CCC#3. Radev/Avina. - Page 40

Rating: 1.5/5 stars (One-and-half-Stars)

Star cast: Ajay Devgn, Tamannaah, Paresh Rawal, Mahesh Manjrekar, Zarina Wahab, Asrani

Director: Sajid Khan

What's Good: The film is exactly as good as its 1983 version

What's Bad: Un-hilarious stupidity and the tediously long narrative leaves you gasping

Loo break: Just stay in the loo. Don't bother coming back!

Watch or Not?: Sajid Khan's Himmatwala is not a remake but a bland spoof devoid of any logic. It is stupid and exhaustingly long. This one is surely a feat, the audiences aren't supposed to swallow down seriously!

User Rating:

266 Votes

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Fashioned exactly on the same story as its 1983 saga, the story is typical of that era.

Wronged mother, Savitri raises her son, Ravi to be strong enough to avenge the brutalities they have faced. Added with a Shakespearean sprinkle of Romeo and Juliet, enemies Ravi and Rekha fall for each other giving the film a love angle.

You must have surely chanced upon Jeetendra and Sridevi's Himmatwala! This is way worse given its 2013 and not 1983.

Himmatwala Review: Script Analysis

I don't think anyone except Sajid Khan could have found the script of Himmatwala interesting. Most ordinarily placed, the film is a merely blown up, melodramatically written revenge tale with not an ounce of intelligence in it. Sajid Khan goes a step forward to severe an already botched up over the top, nonsense script! Tailoring it to suit his whims, many crucial characters are unduly omitted while unimpressively few needless ones were added. If this is mainstream Bollywood, many of us would be thankful we weren't sensible enough to understand the 80s' genre of cinema as kids!

In the film, perhaps the most notable moment was Ajay's fight sequence with the tiger that leapt out straight from the sets of Ang Lee's Life of Pi. The script pointlessly wavers without any strong substance weaving out long standing animosities and romance in the most clichd way possible. That precisely is the point, the film works on clichs and if entertainment means that to you, you can have your pick and wallow in the dreadful pool of crass.

Himmatwala Review: Star Performances

Personally, the film made me miss the intense and passionate actor Ajay Devgn was, before mindless comedies got the better of him! He is obviously way more Himmatwala than Jeetendra was and performs his stunts with inexplicable exhibition of power and strength. Often you might chance glimpses of the serious actor he was, but the script with its dim witted dialogues and spoofy gags kills those moments unceremoniously. The film will be a sad cue for Rajinikanth however, because our leading man won against a tiger, fought off enemies with mandir ke ghante and with such ease picks up carts. All that was left for Khan to make Devgn do was climb Mount Everest without oxygen or feet!

Tamannaah is a disappointment. With a tendency of getting lost in a flood of actors, she fails dismally for her dull screen presence. She tried her best to replicate Sridevi's Rekha, with a commendably visible honest effort but that's all for her.

Mahesh Manjrekar almost matches up to Amjad Khan's Sher Singh and that alone is a compliment by itself. He puts his acting and notoriety skills to good use on screen, giving a ridiculous film few worthwhile and enriching moments.

Zarina Wahab is adequate in the role of strong willed Savitri. Her versatility could have been used more, but perhaps Sajid Khan prefers seriousness limited, looming large at places in his films.

It is Paresh Rawal who once again brings on screen sheer brilliance. As Narayan Das, he easily surpasses Kader Khan who played the loyalist in the original flick. With a perfect sense of acting timing, he towers over his co-actors who have meatier roles in the film.

Thank God, Sajid Khan was considerate enough to give us a musical respite. 6 dazzling item beauties of which you'll definitely not miss Sonakshi Sinha. However her gorgeous looks are dampened by the less energetic and dwindling disco track she sleep-dances through!

Himmatwala Review: Direction, Music & Technical Aspects

While harsh words ain't really my style of expressing, it is the turmoil Sajid Khan unnecessarily puts us through that gives mouth to the imp inside me. Luckily, the director refrains from recreating the original scene by scene, sparing us anymore pathos than the film already is. However, he deserves credit for understanding the 80s' genre of cinema in all its ornate frames and glossy flamboyance, almost alien to most of us bred largely in the nourishing air of intelligent contemporary cinema.

Technically, he has given a more lustrous look to the original Himmatwala, which is good. But still one would wonder if it is worth it, since it is surely no masterpiece and definitely no one really asked for a remake of it!

Composed of a few indecipherable lectures, the film drags on its drudgery for a painful two and half hours. Repetitive dialogues loaded with dim wit, the film could have done with some vital editing. The music is decent with the good ol' Taathaiya bringing alive a fuzzy nostalgic feel with it. The film's cinematography, dialogues and editing all could have used some neat work, yet they aren't the reasons for it to fail.

