For the latest installment in an empty-headed franchise, Dhoom 3 sets its sights surprisingly high. This isn’t so much a bikes-and-babes tableau as an Angry Young Man saga (think Trishul on steroids), driven by the desire for revenge. Where the references in the earlier Dhoom films came from Hollywood capers, this one harks back to the kind of Bollywood masala – the plot twist in Akayla comes instantly to mind – where victory comes with a hefty price tag. The ending is suitably heavy. This story might have made a great drama, but by shoehorning it into the Dhoom template, the director Vijay Krishna Acharya squanders its possibilities. The movie on page and the movie on screen seem to have little in common. On page, we sense long-festering soul scars and fraternal discord and a love triangle with jagged edges – all of which would have merited the nearly three-hour running time. On screen, we see endless slo-mo posturing and a series of the most boring bike chases ever committed to film. We search in vain for the fast-forward button.
The scenarios are dull. The face-offs are flat. The set pieces are flabby, uninspired – we don’t get a single heist sequence, and the much-hyped Malang number pales in front of the eye-popping Cirque du Soleil staging of the Baawre song sequence in Luck by Chance. And the performances are all over the place. Uday Chopra and Katrina Kaif (who has a terrific dance number early in the film) appear to be in the stakes-free Dhoom zone. They’re, consequently, the easiest to take. The others in the cast are in heavy-duty drama mode, and only Jackie Shroff displays a semblance of panache. Had he been younger, he’d have been perfect for the part of the cop, which Abhishek Bachchan plays joylessly, as if his entire family had been slaughtered in the first reel. As for Aamir Khan, this film’s reason for being, he hasn’t played to the gallery like this in a while – and not in a good way. Like the rest of the film, he’s split in two, between drama and (unintentional) comedy. Where’s star quality when you really need it?
Copyright ©2013 Baradwaj Rangan. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
December 23, 2013
Even I was thinking ‘Trishul’ when ‘Dhoom:3’ ended. Great analysis, Baradwaj.
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Abhirup
December 23, 2013
“Had he been younger, he’d have been perfect for the part of the cop, which Abhishek Bachchan plays joylessly, as if his entire family had been slaughtered in the first reel.”
True enough, but I don’t think it’s his fault. The ‘Dhoom’ franchise, for reasons the makers know best, uses the antagonist as the fulcrum, focusing on him at the expense of all other characters. It’s the antagonists who are presented as stylish and sympathetic and smart and larger-than-life, and the supposed “hero”–Jai Dixit–is no more than a prop to enable these uber-cool thieves to display their skills and charisma. With such a thankless role, I doubt if even Pacino or Olivier would have been able to do much. My biggest complain with this franchise, in fact, has been precisely this: that there’s no real conflict. The deck is stacked so heavily in favour of the villains that the clash between them and the “hero” lacks any urgency. The conclusions are always foregone.
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Rajeev
December 23, 2013
Dunno if you’ve seen this, but…..
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Utkal Mohanty
December 23, 2013
Dhoom 3 is the film that has surprised me the most this year. Nothing that I had read or heard had prepared me for this. I knew this would be different from the earlier Dhoom films, but this different? It has nothing in common with the non-thinking speed-driven bikes, gals and hunks film s that the earlier two were. This is good storytelling at its best, and quite an ambitious story it is.. an epic one fact, closest in spirit to the better superhero movies that Hollywood makes, closer to something like Endhiran/Robot in term s of having heart at the core of its superficial action trapping.
The story-telling is surprisingly lean and muscular. They have cut out all the flab. Inspector’s Jay ‘s wife has been totally erased out of the scene. The temptation to use Aaliya in the action or the heist sequences have been scrupulously resisted. Ali’s comic antique’s are minimal, crisp and are never extended . Even the three songs used in the film have solid narrative context and are picturized with imagination and restraint. Right from the first frame the plot unfolds with single-minded focus. This kind of narrative integrity is rare these days.
The story itself , like the best of epic stories has allegorical and metaphorical dimensions, symmetry and epiphany. The choice of villain itself is a stroke of genius…it is a BANK. It is the BANK that Shahir wants to destroy, not a banker. It is the institution and system that’s the culprit not the in individual. Now how far can you get away from the formula plots of Bollywood or even most of Hollywood?
The villainous nature of the bank is well articulated. Iqbal the owner of the Great Indian circus wants to raise circus to a higher level, while the bankers expect a pretty girl in short skirt to shove her head into the mouth of a hippopotamus – cheap thrills in other words.
Then there is the question of dual identities and one’s domination of the other. The beautiful thing about the film is that none of these is made obvious or overplayed. At the same time, these concerns are concretized in a very real way. When Samar gets out of his box on A Sunday we share his sense of elation as he feels the wind on his face. We can feel his awkward love for Aaliya, we share his thrill in his discovery of his ability to make friends.
I had mentioned in one of my earlier pieces about how love , from Shakespeare through Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky to Sartachandra and Tagore to K Asif , Raj Kapoor and Bimal Roy, has been the trigger for and an expression of rebellion and individual assertion. It is only the love for Aaliya that makes Samar confront Shahir, wanting to get out of the former’s shadow. Converting this into a plot sequence where Samar wants to take Shahir’s place is a brilliant piece of writing. So are the sequences where aaliya kisses Samar and bids goodbye to him on the train. There is poetry in these sequences. Just as there is drama in the sequence where it is Shahir that confronts Inspector Jai instead of Samar.
The wonderful symmetry, the hallmark of all great epic stories, is manifest here in the fact that the breakthrough trick that Iqbal was unsuccessfully trying to impress the bankers with is the very trick with which Shahir-Samar avenge their father.
AS I mentioned, except for the bike chase sequences which are meant to be continuing link with the Dhoom franchise, there is not a single extraneous scene outside of the main arc of the plot. Even aaliya and her romantic track are so central to the narration unlike in the earlier Dhoom films. Her intro song is a sensual and spatial delight. The Malang song too is not only spectacular, it is also crucial in establishing the central trick as well as the feelings of Samar for Aaliya. The way the song Tu Junnon, Tu Karar takes off from the diary jottings of Samar is a pointer to the lightness and considered touch with which Vijaya Krishna handles the film. The ‘hath nahin chhodna , saath nahin chhodna’ climax could have turned ludicrous if it was not a reprise of the ladder episode involving the young Shahir and Samir.
The film’s audacious ambition does not falter mainly because of Vijya Krihna’s writing and aamir’s performance. Like he has done in Lagaan , DCH, RDB , Ghajini and 3 idiots, Aamir internalizes the characters and becomes Shahir and Samar. The confrontation scenes between Sahir and Samar and the dating scene between Samar and Aalia show Aamir at his well-defined and yet restrained best.
The crucial thing to note here is that this is nota Dhoom film at all and is not meant to be. Yes Aamnir is no Hritik or John Abraham. We always knew that, it only gets reestablished. It is not a mindless, time pass film. And Aamir is an actor and not a hunk. I have seen parts of Dhoom 1 on TV and slept trough most of Dhoom 2, which I did watch on screen. The only things I remember from that film are the Crazy Liy Re dance sequence by Ash, the wonderful moves to the title track by Hritik, and some comic caper by Uday Chopra in Spain or wherever it was supposed to be.
Here I did not lose attention even for a minute, though it was a late night shgow. I did not check my Facebook account on mu mobile even once. I was riveted from start to end. Aliya says to Shahir in the film, “ The five minutes are long over. Now you can look away’. I have been trying’, Shahir replies. It is 3.40 am now and tomorrow is a working day. But I cannot get the film out of my head..especially scenes of Samar and Jay where Samar so simplemindedly trusts Jay, exhilarated by his new-found discovery of ‘friendship’.
My respect for Aamir’s script sense has gone a couple of notches higher. This is fantastic reworking of Nolan’s material, much superior to Ghajini, where the climax depended so much on gratuitous violence. Here too they could have copped out by choosing to stage an action and chase climax. But they chose to seek a denouement based on the emotional core on which the film was founded.
Brave indeed!
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Di
December 23, 2013
was waiting for your review before going to the movie. Most people have panned it.
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Ceaser
December 23, 2013
@BR
Man you post this review this late (to quote yourself ,would’ve been better off reviewing sree 420) and this stub is what you put out as a review , terrible man. More disappointed with you than the film(just guess the extend of it).
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Rajesh
December 23, 2013
I really don’t know how people make these films (Chennai Express, Krissh3) as 200crore or 300 crore grosser ?
Have people become so mean ?
When will people wake up from getting misled (attracted by strong magnets/marketing) ?
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Utkal
December 23, 2013
Dhoom 3 is not about bikes and babes, just as Skyfall is not about gadgets and gals. It is about angst and loss, retribution and redemption.
