Abhishek Bachchan On 21 Years Of Run

 What makes this  Tamil-to-Hindi adaptation nominally  watchable  is the way director  Jeeva treats the very old and very predictable story of a  headstrong boy from a semi-hick town   who falls in love in the metro with  the coy and simpering sister of a monstrously possessive gangster who, we are told, chops off a boy’s limb for teasing his precious sister.

   “Tum ho hi aisi. Would you prefer girls to tease you?  Any boy would do what my son did,” says the limb-less boy’s hotblooded dad .

   Sanskar, as you can see, isn’t high on this film’s list of priorities. In fact a whole  commodious parallel subplot  featuring the insufferably aggressive Vijay Raaz, runs through the main love story Raaz calls his screen-dad(Anjan Shrivastava) every name from a boozard to a smelly skunk. Long live Shravan Kumar.

 Elsewhere the diffident and determined  Sidhu(Abhishek Bachchan) glares at his poor Jeejaji(Mukesh Rishi) with such seeming malevolence the poor guy  becomes  a  cowering  and cringing intruder in his own house.

  These diversions in  the main love story are quite amusing, provided you aren’t finicky about the lack of originality and  even basic logic   in the  plot.  You tend to baulk at the very idea  of the lover-boy from Allahabad(a nice touch that, since it takes  young Bachchan back to his roots) being  hounded by a gangster in Delhi.

   Aren’t gangsters a  part of Mumbai’s  sub-culture? And shouldn’t the brother-lover conflict have been more electrifying ?   Otherwise   the film allows you to be indulgent towards  Abhishek Bachchan’s Siddhu , a  blunt  small-town boy who falls in love with  the girl with the dreamy smile on first sight , and tells her so  right away.

   “Didn’t you smile back?” he challenges when the girl pulls him up for being so aggressive.

Quickie campus courtship?

  Cinematographer –director Jeeva shoots the entire film in  a  fading light. Romance which is generally done in velvety colours gets a granite treatment. The sequence where Siddhu sees Jahanvi in the  bus for the first time(now why on earth is a powerful gangster’s sister’s travelling by bus??) is  a treat for the way Abhishek’s smile and eyes light up the screen.

 The character’s blunt approach to love and violence are the film’s main and perhaps only  sustaining point. Siddhu makes up his mind that he loves the girl. Getting her is only a  matter of time… and sustained violence. A mood of casual inevitability and offhand violence  runs across the plot. The Southern directors know how to turn the corkscrew , even if the bottle is largely empty.

 Contrary to its title the film frequently loses momentum. The dialogues  in the romantic scene are more improvisational and dramatic. The romantic  songs(tuned  by Himesh Reshammiya as   selfconsciously trendy) are  shot innovatively and with uncharacteristic humour   . But they impede the films’s fast and furious flow to its combative end where Siddhu and the girl’s obsessive , implictly incestuous  brother battle it out fist to fist hand to hand  climax-to-finale.

   The reason why the pedestrian plot  rocked  in Tamil was the antagonist played by Atul Kulkarani. In Hindi  Mahesh Manjrekar has already done  the grimace-and-gore routine in Kaante. His character fails to be  either menacing  or mirthful. The actor doesn’t fail as much as the character.  Manjrekar’s  Ganpati is  plain exasperating.

 What motivates the menacing mood  are some  expertly shot action sequences. The highlight of the Tamil film—a fist-to-fist confrontation between Siddhu and a truckload of Ganpati’s goons in a subway—is also the highlight of this film. Watching Abhishek play the larger-than-life hero for the first time is fun. Like his father he makes the action sequences look flamboyant and yet real.

 Again like Manjrekar’s  Ganpati, Bachchan’s Siddhu is an inconsistent  character. In one sequence he’s   beaten unconscious by the goons. In another he takes them on Superman style! In one sequence he  hides when the goons spot him with the girl in  a  movie theatre(again, a  very slickly shot suspenseful interlude). But in no time at all he’s throwing drawling challenges at the girl’s abrasive brother.

  More consistently portrayed is the love-hate relationship between Siddhu  and his brother-in-law.  In portraying mutual discomfort both Abhishek and  Mukesh Rishi arrive at  a  comfort level , denied to the other situations in the plot.