Alas, it's Sajid, Sajid, Sajid alone!

Himmatwala Review: The Last Word

Himmatwala demands excessive himmat from the audiences to sustain it through all its exasperating buffoonery laced with dim witted stupidity. Walk out of hall and queue up for the refund Sajid Khan promised you. See you there!

HIMMATWALA

Star rating: 1

Business rating: 1

UTV Motion Pictures and Pooja Entertainment And Films Ltd.'s Himmatwala (UA) is a remake of Himmatwala of the eighties. Ravi (Ajay Devgan) comes to Ramnagar to avenge the disgrace brought to his father, Dharam Murti (Anil Dhawan), years ago, by sarpanch Sher Singh (Mahesh Manjrekar), which had prompted him (father) to commit suicide. Ravi was a child then and had lived under the impression that his mother, Savitri, and sister were also dead but they had survived and were living in abject poverty on the outskirts of the village.

Ravi brings his mother (Zarina Wahab) and sister, Padma (Leena Jumani), back to their ancestral home in Ramnagar. But before that, he poses as a CBI officer from Delhi and threatens Sher Singh and his eccentric brother –in-law, Narayandas (Paresh Rawal).

As the drama progresses, Ravi falls in love with Rekha (Tamannah Bhatia), daughter of Sher Singh. Padma is in love with Shakti (Adhyayan Suman), son of Narayandas. Like a dutiful brother, Ravi gets Padma married to Shakti despite the fact that Sher Singh and Narayandas had led his father to end his life. But Padma soon realises her folly when Shakti and Narayandas torture her physically and mentally. They even ask her to tell Ravi to withdraw from the panchayat elections so that he would not be able to defeat Sher Singh who, in any case, is hated by the villagers who have been exploited by him (Sher Singh) over the years. Ravi wants to teach Shakti the lesson of his lifetime for torturing his sister but their mother won't hear of taking any extreme steps against the son-in-law.

It is then that Rekha steps in and asks Ravi to use her to teach her father a lesson. Rekha pretends to be pregnant with Ravi's child so that Sher Singh has no option but to plead with Ravi to marry Rekha so as to save the family honour. However, Ravi keeps putting conditions before Sher Singh prior to agreeing to marry Rekha, solely with a view to humiliating him and getting the lost honour of his deceased father restored.

Then, Shakti overhears Rekha telling Ravi that he (Ravi) isn't the real Ravi. Shakti spills the beans before his uncle, Sher Singh, who uses this piece of information to get back at Ravi. He exposes Ravi in front of the entire village. Ravi's mother, Savitri, is shocked that the young man she had thought to be her son wasn't her son. Meanwhile, Narayandas brings an army of street fighters to kill Ravi.

So what happens thereafter? Does Savitri forgive Ravi for impersonating her son? Do the street fighters kill Ravi? Does anyone come to Ravi's rescue? Does Rekha support Ravi or her father? Does Padma support husband Shakti or brother Ravi?

The film's story is the same as that of the old Himmatwala. The screenplay, penned by Farhad-Sajid and Sajid Khan, is too dated to appeal to today's audience. It has the melodrama of the eighties, which has gone completely out of fashion today. Likewise, the coincidences, so much in vogue back in the eighties, look ridiculous today. For instance, Ravi has to fall in love with Sher Singh's daughter as if there is no other girl in the village. While that is still somewhat understandable, if only because he tames her before falling in love with her, what isn't is the love affair between Padma and the son of Narayandas who had brought disgrace to their family. Besides, Padma has barely come to Ramnagar, so when did she meet Shakti, interact with him and fall so madly in love with him? The entire track of the husband and father-in-law ill-treating the wife/daughter-in-law looks weird because Padma couldn't have been so nave as to not have expected that that could be a possibility. Also, the angle of Sher Singh trying to expose Ravi in front of the villagers looks contrived because it doesn't concern the villagers who Ravi really is so long as he has done a world of good for them. The screenplay writers have tried to infuse comedy but the humour is so downmarket and so forced that the audience, especially the youth, would end up laughing at the humour, not with the comedy. The comic track of Narayandas, created due to his use of names of cities and towns (like, for instance, Dalhousie, Rajkot, etc.) in his dialogues, irritates the viewers no end. This track may have been the highlight in the old Himmatwala but three decades later, the track serves to agitate the audience because the dialogues sound weird.

There is a track of the tiger which may appeal to the masses but this very track will be found to be tacky and over-the-top by the city youth.

