There has been a lot of talk about Aamir Khan starrer Laal Singh Chaddha recently, about the boycott calls for the film, why nobody is going to see the film, and why it is turning out to be one of the biggest disasters in the history of Indian cinema.
Some people are blaming Aamir Khan’s mockery of Hinduism in PK, and even in Laal Singh Chaddha, some are blaming Kareena Kapoor’s flippant comments during the nepotism debate, and some are blaming the writer Atul Kulkarni’s tweets, but the real reason is that it is just an awful film.
Yes, there were boycott calls for the film ahead of its release, but similar boycott calls were given ahead of Aamir’s last hit PK, but that didn’t affect its business. It went on to become one of the biggest ever hits in the history of Indian cinema. In a country of 140 crore people, even if 99% decide not to see your film, it can still end up as a mega blockbuster, but even the 1% didn’t bother to see this film.
I was 10 years old when I first saw Forrest Gump, the classic that won 6 Oscars, and I found it incredibly boring. Years later, well into my adulthood, I decided to give it a go again since everyone I knew used to rave about it, but I still found it quite boring. Now I am just an average moviegoer, I only watch the movies to be entertained, I am not looking for deeper meanings behind the actions of Forrest Gump and how he may have helped the “Republican revolution” of 1994 under Mitt Romney.
So while I was not a fan of the original, I knew I will not like its copy, since Bollywood has a penchant for destroying even the good Hollywood films, as Aamir Khan has himself demonstrated repeatedly. Anyway, I was dragged to see the film by someone and since I was expectedly disappointed, I don’t know if I was satisfied that I was proven right or disappointed since the film was such an epic disappointment.
If you think the original film was slow and boring, this one was almost an hour longer, making it almost insufferable. If the producers are relying on word-of-mouth publicity to get some momentum, they can forget about it. There is no way someone will see this film and recommend it to anyone.
Aamir Khan is the centerpiece of this film, and his over-acting puts you off from the get-go. You almost don’t even notice the rest of the actors in the film as you keep wondering just what the hell is Aamir doing, and why is he trying so badly to mimic Mr Bean.
I hope Robin Wright never even sees this film, Kareena Kapoor’s version of her takes away all the edgy elements of Jenny’s character that made her so memorable. To be honest, I hope none of the people involved in Forrest Gump see this film. Imagine Gary Sinise finding out his character in Forrest Gump has been changed to a Viet Cong general.
Not everything is bad about the film though, there are also some learning moments, obviously far from reality in a way only Bollywood thinks it can get away with. You learn that the Indian Army rescued Pakistani soldiers during the Kargil war and then those Pakistani soldiers can just start living in India and run multi-million dollar businesses. There is no concept of prisoners of war, if Aamir Khan makes a movie on 1971 war, we would have 93000 Pakistani businessmen in India instead of 93000 prisoners of war.
Anyway, going into the logical fallacies in this film is a waste of time, going into boycott calls for the film is a waste of time, it was such an awful film that I am shocked it still made a few crores.