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Harish S
December 23, 2013
when I see movies like these I wish hindi films have directors like KSR, Dharani or even Hari. In their heydays they were so good at giving full blown entertainment. They didn’t need great story or logic in their films. Yet their formulaic films had some grip in the narrative and it only played out according to the strengths of the trump cards they used.
And what is wrong with Aamir. I thought he was a good actor – but it turns out he is a typical director’s actor – which sure works out well when the director is clear as to what works – but not here in these kind of masala films where director is interested only in visual grandeur. Stars need to create an unique persona for people to whistle at in these kind of films. To my surprise Ajith did it splendidly in Villain under KSR.
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Anoop
December 23, 2013
You’re so right, BR. The slo-mo can be the single most dissuading factor.
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rnjbond
December 23, 2013
Harsher review than I expected. I thought the action scenes were awesome and Aamir Khan did a great job.
However, what really bothered me was the whole premise of the plot.
*mild spoiler*
Honestly, the whole movie makes the bank look like they’re the bad guys… but why? Because the circus defaulted on its loan and the bank wanted their money back? It just didn’t make any sense…
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Rajesh
December 23, 2013
Hope we can get review of Thalaimuraigal
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KayKay
December 23, 2013
Woah! If the year’s most anticipated Bollywood Blockbuster only managed to eke out 2 paragraphs from you, then I can only guess at how underwhelming the experience of viewing it must have been!
“a series of the most boring bike chases ever committed to film”
-Not surprising, this is an Indian movie after all
“The face-offs are flat.”
– Now this is surprising, for this is an INDIAN movie after all. I thought these type of in-your-face confrontations, replete with verbal fireworks and one-liner jousting are stuff our filmmakers can ace in their sleep.
“the part of the cop, which Abhishek Bachchan plays joylessly, as if his entire family had been slaughtered in the first reel”-
Perhaps his stodginess stems from the awareness that the only thing keeping his career afloat is the Dhoom franchise:-)
Now I’ll just sit back and await the arrival of the Defenders of Bollywood Fluff to crawl out of the woodworks, brandishing the latest box-office stats and chanting slogans of “paisa vasool” and “my milkman’s second cousin, who drives an auto, saw this 5 times” to justify the sheer awesomeness of this movie.
Carry on!
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chhote saab
December 23, 2013
Wow ! Even though I was not expecting a good review, I thought Aamir Khan would somehow get a favorable review for his performance or at least his effort (I haven’t seen the film). It must be really bad or maybe it is the case of your higher expectations from Aamir Khan. But then, in a Dhoom franchise, even with Aamir Khan, you should not expect more than a braindead, well shot action movie – but it doesn’t even seem to meet that expectation!
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vikram
December 23, 2013
IMHO, Aamir Khan has been totally miscast as the main antagonist- he lacks the star presence/ rivetting & larger than life screen persona needed to walk in slow-mo towards the camera…the other milder performance comes with so many hammy touches that it reminds you of Hrithik Roshan in Koi Mil Gaya…the only scenes worthwhile were the scenes in front of the mirror & the sunday scenes at the amusement park…also too much time spent on tell rather than show…we might watch masala stuff but hey, we do have a brain…the only other thing is that this is a masala film completely set abroad…maybe that explains the few characters seen on screen (6-7)
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Anuj
December 23, 2013
Aamir Khan cannot match the style,persona and x factor of Hrithik Roshan. No wonder they needed a boring done to death back story to pull this one off. And yet Aamir Khan makes a hash of it on most occassions. Definitely not at par with the first 2 installments. Time for them to sign up HR once more for the 4th edition if they decide to make one!
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Anurag
December 23, 2013
Great piece of writing Mr. Brangan. Concise but very precise. To be honest you could have as well stopped at ‘Trishul on steroids’ as that had me do ROFL and got me bowled over instantly and i pretty much predicted the rest. On a side note, wow such extreme difference in the ‘Perspective’ – Yours and Utkal Mohanty’s. I wonder if both of you watched the same film.
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auroravampiris
December 23, 2013
Wait. Is it at least FUN? Even if it’s not satirical fun like Dabangg… is it at least schlocky fun? I can live with more schlocky fun in the world.
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Sam
December 24, 2013
You can’t be too demanding with something like this, but I was disappointed on a few very basic levels. How can they have a heist movie with no heists shown? Yes they are stupid, but the heists in Dhoom 2 are so silly and inventive. I understand this is a slightly more serious film, but we never see Aamir tricking, outsmarting, scheming, or doing much of anything really. The “trick” he does in the aftermath of his heists seems unnecessary. I feel like he could have accomplished the same thing without the “trick.” (Sorry to sound silly here, I just don’t want to give anything away). All we see are the chases, and the only reason the cops couldn’t catch him is because they are grossly incompetent. I wish the action scenes had been more…Indian. I had great fun with the action scene in India, which is full of absurd stunts and gags. Later, I liked the tricks with Aamir’s bike, and the gag with all of those cars just continuing to pile up. The action highlight was the bike showdown between Aamir and Abhishek, which is a great piece of masala intensity. The rest of the action, though, is just really bland chase scenes. Tashan had better action scenes. I was also disappointed by how Malang was staged.
I actually enjoyed the film quite a bit overall. It’s definitely fun. But with some more effort in the script and more inspired direction it could have been a great entertainer rather than just a good one. I thought the trailer was really killer and was expecting a movie that made Dhoom 2 look like Dhoom 1, but this might be a bit below Dhoom 2 for me.
I like Acharya’s sensibilities and I happen to really like this franchise but I wouldn’t mind seeing another cook in the kitchen. I never thought much of Gadhvi as a director until we saw the film without him.
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Lidia
December 24, 2013
Comparison between Baawre (Luck by Chance) and Malang doesn’t work for me. I agree that the former was a more impressive dance number but the way the sequences are used in the respective films is very different. Baawre is – for all intents – an item number (Hrithik is more a symbol than a character in that film). In Luck by Chance the song could have been set anywhere and had any theme – all it needed to do was offer Hrithik a vehicle for
his moves. Malang had to use the set characters in a convincing circus ACT which could 1) advance the story 2) be referenced on two later occasions and 3) which connected to the
magician’s past. (This type of dance/song scene is harder to craft) It is not just a kinaesthetic joy-fest but a multi- purposed structural device. And I would argue that it fulfilled this role most decoratively. Reminded me a bit of Raj’s dream in Awaara. If comparing songs then compare like with like – purpose rather than theme is a better basis for comparison.
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KayKay
December 24, 2013
Anuj, Ah! There you are, boy! Right on Cue! Job well done, boy! Now get back down on your knees and pucker up, before His Holy Eight Packs goes limp and your lips get cold.
BTW, reading the review here and other sites less discreet about revealing spoilers, the movie seems to have borrowed some of it’s plot points generously from Chris Nolan’s magnificent The Prestige and a lightweight but entertaining piece of fluff from Louis Letterier called Now You See Me that nevertheless featured the magnificent Mark Ruffalo.
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MANK
December 24, 2013
Dhoom3 reminded me of a badly done shankar movie .Where a system is the main villain instead of a person. So the hero goes about robbing and fooling it . Not to mention the umpteen rip offs of hollywood films.But without any schlocky fun that these film provides. Here the makers take this too seriously and try to tweak a melodramatic tale into the dhoom template. Hell why the hell didn’t they make that as a stand alone film with Aamir khan instead of trying to fit it in the dhoom franchise.Yeah also the thrishul and akayla comparisons are spot on.I thought the location photography and action scenes were pretty good though.As for Aamir khan , i guess he internalized his performance too much while what was required of him was to let it go like he did in RDB or Rangeela .
I don’t know whether utkal is writing about dhoom3 or is he still reminiscing about ramleela about which he has already written marathon posts.Using terms like ‘poetic’ and ‘great epic story’ etc to describe this and to find link here with Shakespeare through Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky to Sartachandra and Tagore to K Asif ,ROFL.
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Ceaser
December 24, 2013
Rajeev:that was great fun,Perfectly sums up yashraj films.
Anuj , dude agree with u about AK- HR comparisons.D films require posers,stylists and strutters,not actors. 🙂 . As for 4th edition , please don’t be so sadistic. 🙂 Haven’t recovered from this one.
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KayKay
December 24, 2013
“How can they have a heist movie with no heists shown”
Sam,
Heard of Reservoir Dogs?
Or….can a revenge movie get away with giving you the briefest of glimpses into the atrocity that triggers the heroine’s “roaring rampage of revenge”?
Heard of Kill Bill?
Or….can a war movie actually getaway without depicting any battle scenes?
Heard of Inglourious Basterds?