    Tragically, beyond those shy smiles exchanged on the buses and  stolen strolls down Delhi’s bylanes, there’s little passion or intensity   between the lovers. Most of the time the love birds  behave more like  two  young people who are JUST getting to know each other rather than lovers who’ve decided to spend their lives together, come what may.

    Abhishek’s Siddhu is as endearing as Madhavan in the original. That abashed smile and those   ever-talkative eyes convey the first flush of love and the rage at its denial.  This film depends almost entirely on his charms to see it through. Abhishek is  willing…and stable.

 Exasperatingly Vijay Raaz hogs as much footage as  the leading man, if not more. In the 1960s Mehmood would often be given as much chuckling space as the hero. To  allot the comedian the same footage in a film about intense love is to play  disco-dandiya tunes during a  romantic opera.

 It’s the oldfashioned plot interweavement  and its insouciant flaunting of banality that finally out-runs the other virtues of Run, namely some inventive  action, stark cinematography and of course Abhishek Bachchan.

 In an  interview with Subhash K  Jha  , Abhishek Bachchan recalls the  experience of shouldering a  solo-hero  film. “In the midst of several multi-hero films like Yuva and Dhoom it’s a solo-hero film and the responsibility is therefore multiplied. People seem to think Run is an out-and-out action film. I disagree. Zameen was an action film. Run is a romantic-action.  I think the audience likes to see me in action films. But to be honest, I don’t think audiences want to see heroes being typecast. If they like a film they like the actor. Look at what Hrithik Roshan did in Koi… Mil Gaya! I’d like to be  versatile. If a film has good action, it better be a part of a good story . And the performances better be good. That’s the only way to get an audience.  To that extent Run qualifies as a potential hit.I remember when producer Boney Kapoor showed me the Tamil original what I liked was the straightforward commercialism, and the  basic and linear nature  of the product. And that’s the way the Hindi version should be perceived. I don’t think it’s right to sell a film on false promises. Run is a run-of-the-mill entertainer. It’s  three hours of  diversion. It’s  a  simple unpretentious action romantic musical. Go , enjoy and  come back. It’s about a small-town boy who falls in love with city girl wins her and takes on the family. But the USP is the confrontations with the girl’s brother played by Mahesh Manjrekar.In most of our films the hero takes it upon himself as a  challenge to win over the girl’s family. In Run I really couldn’t care less. My character Siddharth says, ‘I love you and I don’t care what your family thinks or says as long as you love me back.’ I play an aggressive character . I like that.I think aggression is a  very strong emotion. It should be used  sparingly and sensibly. But I identified with my character’s single-minded determination. Siddharth is very  clear-headed.  It’s very difficult to be that way in today’s day and age. Interestingly Siddharth is a guy from Allahabad who comes from Delhi. Allahabad is my Dad’s home town.  It felt wonderful to shoot in the city where my  father was born,  albeit for just one day.  However I don’t sport a UP accent. I feel  mainstream cinema must  shed its regional plumes. Provincial characters have been reduced to caricatures. I feel sad to see people from UP being portrayed as a ‘Bhaiyya’ with gamchas tied on their heads.  I was glad to be just a regular guy from Allahabad.”

  Abhishek was all praise for  his co-star  Bhoomika  Chawla.  “Bhoomika is a very accomplished actress. Though she’s  a  Punjabi girl from Mumbai  she’s made a name in Southern films. After Tere Naam  she’s become a name in Hindi  films. She had a huge star like Salman for her co-star in Tere Naam. I hope I haven’t let her down in Run.  I’ve worked with a  whole lot of established filmmakers like J.P.Dutta, Dharmesh and Suniel Shetty, and now Ram Gopal Varma, Mani Rathnam…But I also enjoy working with new directors .For  the direction of Run we’ve Jeeva  who was the cinematographer of the original Tamil. Jeeva is the most energetic person I’ve ever come across. He’s forever on a caffeine-high. He just can’t sit in one place. He’s also the cinematographer of Run. He’s shot me wonderfully. What made the film more exciting was the presence of Mahesh Manjrekar as my adversary on screen. Not only is he an accomplished director but also an excellent actor. It was a pleasure discovering that side of Mahesh . He had  the unit in splits. He creates a wonderful atmosphere on the sets. Run is a bigger responsibility for me. Because I’ve to carry the film on my own shoulders. But an ensemble cast like Yuva and Dhoom is so much fun.”