Actually, the entire drama is over-the-top and every character is loudness personified. Emotions fail to touch the heart. Romance is as good as missing. Action scenes would definitely appeal to the masses and front-benchers. Even some portions of the comedy would entertain the audience of the single-screen cinemas. Climax will appeal to a section of the masses only.

Dialogues, written by Farhad-Sajid and Sajid Khan, are dated and would've gone down well with the audiences 20 to 30 years ago.

Ajay Devgan is definitely not in his element. He seems to have tried to camouflage his embarrassment about being associated with this over-the-top drama. He is good in action scenes, fair in dramatic ones and embarrassingly bad in the dance sequences, especially in the 'Naino mein sapna' song. Tamannah Bhatia makes a dull debut. She looks average, wears loud clothes in the initial reels and does a very average job. Her dances are okay. Paresh Rawal tries his best to be natural and succeeds to an extent. Mahesh Manjrekar is like fish out of water. Zarina Wahab is too melodramatic for comfort. Adhyayan Suman hardly impresses. Leena Jumani passes muster. Rajendra Gupta, Anil Dhawan and Vindoo Dara Singh lend ordinary support. Asrani fails to entertain. Chunkey Panday lends fair support. Amruta Khanvilkar, Surveen Chawla, Mona Tripha, Sayantani Ghosh and Rinku Ghosh would not create an impact in the 'Dhokha dhokha' item song because many amongst the audiences would not even be able to recognise them. Sonakshi Sinha is okay in the 'Thank God, it's Friday' song.

Director Sajid Khan has tried to recreate the era of the eighties but has overlooked the fact that the audience has moved decades ahead. His narrative style caters to just a section of the single-screen cinema audiences. Sajid-Wajid's music is ordinary. The two songs ('Naino mein sapna' and 'Taki o taki') from the old Himmatwala are not as exciting and energetic as the old numbers. 'Dhokha dhokha' is quite good. 'Thank God, it's Friday' (composed by Sachin-Jigar) and 'Bum pe laat' are routine numbers. Lyrics (Sameer; 'Thank God, it's Friday' by Mayur Puri) are okay. Song picturisations (Farah Khan, Chinni Prakash and Ganesh Acharya) are alright. Sandeep Shirodkar's background music leaves something to be desired; it is too loud and, if one may say so, intruding sometimes. Manoj Soni's cinematography is eye-filling. Jai Singh Nijjar's action scenes and stunts will appeal to the masses. Sabu Cyril's sets are good. Nitin Rokade's editing is loose.

On the whole, Himmatwala faces a supremely uphill task at the ticket-windows. It will do well initially at the single-screen cinemas but will not find favour with the multiplex audience. Without much support coming in from the younger generation, it will go down in box-office history as a forgettable flop.

SEPARATE BOXES:

Plus points:

Action scenes and stunts

A couple of songs, to an extent

Minus points:

Dated drama

Too melodramatic for today's audience

Too loud

Irritating comedy

Seems as if it belongs to a different era altogether

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tamannah, Paresh Rawal, Mahesh Manjrekar, Zarina Wahab

Director: Sajid Khan

The Indian Express rating: *

At the end of two excruciating hours, the questions I had carried into the theatre remained unanswered. Why remake Himmatwala, which wasn't exactly scintillating cinema in the first place? What were the studios, producers, directors and stars thinking? And last, but not, as they say, the least, when, oh when will Bollywood's blind love affair with the 80s masala movies get over?

The Himmatwala of 1983, itself a remake of a Telugu blockbuster, was a comic actioner typical of its era. Villages with their 'bechara gaonwalas' and evil thakurs were leaving Bollywood's landscape, but slowly. So Jeetendra and Sridevi did jhatkas on beaches filled with techni-coloured matkas. One classic scene had the nicely- filled out Sri in a one-piece swimming costume squealing loudly in a pond with her sahelis. In other places, Sridevi wore tight 'pedal-pushers' (remember those?). And Jeetu in his high-waisted trousers and white shoes matched steps with Sri, and rescued his 'dukhiyari' 'ma' and long-suffering 'behen' and the put-upon villagers from their sad fate.

The new Himmatwala, with practically the same plot, and a lot of the same lines and situations, gives us Ajay Devgn and Tamannah as the brave Ravi and his lady love Rekha, Mahesh Manjrekar as the cruel 'sarpanch' and Paresh Rawal as his sidekick ( those with long memories will remember Amjad Khan and Kadar Khan in these roles). Instead of Waheeda Rehman, we get Zarina Wahab as the sobbing mother. And a film that is hard to sit through, not because it is all actively ghastly, but because it is so deathly listless. When I was not cringing, I was dozing.

... contd.

Himmat hai toh dekhke dikha!

