When the real star is not a Khan or Kapoor!

Page

Silence

@SecretKhabri420

Achiever

+ 9

Posted: 17 years ago

Hi friends,

When the real star is not a Khan or Kapoor!

'Who's there in it?'

'What's it all about?' The chronology of curiosity remains unchanged. And so you can't really blame Bollywood for doting on its stars. Most filmmakers are willing slaves to this star system and don't want to settle for anything less than a Khan, Kumar or Kapoor. While stars and their presence are known to draw a fair amount of hype and box-office opening, it doesn't necessarily guarantee a competent movie. That's when the true albeit outrageously neglected star of a film comes in play -- its script. A genuinely good movie isn't dependent on stars to get its due. rediff.com takes a look at recent examples of the same. Rock On!! 'Music makes the people come together', chants Madonna. Rock On!! is a case in the point. The musical -- featuring Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny and Purab Kohli -- has garnered encouraging critical and commercial response. And with valid reason. Director Abhishek Kapoor's story of friendship, deferred dreams and nagging frustration through the medium of a rock band strikes a chord with its audience because of its gripping narrative, identifiable situations and easy-to-relate with characters and attitudes.

Text: Sukanya Verma

Aamir

First impressions are best impressions. That's extraordinarily true as far as debutant director Rajkumar Gupta goes.

His hard-hitting Aamir, sans any of the filmi trappings or starry presences, tells the chilling story of its titular character without beating around the bush. The desperation and havoc in Rajeev Khandelwal's body language is brilliant conveyed as he lets in the viewer through those unending hours of mental agony and physical torment.

Gupta keeps it aloof yet restrained allowing the subject's inherent brutal intensity to be bolstered by a prevalent communal discord against Mumbai's un-glamorous backdrop.

Taare Zameen Par

It's especially laudable when a popular star decides to break out of the mould. Perhaps that's what makes Aamir Khan's entry in the field of direction so special. He set his heart and sensibilities into Amol Gupte's story and its outcome was meaningful and memorable cinema. The emotional and genuine Taare Zameen Par, still collecting accolades after its ingenious packaged DVD came out, made an impact owing its magnified sensitivity and deep-rooted understanding of a child's psyche. A film so profound with moments and sequences, which could connect with the child you were once. Of course, a bundle of brilliance named Darsheel Safary did a lot to contribute.

Sure there was Aamir Khan, but only in the capacity of a familiar face. The script, without any doubt, remains the real taara.

Khosla Ka Ghosla

The average Hindi film audience is mostly family-oriented, a bit on the emotional side and bears his own stamp of quirky wit, a trait so effortlessly mirrored in Khosla Ka Ghosla.

Dibakar Banerjee's keen direction and Jaideep Sahni's spontaneous script, thumbed down big names and sleek production values, to produce a film so authentic in nature and sly in approach, you couldn't help but cheer for the endearing Khoslas in their battle of the wits against the burly Khurana. Tit for Tat never looked better than this!

Gangster

Anurag Basu's action thriller was so crisp and confident. It refused to go wrong. And it didn't. A fabulous soundtrack only added to its grip on its stylish and racy proceedings.

Basu's astute sense of technique and weakness for complex characters found its groove in the unpredictable yet rock-solid story-line of Gangster.

Still struggling to find a foothold in the industry, Gangster's success made stars out of Shiney Ahuja, Emraan Hashmi and newcomer Kangana Ranaut.

Link:

https://specials.rediff.com/movies/2008/sep/04slide1.htm

Edited by farislove - 17 years ago

Quote

Frequent Posters

Aaliya

@Aaliya-Rafa

Inactive

Posted: 17 years ago

I loved Khosla ka Ghosla, Taare Zameen Par and Aamir. I didn't watch Gangster so I can't comment on it and I have yet to watch Rock on. But I agree that it's not about big names.....a good script is important for a film. The films mentioned above have shown that you don't need big stars for a film to click with the audience.

Thanx for posting.

Quote

Looks like you are new here. Register for free, learn and contribute.

Hira

@friends_rock

Sparkler

+ 2

Posted: 17 years ago

I loved Rock on TZP Aamir gangster....yes its all about the good scripts and good perfomances.who carez whos starrring in the movie!

Quote

Silence

@SecretKhabri420

Achiever

+ 9

Posted: 17 years ago

Originally posted by: friends_rock

I loved Rock on TZP Aamir gangster....yes its all about the good scripts and good perfomances.who carez whos starrring in the movie!

I think Rajeev's performance it self in ''Aamir'' is super MASHALLAH, the climax of the film is very strong with his performance MASHALLAH!!!!!!!, I don't think any other actor would had done this role better than him!!!!!!.........

Quote

JhansiKiRani

@Mrignaini

Dazzler

+ 4

Posted: 17 years ago

Kangana blew me away with her acting,she was so real, could really feel her pain. I hope she'll go far, she's a raw talent.😊
TFS

Quote

Zoya

@Zoe28

Inactive

Posted: 17 years ago

ive only seen ganster and tzp out of these movies although id lie to see them three films as well. both ganster and tzp were fantastic films, the story's were well written and the performances were mindblowing, also i really liked the way they managed the subject of dyslexia delicately and as for gangster i liked the concept and the twist in the story, both those films showed all films need to do well are good stories and good actors, by good actors i mean people who act well not big names, i preferred those movies over oso any day even though i love srk, i even like them more than sik even though akshay is the king.

Quote

TheBlackJaguar

@TheBlackJaguar

Trailblazer

+ 5

Posted: 17 years ago

I agree completely. Taare Zameen par is a landmark film in the history of Indian cinema ...Aamir was brilliant and hard-hitting, Khosla ka Ghosla was very well-written and casting was PERFECTO.....Gangster was a movie of it's kind - dark, hopeful and playing with vices and virtues of human nature.....

If we as an audience can appreciate absolute crap like OSO, BAH, Welcome, Singh is King, Partner etc,. we can surely appreciate genuinely good film-making when such films come out.

The author should have mentioned BLACK , CDI and Rang de basanti too.... in these films, nobody saw the stars....people saw striking characters embedded in the fabric of brilliant scripts and path-breaking film-making.

I prefer a Shimit Amin , a Rakesh Om Mehra , a SLB, a Anurag Basu , a Rituparno Ghosh , an Aamir Khan anyday to give us good sensible cinema in comparison to the likes of KJO, Farah Khan , Sajid Khan etc who make confetti in the name of films... thank you, very much.

Edited by nitica_82 - 17 years ago