Opinion

Reel Patriots

KJo’s movies have only enriched the wedding industry

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Reel Patriots
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So Karan Johar has finally buckled under pressure! He has made a solemn pledge to refrain from roping in Pakistani actors for his future ventures, owing to threats of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers to disrupt the screening of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (ADHM) and the decision of the single-theatre owners’ association to steer clear of his mega Diwali release. All this happened simply because Johar has Fawad Khan, the Pakistani poster boy, plays a cameo in his upcoming movie. Johan’s films have hardly been known for aesthetic, cinematic sense. In fact, his banner has churned out, at regular intervals, run-of-the-mill flicks packaged in glossy covers to paper over the flagrant lack of solid content. Many believe his brand of movies has enriched the wedding apparel industry in the country more than the Bollywood oeuvre. In the past 18 years, his cin­ema has come to be known for regressive storylines which provide no uplifting experience to movie-goers yearning for quality cinema.

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But the ongoing protests have nothing to do with that. They are all about casting a Pakistani actor at a time when our bilateral ties with Pakistan are at a new low.

This is, however, not a new experience for Johar. In 2008, he had to make peace with Raj Thackeray after MNS cadres objected to the use of Bombay instead of Mumbai in his Ranbir Kapoor-starrer, Wake Up Sid. Two years later, his directorial venture, My Name is Khan, ran into a similar trouble because its lead actor, Shahrukh Khan, had Pakistani players in the IPL’s Kolkata Knight Riders franchisee. But the latest row has certainly unnerved him.

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Johar could have taken any good looking actor from Mumbai, but he had the liberty to choose Fawad, who played one of the leads in his last hit, Kapoor & Sons, earlier this year. Nobody can blame him for that. After all, Pakistan has emerged as a good market for Bollywood films and the presence of a popular Pakistani actor has never harmed any movie back home. With the absence of any top-notch Khan in ADHM, Johar wanted to rope in the 35-year-old heart-throb from Karachi.

Johar has been getting support from votaries of free cultural exchange between the two countries, but they might as well have liked him to withstand the pressure, so as to underline his creative licence. But, with crores of rupees and his reputation as a film-maker at stake, he thought it better to give in.

In any case, his movie has already had its fair quota of controversies, beginning with Ajay Devgan’s allegation that self-styled reviewer and part-time actor-director Kamal Rashid Khan had admitted to having received money from Johar not to pan ADHM. Devgan apparently felt that Khan would end up blasting his film, Shivaay, which is set to clash with ADHM during Diwali.

Whether or not all this is part of a cut-throat Bollywood game, Johar should hope that all controversies will die a natural death before ADHM’s release, just like it had happened with Wake Up Sid and My Name is Khan. ADHM stars Ranbir Kapoor, who has not had a big hit for quite some time, and Aishwarya Rai, whose comeback vehicle, Jaz­baa, was a commercial disaster. Both need a big hit desperately. But it is Johar himself who needs to deliver not only a commercial success, but also prove his movie-making credentials to redeem his image.

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Ever since his 1998 directorial venture, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, the 44-year-old’s ventures might have raked in a lot of moolah, but none of them ever earned critical acclaim. His films are never bereft of stunning visuals—a veritable riot of colours—depicting elaborate weddings, karwa chauth rituals and fun-filled song-and-dance sequences. But Johar never evolved into a thinking audience’s director, like his contemporaries Anurag Kashyap, Sujay Ghosh or Shoojit Sircar. As a viewer, one can often detect the director in him getting overpowered by the designer in him.

With or without the controversies, Johar needs to deliver solid substance this time to match his astounding sense of style. He had spoilt his chances in the past, with Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and My Name is Khan. One expects him now to come up with a gripping tale of human relations in ADHM, instead of dishing out yet another couturier’s delight. That should be his fitting response to those who are questioning his wisdom to sign actors from an ‘enemy nation’.

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