometimes we're wrong. I had been fully convinced that Dil Bole Hadippa would charm me and delight me, and although bits of it did (and certainly, as I wrote previously, Rani Mukherjee did with her performance), it turned out that the film I initially had no desire to see would turn out to be the film that blew me away with it's brashness, boldness, and general chutzpah.
Now, mind you, I'm a little worried about next week -- when Do Knot Disturb releases. I have been so excited to see what David Dhawan and Govinda will do, I'm about ready to plotz. I'm thinking, after my Wanted/Dil Bole Hadippa experience, that maybe I should spend the next week lowering my expectations just a little bit.
Okay Wanted. You've convinced me. If I can find the time in the next very, very busy week, I will go and see the movie. I will go and see the movie just because of this new video clip. (Sorry, can't embed it here, Eros Entertainment has disabled embedding, and every other version of this clip out there is so fuzzy as to be unwatchable).
If you watch it, the moment that totally convinced me? Is not, surprisingly, the 1:47 mark, when Govinda appears. It is also, not, the 2:05 mark, when Prabhu Deva appears. It is, in actual fact, the 2:17 mark.
Govinda AND Prabhu Deva* dancing on screen. Now, how long will that last? Seconds. And that's all it took in terms of marketing to put my tush in a seat.
(Okay, so maybe it really says something totally pathetic about me. I can live with that.)
*For those not in the know, Prabhu Deva directed the Tamil film Pokkiri, which was a remake of a Telugu film called Pokiri. And Wanted is the Hindi remake of both of them, also directed and choreographed by Prabhu Deva.
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