You can do all this and more. But first India needs to produce a filmic savant in the league of Lord Tarantino
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Abhirup
December 24, 2013
MANK and kaykay, thanks for your comments. It’s incredible, really, that one can compare something as insignificant as ‘Dhoom 3’ with the works of Shakespeare, Tagore et all. No less incredible is the incessant wet dreams one can have over a third-rate actor like hrithik roshan, whose act in ‘dhoom 2’ was so supremely annoying.
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MANK
December 24, 2013
@KayKay
Buddy you mean to say that you haven’t seen this one. Ridiculous. How the fuck did they gross 200crs in 4 days.As for borrowing plot points from other films , well bro they are too many to list.Its easier to list the no of original ideas in this one and you can guess that easily. :-). And why rile up our ‘little bro’ with comments about mr holy 8 packs.The guy seems to be to be quite down at the moment.Hope they make d4 as he suggests. mr holy 8 packs needs all the money now to pay for alumni . 🙂
@Sam
Agree with you about acharya and Tashan. Actually i liked tashan in a rather campy way and akshay kumar was great in it.So i had similar expectations about D3 and Aamir Khan . That’s why this level of disappointment ,
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Rajeev
December 24, 2013
@Ceaser – Thanks 😀
@Anuj – You again? *sigh* Man, how many times do we have to deal with you and your obsession with Hrithik?
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anujsharma587
December 24, 2013
Dunno about posers or stylists,but they’d definitely do without dwarfs delivering garbage after garbage to their worthless fans whose cinematic tastes are neither here nor there and one’s who consider Ghatiya Dhobis and The-Laashes to be classics and yet pay more to watch a desi Superhero flying amok before coming online and weeping out loud 😀 And yeah,i’d probably prefer a Lakshya-2 to a Doom-4 though both propositions are more lucrative than watching a dwarf painstakingly labouring through his dialogues or a stammer spreading his arms out for the 100001st time!
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anujsharma587
December 24, 2013
Wow did someone just say “Holy Eight packs”? Only a glutton with a belly of the size of a bulldozer would use such terminology!
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Rahul Tyagi
December 24, 2013
the level of discourse here made me look up many times to make sure I am on the page I was intending to be on.
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Sam
December 25, 2013
@kaykay I suppose I misspoke when I asked if we can have a heist movie with no heist. It’s definitely possible, and a film like Reservoir Dogs works because it’s all about the aftermath. In the case of Dhoom 3 though, I feel that was a huge missing element as this is about the cat and mouse chase of cops and robbers. Even if you feel they chose to focus more on the emotional elements rather than the thrills of the heists, I still feel it is necessary on a story and character level. We never actually see Aamir be a brilliant thief, and the only reason he is impossible to catch is because the Chicago police force is is the second coming of the keystone cops. Show, don’t tell. Bad writing, or maybe they ran out of money.
I’m curious what was left on the cutting room floor. I know somebody who worked on the film when they shot at the Grand Canyon, but I don’t recall any of that footage in the film. He said it was for the final action scene, so I wonder if they originally had the climax set there and then scrapped it and went with a different location (I think that was the Hoover Dam).
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KayKay
December 25, 2013
MANK, I’m not surprised Susanne split.
She most likely walked in on Anuj giving His Royal Prettiness a Flesh Flute Recital and decided she couldn’t possibly compete with such devotion 🙂
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Udhay Sankar
December 25, 2013
Expected a thrashing in order…but you reviewed the movie for what it is….”The wolf of Wall Street” expecting the review with the release..Meanwhile Advance Happy New Year(@ur fan)…
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Abhirup
December 25, 2013
“Dwarfs” who can act are preferable to beefcakes who can’t. hrithik roshan belongs squarely in the second category.
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sachita
December 25, 2013
anujsharma587, so what if some one is a dwarf? i hate how insensitively people throw this word around, as if it is an offensive.
And also on the other question of who is actually paying to watch d3, who is actually exorbitant money for watching a lot of crap this year – quite a few ridiculous movies have becomes super hits, isnt it?
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neerja
December 25, 2013
Is this a review?
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Anuj
December 25, 2013
Dunno what category HR belongs to but some dolt here definitely belongs to the category of blockheads willing to pay out of his pocket to catch almost every film of a superstar whom he considers to be a non actor or some dullard willing to speculate on a breakups and what not!
Back to the review,i guess he’s gotten a bit puzzled between Deewar and Trishul. This one’s more of a Deewar on steroids although the midget does make a hash of it like he does with a lot of his films!
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Anuj
December 25, 2013
@Sanchita:Maybe you might have a come across a lot of ridiculous nonsense becoming super hits but i didn’t. The only thing i did notice are worthless reviewers’ giving thumbs ups to unbearable Raasleela’s,not so Shudh romances and bankrupt Cafe’s and the usual miniscule bunch of fraudulent intellectuals among the audiences seconding their opinions on blogs,tweets and various other online forums!
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neerja
December 26, 2013
So much hatred for a dwarf. So much venomous comments. Is this becoming a typical hate forum venting out frustrations when some other hero gets a big hit?
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Afridi
December 26, 2013
Fittingly short review for a movie that represents some of the worst vices of Bollywood today: plagiarism, style over substance and a tendency for actors to rely on their star status to substitute for good acting. Oh, and did I mention plagiarism?
I’m waiting for your take on Endrendrum Punnagai – a misogynistic claptrap I had the misfortune of watching and for which there seems to be a dearth of reviews I can agree with.
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Abhirup
December 26, 2013
“Dunno what category HR belongs to”
Beefcake non-actor category. I told you already. Oh wait, I forgot that you take days to comprehend what the rest of us can manage in seconds. Can’t expect anything more from the fan of a crappy non-actor.
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MANK
December 26, 2013
@Sam
You really want to look at what was left on cutting room floor. Haven’t you seen enough for 3 hrs of your life 🙂 .
@Sachita
The thing most disappointing this year is not that lot of people paying exorbitant money to watch a lot of crap, people have always been doing that. But there is nothing like a kahani,barfi etc like last year which became successful as well. Much more lets say offbeat releases of this year like Lootera etc have failed to make an impact at the box office.I have nothing against movies grossing 100 or 200 crs, this is an industry and films need to make that kind of money for the industry to keep going. But the general trend this year has been all for the brainless behemoths, while other movies falling by the wayside.Mr Anuj might argue that all we need is that sort of cinema and rest of us are pseudo intellectuals for bemoaning this plight. But it is a case of mere common intelligence rather than pseudo , that in the long run this does terrible damage to the industry.Its like saying that only thing one should produce in the drug ind. are steroids.
@Anuj
Bro , it takes a lot of passion,courage and integrity to invest you hard earned money into projects like Lagaan,Tzp, peepli live or dhobi ghat. A guy who does that is a giant in his field,not a midget.If you think Hrithik is god’s gift to cinema and the best there is , fine, its your personal preference and i don’t judge you, but please don’t make a fool of yourself by condemning something or somebody who’s obviously been a path breaker and trailblazer in the ind. for more than 25 years..
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Anuj
December 26, 2013
http://io9.com/the-most-awesome-moments-from-krrish-3-the-bollywood-s-1489603172
That’s by an overseas viewer btw…kudos to her!Bravo..
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KayKay
December 27, 2013
Oh Anuj! Anuj!
You were mildly amusing in the Krrrrap 3 (sorry, Krrrish 3) forums, pulling box-office stats outta your ass to justify you humping your one-note Hrithik Man-Crush over and over and over again ad nauseum. But hey, you sounded like a gushing fan-boy, defending your nightly Wet Dream against those you felt were attacking him needlessly. I could accept that, and even respect it.
Here, you come across like a bitter and annoying little pissant, spewing bile at a movie that doesn’t even star your Pretty Boy and offloading invective against AK for….what exactly? For being a Bollywood A-Lister with an interesting body of work that’s managed to garner BOTH critical and commercial success (the former of which has eluded your Pretty Boy for much of his career?) And while we’re on the subject, little boy, what’s with the incessant “dwarf/midget” digs? Insecure much? What next? Digs on dark-complexioned actors? Chubby actors? What are you, fucking 12?
Indian cinema, even Bollywood, isn’t packed to the brim with lanky six-footers.
Although, I must thank you for providing me with the biggest laugh of the week via the suggestion that what this “sterling” franchise needs is yet another instalment featuring a vacuous GQ-Model contorting every muscle in a constipated attempt to “act”.
And finally, thanks for sharing that link. Because, when all other arguments fail, posting a random link to a random opinion proffered on a random blog I’ve never read, by someone whose existence I didn’t know of until now, usually succeeds in reversing any opinion or stance I’ve held steadfastly for the last couple of decades. Kudos to YOU!
