Just when we thought September at the movies was a washout, what with The Buckingham Murders performing abysmally at the box office at the start of the month, on came Devara Part 1 at the end of the month.
The combined conflict between NTR Jr and Saif Ali Khan has once again set the box office on fire. The action is absurdly riveting, almost animalistic in its fury and yet conveying the coolth of a comic book experience. In the absence of a coherent and engrossing plot especially in the second half when things spiral out of hand speedily, Devara is a magnificent misfire with Janhvi Kapoor being miscast. If she forgets whose daughter she is, so will the audience.
This month saw the big screen debut of two star kids, one a producer’s daughter Dhvani Bhanushali in Kahan Shuroo Kahan Khatam, a tawdry cocktail of Jab We Met and Tanu Weds Manu, the offering was was khatam even before being shuroo.
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Anil Dhawan’s daughter Anjini got her star cousin Varun Dhawan to put in a word. But that didn’t help much.Binny & Family was so cliched from shuroo to khatam, it felt like one of those Baghban ripoffs that came two decades too late. The redoubtable Pankaj Kapoor struggled with a role so straitlaced it felt like a Doordarshan propaganda film on family ‘planning’ to a foreign country. What a cliche!
While star kids were below par this month, so was outsider Siddhant Chaturvedi in the disastrously misguided Yudhra. As for Raghav Juyal, he was so impactful in his action avatar in Kill just a few months ago. In Yudhra, his character seemed confused about his sexuality, while Siddhant, a poor chap, seemed lost in a sea of fake blood. Chaturvedi, playing the titular bulldozer, had little scope or occasion to act, except in the pre-climax. Yudhra sobs. The audience in the theatre burst out laughing. Chaturvedi’s dreams of hero-giri ended right there.
The best feature-film experience of September was Jo Tera Hai Woh Mera Hai directed by Raj Trivedi and written by Aditya Rawal . Ajay G Rai whose JAR Pictures has been associated with quality cinema like Liars Dice, Moothon, Hummingbird, andGurgaon, has kept the spirit of excellence alive in Jo Tera Hai Woh Mera Hai.