Himmatwala

Director: Sajid Khan

Actors: Ajay Devgn, Mahesh Manjrekar

This isn't a film set in the 1980s. It's a film set strictly within the movies of the '80s, which makes it a rather odd sort of period film, and possibly the first of its kind. In most remakes, like Farhan Akhtar's Don, Karan Malhotra's Agneepath, or even for God's sake Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, the director retains the basic storyline and key characters of the original, but reinterprets the film in his own way. This is why it's called a remake rather than a plain copy.

Then there's the homage, for instance Farah Khan's wonderful Om Shanti Om or Milan Luthria's The Dirty Picture, where the filmmaker, through the setting and certain scenes, pays tribute to the cinema of another time. The older audiences knowingly smile and wink at the references, but enjoy the movie for its own worth. This Himmatwala on the other hand could have released alongside Jeetendra's film in 1983, and the effect would have been just the same.

Except that Ajay Devgn plays the 'Himmatwala' Ravi. The heroine, hired because she could pass for Sri Devi, is the 'Hunterwali' with a leash in her hands that she strikes at her driver because he didn't come to pick her up from the station. "I hate gareebs," she mutters repeatedly, two 'city girls' in strange uniforms and hats nod. This isn't exactly how she is after her brief intro. Exactly at what point does she start loving the gareebs and is willing to destroy her wealthy villain father is an existentialist question we would much rather avoid. There is too much fun to be had otherwise.

The basic premise of most mainstream films in the '80s – which is around the time Hindi movies earned itself the pejorative "Bollywood" or B-grade Hollywood – was pretty simple. The film, as we know, was meant to be a bhelpuri of some sort – emotion hai, drama hai, romance hai, action hai, sab kuch, sirf story nahin hai (only the story could be absent from the checklist). The producers, who like the hero were also men in whites, knew the audiences wouldn't mind, because they were firstly the audience themselves. And frankly, they didn't care so long as they could release several versions of the same film in record time.

These producers were also from the South. Hindi wasn't their strongest point. The lyrics of their songs then would defy general vocabulary and they could understand them better: the poetic 'Tathaiya Tathaiya Ho' and 'Taki Taki Re' have been reproduced here wholly from the original. The camera would also usually fondle the heroine's butt. It doesn't here. To give such gibberish some social purpose still, the hero of 1983 Himmatwala would mobilise villagers to help out victims of Gujarat floods. The hero before us needn't bother with any such old-school niceties – taming the tiger, his girl and the villains leaves him with very little energy.

He is in Ramnagar, where the most popular weapon is the Rampuri (chaku). He must avenge his father's death. His family – mother and sister – have been driven out of the village. The rich Sarpanch, essentially the Thakur of this gaon, has a sidekick whose son marries Ravi's sister. This son can torture Ravi's sister, because she is his wife now, and as her mother puts it, she can't leave him until she dies. Ravi meanwhile gets back at the Sarpanch by claiming to have impregnated his daughter. Now the villain is at the hero's mercy. Who would want to be born a woman in this manic world? Unless of course as Ravi announces, "Jab tak aurat par hoga jurm, tab tak insaan banega Himmatwala."

Himmatwala incidentally was a huge hit of its time when TV even in the form of Doordarshan wasn't really around. The audiences were only happy to witness the spectacle of big screen in theatres. Outside of certain pockets, I doubt the original movie has survived public memory. The only way to watch a film like this is to appreciate it for its sheer, unabashed lunacy. It's one of the reasons Kanti Shah's cheesy C-grade Gunda (1994), a movie in rhyming verse, is a cult hit on the Internet. This one is roughly modelled on the same lines. "Behen ka bhai, maa ka beta" is Himmatwala. Mahesh Manjrekar plays the main villain, a role better suited for Mohan Joshi. His minion mortgages his wife's mangal sutra to serve him mutton biryani. Paresh Rawal plays his sidekick – more or less aping Kader Khan. He directly talks to the camera, sometimes asking it to close-in, while he whispers, "Yeh haath hai ki hathoda? Keedon ki basti mein yeh kaun sa aa gaya makoda!"

You know where this flick belongs then. It's just hard to look at it on the day of its release as corny cult-bad, when it's also looking to crack over Rs 100 crores at the box-office. You just wish the filmmakers well. The serious superstar hero talks in Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi to secure his territories, and the loud background score celebrates the power of Allah and Maa Sherawali to pander to believers.

You sit inside the hall, peering at the horizon, hoping for the end. My only friend: The End. It does appear, with the words, "It's a Sajid Khan entertainer." To be fair to the director, even he doesn't call it a film. It certainly isn't. I just wonder what happens if it starts another trend. What, are we going to start playing marbles and picking up Ludo, and Snakes & Ladders, as well?