In that spirit of sharing, I just wanted to let you know, I ran into the Nepali Security Guard who works in my apartment block 2 days ago at the supermarket. It was his off day, we got to chatting about Bollywood movies, and he thinks Hrithik is shit and dances like a girl. Thought I’d share that cause he doesn’t have a blog.
On that note, Ta Ta! I need to go speak to grown-ups now……
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Anuj
December 27, 2013
@MANK:Lagaan for me was nothing more than a commercial mass entertainer only hyped up to extraordinary levels by the media and critic fraternity despite the fact that it was easily overshadowed by a much more entertaining Gadar. But that’s what i guess the so-called “intelligensia” are all about. Praising dumbed down lowbrow versions of intellegent cinema like Lagaan,Chak-De…,Madras Cafe,The Lunchbox etc while i can bet 90% of you lot would fall asleep in 10 minutes flat if u come across some “real” quality cinematic gems like Bandit Queen,DO Bhiga Zameen,Mera Gaon Mera Desh or a Saransh. Movies be either outright commercial entertainers in the Dabangg,Dhoom,Krrish or Singham category or they be some cinematic stuff of genius like the one’s made by the likes of Satyajit Ray,Bimal Roy,Hrishikesh Mukherjee or a Shekhar Kapur/Shyam Benegal of late. Dumbed down versions of strong content like CDI,Lagaan,Barfi etc are neither here nor there!
PS:Funny that a guy whose biggest hits of his life are outright commercial mass entertainers like Raja Hindustani,Ghajini,QSQT,3I and now Dhoom-3 is being labelled as a “trailblazer” and a “pathbreaker”..lol!
Some dimwit here definitely belongs to the category of doofuses who keep blabbering out loud even if comments are not addressed in his name!
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Anuj
December 27, 2013
@MANK:Don’t worry bro…this brand of commercial mass entertainers has been prevelant right from the 1970’s and has lasted almost 4 decades without doing any considerable damage to the industry as such. Its the Rockstar’s and the Swades’ and DHobi Ghat’s which cater to the demand of less than 10% of the audience and end up burning a hole in the pockets of their investors that the industry needs to beware of!
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Govardhan Giridass
December 27, 2013
Aha. Welcome back Utkal Mooganthy. Enjoyed scrolling past your thesis without reading a word. The good times are well and truly back.
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Abhirup
December 27, 2013
Whoever wrote that “awesome moments” crap is clearly an escapee from a mental ward. That, or she has been paid a handsome amount by the roshans.
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Ceaser
December 27, 2013
@Govardhan Giridass
Dude youre prayers has been answered.You must be a true bakth. The professore is resurrected. whaddya mean didn’t read his thesis. You dunno what your missing. Its the height of comedy . I haven’t stopped lol since reading his thesis.
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Anuj
December 27, 2013
“For being a Bollywood A-Lister with an interesting body of work that’s managed to garner BOTH critical and commercial success (the former of which has eluded your Pretty Boy for much of his career?) ”
~ever heard of Lakshya,Jodhaa Akbar,ZNMD and Guzaarish? Anyway,bogus nonsensical arguments and filthy illogical homosexual jokes is all u retards can come up when presented with hard facts that u chimps find too hard to digest! Andaaz Apna Apna,Ghulam,Aatank Hi Aatank,Tum Mere Ho,Raakh,Mela,Mann,Mangal Pandey,Dhobi Ghat,Talaash etc might be “interesting” bodies of work for you jacks,not for me thanks! And neither are they for the audiences as evident by their BO performance. Ultimately its only the masala entertainers which u lot love to diss (the Ghajini’s,Raja Hindustani’s and Dhoom 3’s) which have made this chap the star he is. And yeah i can dig out multiple reviewers’ who’v given multiple thumbs up’d to HR’s performances over the years but since i never believe in reviews,i’d rather not change my stance. Try digging into your rat’s shithole and coming up with something more logical out next time around.
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Ceaser
December 28, 2013
And Whats this ,its been a week since his review .so much blood has been spilt in the cmmts column and the good doctor has not yet intervened . Hiding from his ardent admirers or has he been left unconscious by Prof. Utkal’s thesis.
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auroravampiris
December 28, 2013
Mr Rangan, I must thank you for allowing all of these comments on here. This is a level of AWESOME I hadn’t even realized existed outside of tumblr and 4chan.
I guess at the end of the day, no one (except Utkal) is actually disputing the fact that Dhoom 3 overreaches with all the melodrama, and this spoils the genuinely inventive action sequences. Also, the twins thing from Prestige is a bit egregious and off-putting.
So I guess we can all agree on that, at the very least. At the end of the day, Dhoom 3 wasn’t FUN.
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auroravampiris
December 28, 2013
Also, Charlie Jane Anders of io9 is a very geeky reviewer on a very popular, geeky blog. She’s the goods. Stop accusing her of taking money or being insane, you guys!
She’s clearly just juxtaposing Krrish 3’s legitimate weirdness (from her POV) against the more sane Man of Steel and commenting on the amount of care Krrish 3 (whatever its flaws) takes when it comes to its main protagonist saving innocent lives. There have been a LOT of complaints about collateral damage and an indifferent, uncaring, misanthropic Superman, that goes against the very heart of the character in the geek-o-sphere. And Charlie Jane Anders is merely saying that Krrish 3, despite the tiresome action sequence at the end, actually takes care to “humanize” its hero and give him moments of… heroism. As opposed to Man of Steel, where Superman and Zod just punched each other through buildings for twenty minutes.
Personally, I do think Man of Steel is a better film than Krrish 3, but clearly, Charlie Jane doesn’t carry the same baggage that I do – she carries an entirely different sort of baggage.
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Anuj
December 28, 2013
KayKay!! Dunno what gets u so touchy about me calling AK a midget,old man. Does it open some childhood wounds of the taunting u had to face during your childhood in pre independent India? 😀 As for Hrithik’s dancing ability,doesn’t matter what a Nepali watchman has to say(real or fictitious) ‘coz this lad has been labelled as Bollywood’s best dancer ever by the likes of Shaimak Davar,Prabhudeva and Farah Khan whose opinions have a little more significance than your’s,mine or a watchman’s. And yes,i got a few choreographer/dance instructor pals who till today idolize the iconic moves of “Ek Pal Ka Jeena” & still consider that to be B’town’s best dance number of late.As for “critical acclaim”,its not of much significance with context to Bollywood films considering that most critics are either failed film-makers themselves or are usually “taken care of” in more ways than one. Even then if u insist,u may as well go through the 50 odd reviews of movies like Lakshya,Jodhaa Akbar,Guzaarish,ZNMD etc to know the kinda so-called “acclaim” he’s received.
PS:Funny that a baby faced cinematic icon has to rely on outright mass entertainers like QSQT,Dil,Raja Hindustani,Ghajini,Fanaa,Dhoom-3 etc to reinstate his box office prowess make up for his “critically acclaimed”(aka commercial box office duds) like Andaaz Apna Apna,1947 Earth,Dil Chahta Hai,Dhobi Ghat,Talaash etc.
Arguing like a maniac might not be that good for an atrocious oldie at this stage of his life,i’m sure u realize that!
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Abhirup
December 28, 2013
This anuj thing has got to be among the biggest morons alive. The sheer idiocy of his comments defy belief.
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KayKay
December 28, 2013
“Some dimwit here definitely belongs to the category of doofuses who keep blabbering out loud even if comments are not addressed in his name!”
And ONE Dim “Wit” in particular still fails to grasp the fundamentals of public commentary.
If a Dingus wants to address a message specifically to someone, then said Dumbass should stick to sending a fucking e-mail.
When said Dickwad chooses a public forum to smear it with the oozing stains of his Hrithik Man Crush or the poisonous bile of hatred for All Actors Not Called Hrithik Roshan, then said Dumbbell loses the right to dictate responses.
Hope that was clear. Should a Dingbat still have trouble comprehending the above, am happy to use simpler words, or maybe draw a diagram or 2…as befits the target audience for Krrish 3.
Then again, I may just choose to ignore said Douchebag…..
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MANK
December 28, 2013
@Anuj
Bro, now you are contradicting yourself.Ray i can understand. But Bimal roy , Hrishikesh mukherjee , shekhar kapur,benegal.They are very much the proponents of the neither here nor there cinema that you so detest.How do you explain movies like madhumati,sujata,bandini,Satyakam,chupke chupke,Anari,masoom. I can go on. yup, i have seen the cinematic gems that you mentioned without falling asleep and like them very much as well.They combined the sensibilities of art house cinema and ingredients of commercial cinema like songs, music,melodrama to make their films. Which is what people like Raju Hirani,Imtiaz ali or Gowarikar or an R.O.Mehra etc are trying to do .They may not be in the league of the masters already mentioned, but their sensibilities are very much inherited from them. Its not dumping down , but a fusion of artistic sensibilities. To say that movies should be either ray films or Krish is ridiculous.Cinema is an ever evolving art form and every filmmaker has the right to put the stamp of his individual sensibility on it.That’s how cinema has grown ,both as an art form and as a mass market medium.
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MANK
December 28, 2013
@Anuj
Its easy to dismiss Lagaan or QSQT as mass entertainers today. But at the time of their making and the climate in they were made, they were very much pathbreaking films. Lagaan was made at the height of Designer outfitted NRI cinema. It combined 3 of the biggest box office no nos of the time. A period pic,Village pic and a sports pic and that too with a down and out director.. Every producer in town had rejected it until aamir picked it up and it was most expensive pic of its time. That’s why success of the pic was more celebrated by the media compared with a Gadar or a K3g which was much more conventional masala entertainment. Also the fact that it crossed over majorly into international markets I can go on about his other movie choices but that would be taking up too much space. This goes for Aamir and qsqt emerging at the time of shahenshah.toofan, hukumat brand of cinema and heroes looked like AB And dharmendra. From then on to make the kind of career for himself whether working with totally new directors like mansoor khan,Indra kumar Dharmesh darshan ,John mathan,Farhan Akthar etc. or giving a second chance to down on their luck directors like R.O.Mehra,Vikram bhatt,Gowariker (to the extend of turning down films of big directors like subhash ghai and yash chopra). and giving a new lease of life to their careers inspiring them to make their best cinema. To starting something like satyamev jayate while every other star in town was busy judging reality programs and dance competitions, Yes I believe he has been a trailblazer in the industry. . I don’t compare him with any other actor or say that other stars are worser than him or anything. My comments are completely subjective of Aamir Khan. If you cannot see all this and the only thing you see in him is his deficiency in height , well that’s too bad. We better part ways here as bros. Adios….
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Rajesh
December 28, 2013
Tok Tok.. Where is BR ? On vacation ? Else ennaiya panra 😉 ..thalaimuraigal’laan review pannaamaa ?
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Anuj
December 28, 2013
@MANK:I did not see any mainstream commercial massy elements in movies like Anand,Chupke Chupke,Masoom,Namak Haraam,Madhumati etc barring the fact that they all starred commercial superstars of that era who were willing to work for minimal amounts for the sake of commercial interests of the movies concerned(something missing in actors of today’s era). These works cannot be compared with far more economically viable films like 3 Idiots,Lage Raho.. etc which are complete mass oriented content packaged in a more polished way with a lot more technical finesse. As for Aamir,agreed he has some good films to his credit but i do feel he blows his trumpet far too much at times and has a tendency to build mountains out of molehills. The credit to a lot of his hits should actually be going to the scriptwriters and directors instead of him hogging the limelight despite being nothing more than an actor and not being involved in the creative aspects of the movie in question!
http://bollyindiaboxoffice.blogspot.in/
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Anuj
December 28, 2013
KayKay!! Dear foolish old man…making so much of an effort to reply to a comment neither addressed to nor meant for u…what did u say again?? Dimwit?? hmmm….yawn!!
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Anuj
December 28, 2013
Yet another unwanted and completely unwarranted comment by this “thing” who comes across more as an overenthusiatic,self obsessed imbecile idiot gone cuckoo than a mentally sane human being with some grey matter between his ears!
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Ceaser
December 29, 2013
@Aurora:Dhoom 3 wasn’t FUN.
Very happy to see that somebody has kept her sanity intact in all this and realised in time that this a cmts section for dhoom3. I was getting real confused out here. Only names one get to see here is Hrithik and roshan and midgets and dwarfs. I thought i was in the the hobbit section.Oh agree with you 100%.Not only it wasn’t fun . but was great pain for butt and the heart.
@Rajesh,that’s the million dollar question,Where’s br. Has all the violence here scared him off.
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Abhirup
December 29, 2013
anuj, you can foam at the mouth all you like, but it won’t change the fact that Aamir’s films like ‘Laagan’, ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, ‘Rang De Basanti’, ‘Taare Zameen Par’ and ‘Talaash’ are all critically AND commercially successful films, whose impact and popularity has NEVER been equalled by ANY of hrithik roshan’s movies. About the only watchable fare roshan has ever done is ‘Lakshya’. The rest are eminently forgettable. Unlike Aamir’s films, which people have watched and remembered over the years. You can screech all you want, but the fact remains that Aamir is an infinitely better actor than hrithik, and has a much more memorable and entertaining body of work. hrithik idea of “acting” is to buff up more and more with every release of his, and to flail his arms and legs like an orang-utang and call it “dancing.” Shahid Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor, to name only two actors, are MUCH better dancers than he can ever be. Fact. Doesn’t matter whether you agree or not.
PS.- Those films which you spew venom about, films like ‘Madras Cafe’, ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’ and ‘The Lunchbox’ are much better than hrithik’s entire career put together. Which is why they have been successful in every sense of the term.
Can’t expect a moron like you to understand that, though.
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Anuj
December 30, 2013
Ranbir and Shahid better dancers than Hrithik? Lol….i guess u know more about the art of dancing than the likes of Prabhu Deva & Davar to be making frivilous and laughably ridiculous statements such as these. No Ranbir or Shahid song has ever had the kinda mass impact and craze as Ek Pal Ka Jeena(to name one). A nutheaded cuckoo branding something as a “fact” does not make,break or change the fact that Madras Cafe and Lunchbox are duds watched by under 5% of the total audience. Keep your so-called facts to yourself ‘coz neither do u have any proof nor any sense to analyze or prove your false self claimed facts!
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Anuj
December 30, 2013
And nor will your foolish ranting ever be able to change the fact that Aamir Khan’s global popularity is only courtesy masala entertainers and not because of his so-called critically acclained films. Or the fact that HR is a global superstar with 6 blockbusters and 3 top grossing movies of the year in a span of 14 years,something which the media made star Ranbir Kapoor can only dream of. Or the fact that there are a lot more HR dance moves and dance numbers inspiring young budding choreographers today than some batameez non dancers!
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Anuj
December 30, 2013
Now instead of harping like an ignorant,self obsessed doofus and passing off personal opinions as “facts”,let me state some real hard core facts based on box office records,stats and data which is the one and only true indicator of the universal popularity of an actor amongst his target audience.
Kaho Naa…is the most successful commercial debut by any actor in the last 25 years since Maine Pyaar Kiya by megastar Salman Khan.
With 3 annual top grossers,6 Blockbusters and 5 films among the top 10 highest grossers of the last decade,HR is the most successful and viable box office actor after the 3 Khans’ and the only actor to have challenged and even beaten the superiority of the Khan trio on certain occasions. That being a decade junior to them! Ranbir’s yet to give an annual top grosser and has 1 blockbuster to his name while Akshay has no annual top grossers and 3 blockbusters in 22 years!
One of the few actors to enjoy universal popularity with a combination of urban multiplex hits(Jodhaa Akbar,ZNMD,Dhoom-2) as well as single screen blockbusters(KNPH,KMG,Krrish,Agneepath).
Jodhaa Akbar is the only historical epic to become a certified box office last decade while the 3 Khans’ gave duds like Asoka,Mangal Pandey and Veer. It was also one of the best trending movies of 2008 by tripling its first week collections and carrying universally positive word of mouth esp among multiplex audiences. That despite being banned in 3 major markets of Rajasthan,UP and MP.
The most successful actor of his generation with an exponentially larger fan base than his contemporaries like Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham.
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Anuj
December 30, 2013
*5 films among the top 10 highest grossers of the last decade(adjusted for growth and inflation in ticket prices/screen count/INR etc)
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Dandy
December 30, 2013
I think “MANK” is a true successor to BR. He truly deserves the tag, in review after review, I think you have shown that you can think (all the references) and to a small extent write like him.
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Iswarya V
December 30, 2013
@Rajesh,Ceasar: BR does seem to have gone on a vacation, but of course a well-deserved one. His Lights, Camera, Conversation column has been put on hold till Jan 11, 2014 and the weekend issues of The Hindu look lacklustre these days without his writing. Hoping there’ll be something big at Lit for Life Fest to account for this long absence. The idea of BR in conversation with Kamal is already pretty exciting, and I have my place reserved. Here I am, renewing the request for a possible ‘Conversations…’ with KH. Fingers crossed!
Minor personal grouse: Although BR doesn’t quite like compiling year-end lists, it would have been far more interesting to see BR’s list than the ones being inflicted on us right now.
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MANK
December 30, 2013
@anuj, come on this is a superstar driven industry. . The stars always gets the maximum credit for the success, while directors and writers toil away. Its not something special in the case of Aamir khan alone.. I don’i think he goes out of his way to grab all the credit, I have always found him to be gracious enough to share his success.with others.The perception could only because the people he works with are largely newcomers and unknowns.and naturally being the most popular among them, the media associates their success with him..
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Udhay Sankar
December 30, 2013
@anuj,kay kay,abhirup….You guys are turning this comments section into a war turf…I feel both Aamir and Hrithik are immensely talented and stars in their own right……..Everyone here has the right to critical of other’s views,but please avoid insane,insensitive,utterly dumb,profane comments that are critical of the blogger commenting…..PEACE….
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auroravampiris
December 30, 2013
Oh, btw, I do hope you’re taking a well-deserved vacation Mr. Rangan! A hearty Happy Holidays to you! Keep writing and rocking… and all that.
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vercetti (@qammander)
December 30, 2013
Dhoom franchise went regressively backwards by 20-30 years to transform this stylized, stunt-based, popcorn franchise into a formulaic masala movie of eighties and nineties. Apart from bastardizing Nolan’s Prestige, Dhoom 3 inculcated Vijay Acharya’s misplaced regressive sensibilities like a mentally retarded twin brother who stammers, a nonsensical motive of avenging a father’s cowardly suicide by holding a bank responsible for it ( errr .. the bank refused a loan to finance a magic trick lifted from Prestige ).
Instead of improving on stunts, style, action sequences or face-off quotient between cops and thieves – Acharya lazily opts for prolonged, unrealistic action in slow-motion highlighting flying rickshaws and bikes converting into boats ( with tacky VFX ), daandiya dancing on bikes, and so on.
However, over-the-top duality of the twin robbers ( Sahir and Samar – both played by Aamir Khan ) provide an interesting metaphor for Aamir’s career. Sahir is a serious robber ( Aamir acts this role in a pretentious way, trying too hard to display intensity during stunts and dancing with weird facial contortions ), while Samar is a mental retard ( Aamir hams to an extent that it easily can win some Razzies against his peers in similar roles ).
Sahir’s pretentious act reminds us of some socially-relevant ( yet highly pretentious ) movies of Aamir’s career ( Lagaan, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par etc), which succeeded in highlighting some social problem – but ended with illogical and emotional conclusions like a cricket match, an art competition, murder of a corrupt politician, and so on.
Samar’s exaggerated retarded acting may as well represent the other spectrum of Aamir’s body of work – commercial films like Dhoom 3, Ghajini, Fanaa, Mela, Mann, Raja Hindustaani, etc. These typical over-the-top commercial movies are specifically designed to mint money at the box office by offering regular ( yet ridiculous ) entertainment to entertain Bollywood audience.
USP – In one scene, Sahir watches his former self as a child running towards him and tries to touch him but the kid vanishes ( Aamir trying to repeat his super success of the last decade, but failing to get there with films like Dhobi Ghat, Talaash and Dhoom 3 ). In another scene, Sahir stares at a mirror and watches his retarded twin on the other side, stammering an awkward shayari ( manifestation of the contrasting movies in Aamir’s career ).
more here http://bomodel.blogspot.in/
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MANK
December 30, 2013
@Dandy: Ha Ha….Bro pls dont do this to me,You see what has happened to BR. The guy has to go AWOL to escape from us all.
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Anuj
December 30, 2013
@vercetti:If u indeed are the author of that blog,your 3 part Krrish-3 review and your criticism of bollywood trade’s double standards are undoubtedly two of the best articles of 2013. Cheers!
http://bollyindiaboxoffice.blogspot.in/
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Anuj
December 30, 2013
And yes i’m a regular follower of that blog and your writing’s a work of genius,no doubt! Definitely a lot more objective than some of our so-called renowned critics(?)
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Anuj
December 30, 2013
A brilliant and accurate sum up of the 3 biggest films of 2013!
http://bomodel.blogspot.in/2013/12/200-cr-club-of-2013-from-parodic.html
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Ceaser
December 30, 2013
@iswarya
Thanks a lot for that update on Br.I was beginning to get real scared for him.But jan11 , OMG. how am i going to survive till then without my weekly doses of Branganisms.Gotta keep raiding the archives i guess.Hope that keeps me alive til then. 😉
As for conversations with KH ,hope that BR mails him a copy of his dasavataram int. first. 😉 KH always like healthy criticisms of his makeup err work. 😉
Udaysankar, GTH Man 😉 . Dont spoil the fun around here. 😉
@vercetti: I thought that BR was real crazy, reading all those ‘hidden’ meanings into every scene and dialogue, But you outdoes even him man. I mean reading whole careers and career transformations in random scenes that somebody is playing in a dumb movie,phew 😉 .Aamir simply wasted away his life by doing only pretentious social films and over the top money minting films? 😉 .Why the hell is still alive, Chullu bar paani me doob marna chahiye saale ko. 😉
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Abhirup
December 31, 2013
anuj, no need to rant again and again about the box-office figures. I know that hrithik roshan has done hit movies, and I also know that those movies happen to be crap. You won’t understand it in this life or the next or the one after that, but box-office success is zero indication of a work’s quality. And quality is one thing that hrithik’s movies singularly lack. Fact, as I said.
hrithik’s dance moves in ‘Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai’ were popular…for one year or so. In the last nine years, those songs and those moves have not inspired a single piece of choreography. And with good reason too. The ‘ek pal ka jina’ signature move looked like patting the arse of the guy standing before you. Idiotic and silly. No wonder it went out of fashion within months of the movie’s release. And yeah, Shahid and Ranbir (and a lot of others) dance MUCH better. Nor is there anything “media-made” about Ranbir’s stardom. I can understand you getting pissed about the fact that somebody other than hrithik is doing well in Bollywood, but that doesn’t change anything. Period.
Also, foaming at the mouth about the likes of ‘jodhaa-akbar’ and ‘ZNMD’ isn’t going to make those movies any better than they are. The former is an overlong, boring costume drama that conveyed zero insight into Mughal India, the latter is an equally overlong commercial for Spain tourism.
And Aamir’s “global popularity” is indeed owing to his critically acclaimed works like ‘Lagaan’, ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, ‘Rang De Basanti’, ‘Taare Zameen Par’ and ‘Talaash’, films which have a crossover appeal and which have been seen by people here as well as abroad. Which is not the case with his earlier works, the ones released in the 1980s and 1990s. His post-2000 output is light years ahead of retard roshan.
And yeah, ‘Madras Cafe’, ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’ and ‘The Lunchbox’ are indeed successful films–commercially speaking as well.
PS.- Those links you provided are some of the worst pieces of writing ever done. Once again, fact.
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KayKay
December 31, 2013
“Kaho Naa…is the most successful commercial debut by any actor in the last 25 years since Maine Pyaar Kiya by megastar Salman Khan.”
But…this doesn’t explain why he dances like a girl.
“With 3 annual top grossers,6 Blockbusters and 5 films among the top 10 highest grossers of the last decade,HR is the most successful and viable box office actor after the 3 Khans’ and the only actor to have challenged and even beaten the superiority of the Khan trio on certain occasions”
….not to mention none of the Khan’s can dance like a girl the way Hrithik(a) so naturally can.
“One of the few actors to enjoy universal popularity with a combination of urban multiplex hits(Jodhaa Akbar,ZNMD,Dhoom-2) as well as single screen blockbusters(KNPH,KMG,Krrish,Agneepath).”
– this I think is really cool, having a choice between watching Hrithik dance like a girl in an urban multiplex or travel 50km off the suburbs where you can catch him dancing like a girl in a single screen
“Jodhaa Akbar is the only historical epic to become a certified box office last decade while the 3 Khans’ gave duds like Asoka,Mangal Pandey and Veer”
– it is also worthwhile mentioning that the 3 seconds he spent twirling like the dervishes in the “Khwaja Mere Khwaja” number, he did it like a girl.
“The most successful actor of his generation with an exponentially larger fan base than his contemporaries like Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham”
– both of whom also cannot dance like girls the way Hrithik(a) can.
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KayKay
December 31, 2013
“You guys are turning this comments section into a war turf”
Chill out Udhay Sankar, war-onnum illa pa!
MANK, Abhirup and I probably just have a little more time on our hands now, what with the Christmas and the New Year holidays, and slapping down trolls is a great stress-reliever 🙂
We’ll be back to having more erudite discussions in no time 🙂
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nirja
January 1, 2014
What a fun read comments are! But there is always a middle ground no? I thought Hrithik made a dreeeamy Akbar but he could hardly have done justice to Amir’s role in Lagaan and vice versa. Also I always get the feeling that the facade Amir displays is very beguiling…I mean yeah he choses movies from the heart and all that but Mela?? and then Mann?? Sigh! His last decade of the intelligent man in cinema somehow feels very manufactured to me…he was far fresher when he did Rangeela….which IMO is far more path breaking that all his later produce and his turn in 1947 Earth was quite a revelation. That was a time when Amir truly broke paths and I remember waiting for an Amir movie, after Rangeela, Sarfarosh and 1947 Earth who wouldnt? In the past decade Amir seems to have asserted himself but the results are rather boring, not predictable but nothing interesting either and all the while he says he isnt interested in numbers…its the numbers he let’s do the talking. Weird!
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Anuj
January 1, 2014
Box office success is the one and only criteria of audience acceptance and popularity. I do not expect self indulgent maggots to understand the simple fact that quality is a matter of perception and not conclusive. Nor do i expect braindead whimps to understand facts like only one guy has consistently challenged the box office supremecy of the Khans’ on a repeated basis since the last decade and a half or the fact that ZNMD and Jodhaa Akbar were universally appreciated movies and received widespread critical and commercial acclaim(although the former is irrelevant). Or the fact that the so-called perfectionist has had to repeatedly reply on outright commercial mass entertainers’ in order to justify his box office supremecy!
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Anuj
January 1, 2014
The factually flawed & one sided political thriller Madras Cafe is nowhere near being a commercial success. Produced on a cost of INR 35 cr and released in 1100 screens,it managed a nett figure of just 43 cr thereby yielding a share of around 20-21 cr & making losses for its distributors in the interiors and B/C circuits. Even in the A centers and multiplexes it was just a recovery/commission earner thereby getting a final verdict of being an “Average” grosser.
IMDB Ratings: ZNMD:8.0(Hit),Lakshya:7.8(Average),Guzaarish:7.3(Flop)
Historical Films : Jodhaa Akbar:7.5(Hit),Mangal Pandey:6.7(Average),Asoka:6.5(Disaster),Veer:4.6(Disaster) ; only actor among mainstream commercial actors to have given a historical hit in the last decade.
Sci-fi : Koi Mil Gaya:6.9(Blockbuster),Enthiran:6.9(Blockbuster),Ra.One:4.6(Average),Krrish-3:6.3(Blockbuster) ; only actor to have delivered the most successful sci-fi/superhero franchise in the history of Indian cinema till date.
Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai,Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham,Koi Mil Gaya,Krrish,Dhoom-2 ; only actor since Salman Khan to have 5 films among the top 10 biggest hits of the decade in his first decade of stardom.
The only actor to be an integral part of 2 of the most successful Bollywood franchises viz Dhoom franchise & Krrish franchise(the latter solely riding on his stardom and popularity).
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MANK
January 1, 2014
@Udhay Sankar: this is just the year end blues and much of us(especially Ceaser and KayKay) seems really drunk and stoned . Don’t worry we will sober up after the new year revelries are done , happy new year.
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MANK
January 1, 2014
@Kaykay:this I think is really cool, having a choice between watching Hrithik dance like a girl in an urban multiplex or travel 50km off the suburbs where you can catch him dancing like a girl in a single screen
🙂 🙂 ROFL
Buddy it seems that Anuj brings out the best in you. How the hell do you come up with punch line after punchline . I feel so jealous. Please pass me whatever it is that you are smoking 🙂
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Abhirup
January 2, 2014
No, box-office success doesn’t always indicate popularity, let alone “acceptance.” A lot of crap movies manage to do well solely on the basis of the hype stirred up by the makers or due to the fact that those movies release when there are few other big films playing at the theatres. That is the case with most of the retard roshan releases that you slobber over. There was nothing “universal” about the reaction to ‘jodha akbar’ and ZNMD: both were disliked by plenty of people.
Oh, and when it comes to retard roshan, the fact that his movies lack quality IS a conclusive fact.
Most of Aamir’s films in the last decade have been anything but outright masala entertainers. And yeah, most of them have been commercially and critically successful.
There is nothing “flawed” or “one-sided” about ‘Madras Cafe’; it is one of the best political thrillers ever made in India. And it earned enough money to be called a success, and for Sircar to find investors to make his subsequent film, which he has already started shooting.
Bottomline? retard roshan and his movies still suck.
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Anuj
January 2, 2014
There are double the number of people who liked Jodha Akbar and ZNMD as compared to the retarded worthless swines with zero knowledge of box office business dynamics who disliked it! Doesn’t matter what a mentally deranged dumb ugly little fart whose been as horny as a newly wed bride with regards to desperately trying to make a point has to say about an actor with a fan following running into millions across the globe and a box office record that would rank among the all time top 10 in bollywood history till date!
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Anuj
January 2, 2014
Now that i gave both box office success as well as critial points and imdb ratings with regards to movies like ZNMD,KMG,Jodhaa Akbar etc,this scumbag comes up with lame irrelevant arguments like “both were disliked by a lot of people”..ha!!
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Govardhan Giridass
January 2, 2014
@Ceaser : Thanks for the Utkal tip-off. Haven’t had so many belly laughs in a long time. To paraphrase Messrs Harry and Sally: I’ll smoke what he’s smoking
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Abhirup
January 2, 2014
Nothing lame or irrelevant about my points. The same, of course, can’t be said about yours.
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Ravi K
January 3, 2014
Anuj, McDonald’s is probably the most ubiquitous restaurant in the world. That doesn’t mean it’s any good.
Aamir has produced some fascinating films. I liked Lagaan a lot, loved Delhi Belly and Dhobi Ghat, and the first half of TZP is brilliant. Even the frothy JTYJN was a fun confection. I don’t blame him for doing Dhoom 3. Many actors who want to do good work, in addition to being famous, take the “one for them, one for me” approach to choosing films.
Hrithik has good screen presence, and I think there’s a good actor in him. He was the main reason Dhoom 2 worked for me, and he had a scene in K3G in which I remember being far more impresses with his performance than SRK’s. But I’m sorry to say I’m not interested in many of the films he chooses.
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Anuj
January 3, 2014
@Ravi : How does it matter whether you’re interested in them or not anyway? Esp when there crores around the country who indeed are! Your disinterest in HR films does not change the fact that he’s a superstar with a huge following across the globe and easily the only actor whose given the KHans’ a run for their money at the ticket window for over a decade!
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Anuj
January 3, 2014
“McDonald’s is probably the most ubiquitous restaurant in the world. That doesn’t mean it’s any good.”
~now on what basis do u say that? Although i’m no Mc’Donald fan but if its indeed the most popular restaurant in the world then there’s obviously something that people do love about it to make them visit it again & again & again and pay out of their pockets to munch on Mc’chicken and french fries!
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Ceaser
January 4, 2014
Govardhan, wadid i tell u. also, Its ok to smoke what he smoks, but pls dont unload ur thesis here after that. This blog can’t take 2 profs.
Hrithik and Mcdonald , whatta combo, Bravo
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Ravi K
January 5, 2014
Anuj, I’m not debating that he’s popular, and I don’t even think he’s a bad actor. I’m just making a general point that popularity doesn’t necessarily relate to quality. A popular movie isn’t automatically good just because it’s popular. Same with the inverse. And sometimes a movie’s popularity will happen to be proportional with it’s quality.
People love salt, sugar, and fat, especially if it’s cheap. The same thing can be applied to movies. There’s no big mystery there. People sometimes like junk. I consume junk food (and films) now and then, but I’m not under the delusion that the junk’s popularity means that it’s good.
And if it doesn’t matter if I’m interested in his films, what do you care about my opinion anyways? No need to vigorously defend an actor with crores of fans from some random guy posting on the internet, right? Since he’s got crores of fans, your positive opinion of his films ultimately doesn’t matter either 😛
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Abhirup
January 5, 2014
“Saying the same moronic things over and over again.”
How to summarize that one sentence in one word? Simple. Just write–anuj.
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Anuj
January 5, 2014
Ravi,there’s a particular purpose of consuming junk food.You do not consume junk with the idea of getting healthier or staying fit.You consume it to treat your taste buds,irrespective of nutrition content.As long as it serves the purpose,its quality within its own realm. Same goes for mass entertainers as opposed to say a documentary classic!
Abhirup,tujhse na ho payega…rehne de!!
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Mambazha Manidhan
January 5, 2014
I couldn’t quite make up about Aamir Khan’s retarded act. Glad that you have at least. Man, the Katrina Kaif’s opening number was beyond awesome – Kamli. If Vijay Krishna Acharya’s decision to shoot in Chicago is to evoke The Dark Knight feel, he has succeeded. Ditto for Aarambam evocative of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in terms of big budget aesthetics, production value and the locale- Dubai.
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Abhirup
January 6, 2014
“Trying to be funny and failing epically.”
How to summarize that one sentence in one word. Simple, again. Just write–anuj.
“You consume it to treat your taste buds,irrespective of nutrition content.As long as it serves the purpose,its quality within its own realm.”
Except that retard roshan’s movies don’t satisfy at all.
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Anuj
January 6, 2014
Its evident whose the real dumbheaded mentally deranged pea brained retarded jackass repeatedly replying to comments neither addressed nor meant for him…kaha na,tujhse naa ho payega!! 😀
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Anuj
January 8, 2014
Lol…what exactly is this desperate nincompoop dumbhead trying to prove by making unwarranted remarks on comments not meant for him? Bola na,tumse naa ho payega!
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Utkal
January 8, 2014
A balanced review:
The first two Dhoom films were all about cool shades, fast bikes, practised scowls, preposterous scenarios and, the cornerstone of every mainstream Hindi film, pointless songs. Dhoom 3 is all about cool shades, fast bikes, practised scowls, preposterous scenarios and pointless songs. But it has a plot too, one that is semi-borrowed from Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige and given a Bollywood twist.
……….
If the film wasn’t titled Dhoom, and was called “Clown” or – as Sahir says at one point – “Maskara” or “Vidushak”, no one would have wondered what Jai and Ali were doing in there. Simply put, this is an out-and-out Aamir Khan show – a full-blown ode to the Hindi film hero who hogs the limelight, gets out of the stickiest of situations with a smile and emerges triumphant despite the odds.
Keeping that in mind, and going by everything the industry has produced with mega stars in the recent past, Dhoom 3 is a small step up for mainstream Hindi cinema. It’s as devoid of depth and sensibility as other films made with the sole intention of belling the box office cat, but Dhoom 3 – to its credit – is not a lazily-made film.
As writer, Vijay Krishna Acharya sticks to the tried-and-tested, but the franchise gets its most sturdy film under his directorship, and he ensures the film never really strays from what it promises to be – a big-ticket entertainer that’s meant to provide instant gratification and little recall value.
The money seems well-spent: the action set-pieces are decently staged (barring some exceptions, like Khan running down a building in slo-mo, which looks super-tacky), the film is largely well shot (Sudeep Chatterjee channelling his inner Wally Pfister), and there are enough twists-and-turns (okay, one major twist) to keep you interested in the story.
Dhoom 3, however, could have done with less daft dialogues [Bank owner: “Do we know who’s responsible (for the robbery)?” Cop: “All we know at this point is that it was a thief.”], and fewer slo-mos, but the film is fairly enjoyable in a knock-back-a-few-drinks-and-watch-some-cars-blow-up kinda way.
http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/film/film-reviews/film-review-dhoom-3
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Abhirup
January 8, 2014
“Thinking he is funny when he is anything but.”
How to summarize that one sentence in one word? Simple, again. Just write–anuj.
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Ankur
January 9, 2014
You guys have wayyyyy too much time
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Joe
January 30, 2014
KayKay’s homophobic comments and Abhirup’s serious oral fixation – this is become another ReDiff forum. What they say about homophobes with their false bravado is – they’re closet gays themselves, trying to overcompensate.
Their vitriolic comments can only mean one thing – Hrithik spurned their advances. Still on the brighter side, Kaykay you can play the Abhirup’s ‘flute’ – he is always in dire need of things ‘ramming down throats’ and ‘foaming at mouths’ 🙂
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Abhirup
January 31, 2014
“Their vitriolic comments can only mean one thing – Hrithik spurned their advances.”
Ah, so you ultimately reveal why you have become such a pathetic excuse for a biped: you never could get over the fact that retard roshan wasn’t the one to inaugurate your post-popping phase, and that even after his separation from Suzanne, you have as much chance of doing him as Mayavati has of being the next Pope.
It’s okay, I understand. I mean, I wish you had your wet dreams about an actor who doesn’t look like a brick kiln with appendages and can register an expression or two on his ferret-like face, but hey, to each his own. I understand, also, this very old tactic of attributing one’s own wet pipe dreams to other people; I am sure it alleviates some of the frustration you have been buried under ever since the unbearable ‘kaho naa…pyaar hai’ released. It’s okay, as I said. Sad little beings like you have all my sympathy.
“he is always in dire need of things ‘ramming down throats’ and ‘foaming at mouths’”
God, you know you need to get laid badly when you detect phallic metaphors in the commonest of phrases. Go out and find somebody before you choke on your celibacy.
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Joe
February 3, 2014
Oh boy.. did we hit a nerve there. You were bravely holding up all this time, and now this? Calm down. Hows bf Kaykay doing 🙂
I could only read the last word of your vomit erm mean outpouring – did you actually mean ‘celibacy’ or ‘celebrity’ there?
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Abhirup
February 4, 2014
“Oh boy.. did we hit a nerve there.”
Of course. A nerve is hit every time we say sensible things (such as that retard roshan is a waste of space), and the evidence is the crap posted by creatures like yourself.
“I could only read the last word of”
Yeah, I am well aware that the likes of you can’t read.
“did you actually mean ‘celibacy’ or ‘celebrity’ there?”
I stand vindicated: you indeed can’t read. Or else, your grasp of the English language is worse than a newborn chimpanzee’s. Buy a dictionary, provided you know what that is. Learn to use it; it shall take time, given that your IQ is lower than the room temperature, but keep trying, and maybe in a year or so, you shall know how to handle a dictionary. Then you can decide for yourself if I meant ‘celibacy’ or ‘celebrity’.
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Joe
February 4, 2014
But you didn’t answer the question, O learned One! If you are talking about HR, that’d be “celebrity” right? If you meant “celibacy”, it’d just be a freudian slip on your part revealing your sad situation. I did ask for your dictionary, the one with meaning, usage, pictures – apparently they don’t sell them to adults.
Ok I didn’t like your calling HR, a retard. Still, I wouldn’t call you one – it’d be an insult to the retard community. You have a long way to go yet, to reach their level. As of now, at best we can agree is that you are an “aspiring retard” 🙂 Work hard, you may still get there.
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Amir
February 4, 2014
are yaar , yeh mamla phir se shuru kaise ho gaya. Hritik ke bhare mein abhi tak faisla nahi hua kya? 🙂
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Abhirup
February 4, 2014
“If you are talking about HR, that’d be “celebrity” right?”
No, my newborn chimpanzee. I wasn’t talking about retard roshan. To understand what I was talking about, you need to be able to read. Which, as you have confessed, you can’t. Unless you manage to learn that–the possibilities are slim, I know–there’s nothing I can do to help you out.
“revealing your sad situation”
My situation’s fine, thanks. It’s yours that needs some improvement. A lot of it, rather.
” I did ask for your dictionary, the one with meaning, usage, pictures – apparently they don’t sell them to adults.”
Indeed, they don’t. However, I am sure you didn’t have a problem getting one, since “adult” is the last word one would use to describe a simian twit like you.
“Ok I didn’t like your calling HR, a retard.”
Who cares? It’s the truth.
“Still, I wouldn’t call you one – it’d be an insult to the retard community.”
The lamest attempt at humour I have read so far this year. There’s nothing more pathetic than a moron like yourself trying to sound witty.
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Joe
February 5, 2014
Wouldn’t call you a chimp. Just because somebody did, don’t rub it on me boy. They were only flattering you 🙂 Btw do you draw, paint? There are some who’ll pay top money for that..
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Abhirup
February 5, 2014
And your lameness continues.
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Joe
February 6, 2014
come again?
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Abhirup
February 6, 2014
Your inability to read seems almost absolute.
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Joe
February 7, 2014
Try me. Tell exactly what HR did to you so I can understand your grievance.
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Abhirup
February 8, 2014
“Tell exactly what HR did to you so I can understand your grievance.”
He appeared in one unwatchable fare after another. And he thinks that bulking up is the same as acting. Those are reason enough to wish he were dead.
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Joe
February 10, 2014
wishing someone dead.. bit of an over-reaction don’t you think. is this related to your fascination with chimps and dictionaries and oral activities..
how long have you been off your meds.
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Abhirup
February 10, 2014
“wishing someone dead.. bit of an over-reaction don’t you think”
You tend to take things at face value, I see. A common affliction among morons.
“is this related to your fascination with chimps and dictionaries and oral activities”
Your lame attempts at humour continue, I see. And the “oral activities” bit shows that you still haven’t managed to get laid.
“how long have you been off your meds”
Talking to yourself, retard?
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brangan
February 11, 2014
Guys, as much as we value free speech and all that, can we put an end to this? Thanks.
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Ceaser
February 11, 2014
Brangan, At last some voice of reason. thank u.
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DaliaGhobar
March 7, 2014
i’m in dhoom3 with you Aamir because i Loveyou soo much Aamir yes.. u only of my best Actor and myfavourite Actor in world Yeah! and Thank you
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