Review: Big Brother
DEOL FASHIONED WAY
Sunny paaji sticks to time-tested formulas in a vigilante drama that’s less interesting as cinema than as commentary.
APR 15, 2007 - THE FACT that Sunny Deol (as Devdhar) plays protective elder sibling to Mumbai’s downtrodden masses is surely why this film is named Big Brother, but watching Priyanka Chopra (as Devdhar’s wife) get wet in a white sari during a song sequence, I came up with another reason for the title. It’s 1984 – get it? Forget the Orwellian connotations and stick just to the year, to the time, to the eighties – an era when the heroines still wore clothes that differentiated them from the vamps, and the only way to get them to ooze an amount of sex was to drape them in a sari and train the fire hoses on them. Remember those days? And do you remember the Dada Kondke comedies and the “educational dramasâ€? like Kachchi Kali and Khuli Khidki? Those were the eighties too, right? And what else is Sayaji Shinde (deliciously hammy as a bad guy) doing here if not doffing his Nehru cap in that direction, when he licks his lips at the prospect of a night with the heroine of Raat Ka Gunaah and Garam Bistar! But it’s not just the raunch, even the wholesome bits suggest that much-maligned film decade. The steely mother from Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki who exhorts her son to be strong, the elder brother from Khud-Daar who makes a living as a public transport driver and yet manages to make something of his younger sibling, the doctor-lady from Dacait (here it’s a teacher-lady) who aids the hero despite knowing that he isn’t operating within the law, the social unrest from Arjun that makes a normal guy a vigilante, a roadside poster of Vidhaata…
Movies like Big Brother are sitting ducks. It’s way too easy to make fun of them, if only for the sheer variety of people (and things) our hero – the one-line story is about him versus the scum of society – dispatches into orbit with a single-arm motion. (These include – but are not restricted to – a judge in a courtroom, a lawyer on the rooftop of a skyscraper, a few dozen thugs, even a couple of hospital beds.) And if you’re still in doubt about Devdhar’s superhuman strength, watch him punch the face of a goon who’s lying on the ground; just one dishoom, and clouds of dust fill the frame as the latter’s head ends up two feet under the top soil. So ha-ha and all that, yes. But then, there’s a strange purity about films like these, where the director says, “Look, I’m making my movie for the truck drivers in Ludhiana, and you multiplex types can sod off and go to hell.� At a time every filmmaker shoehorns in sops to audiences from ages eight to eighty, and in every city from Mumbai to Manchester to Melbourne, these are the films with zero compromise. I didn’t care very much for Big Brother, but there’s something bracingly honest about it that’s hard not to respect. How much better to do what (director) Guddu Dhanoa does here – know his strengths (or weaknesses) and play to them – than do what Suneel Darshan did last week with Shakalaka Boom Boom, overreaching by tackling Amadeus and embarrassing everyone concerned!
I know it sounds like I’ve gone soft in my old age, my left-handed defense of the kind of movie that we’re all glad we don’t see that much anymore – and part of it is perhaps the Grindhouse effect, with so much recent press about that loving homage to shlock from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. (In a way, this is our schlock. And we watched these movies in our equivalents of the grindhouse theatres, in the pre-multiplex days.) But then I don’t feel similarly defensive about the likes of Baghban and Baabul, which were again reworkings of formulas we’re all glad we aren’t subjected to that much anymore, and that is because these films had a phony veneer about wanting to change society, while Big Brother is simply the archetypes of our mythologies fashioned into an archetypal good-versus-evil story. It’s no accident that we hear a conch shell in the background in one of the scenes, because we’re asked to treat Devdhar as some sort of God on earth. (Even this name – Devdhar, which is shortened as Deva – has a bit of God in it, and what was God in His various avatars on earth if not our very first vigilante!) And seeing a fading-away Sunny Deol brings these musings to the fore because he is the last of our he-man heroes, effortlessly capable of sustaining on-screen conceptions that take off from our legends. (Ridiculous as it was, can you imagine anyone else in and as N Chandra’s Narasimha?) With the multiplex culture’s emphasis on hipness and realism and whatever else, another career-recharging Gadar doesn’t seem likely. It’s not just the end of a star; for better or worse, it’s the end of a storytelling era.
Copyright ©2007 The New Sunday Express
Come to think of it, I guess you are right. Maybe we are way too hard on many of these masala movies. After all, this movie would have been targetted at a certain kind of audience too and not at people like us who want to feel challenged while watching a movie. Moreover, they do not even carry any intellectual pretensions and are simple stories and who is to say that the director does not believe in such movies. Many times, we use reviews to blast the director and feel good about delivering that sucker punch; such an easy thing to do. I am glad that you still try not to degrade the people who have spent their time and energy to deliver a film (whatever we may think of the final prodduct) but still sound critical enough.That’s one reason I respect the opinions provided here and read them regularly.
The fact is Sunny seems to relish these roles, the always right, unflinching in the face of danger, upholder of the downtrodden.
He doesn’t have Shahrukh Khan and Sanjay Dutt’s morally complexed image…even when he has played the underworld don or drunk failed lawyer, his essence has been of the kind hearted giant. A modern-day Bhim, the battering ram for the bad.
I think that’s the primary reason why his movies work. Go there to see a good-vs-evil fight and know that the good guy will match him with blow for blow
Pradeep - about being hard on masala movies, it depends. What I was talking about - like you said - is trashing films that are so not targeted at you.
Gautam - Shah Rukh and Sanjay Dutt have a morally complex image? Hmmm… But you are bang-on with the “modern-day Bhim” analogy. I kept thinking about Bhim tearing apart Jarasandha with bare hands, and even wanted to talk about it in the review.
Rangan
Are you planning to review Bheja Fry anytime soon. Nice little flick. Would love to read your review of Bheja Fry.
Dharmendra… Nope, the film didn’t get a release here in Chennai, so…
Hey Rangan:
You need to QUICKLY:
1) Publish a full set of your review archives (at least last 1 year) on this blog
2) Review Mozhi (if you have already i can’t find it on this blog)
PLEASEEEEEE:-)
Thanks
Aarti
Quite often, those of us living outside India find ourseleves almost
apologizing for the kind of films we make, to anyone who’s not us. Our
films have a sensibility of their own and obviously any
self-respecting Indian would defend that, warts-and-all. They are what
they are. You make an interesting point about how movies such as these
are our Grindhouse relics. So the next time someone asks me about the
song-and-dance or Sunny Deol’s superhuman mucca, I’ll have an anology
for them. This really is our schlock.
Tamizh movies for the new year? Or is not even one worth watching and giving your take on it?
I guess YES….
Loved the title!
(and the review, of course… goes without saying!)
Aarti - older articles/reviews are on brangan.easyjournal.com and baradwajrangan.blogspot.com. I’ll bring them over sometime… About Mozhi, didn’t you see the comment-ranrt on an earlier post?
Gaurav - you know, it’s somewhat sad that it’s taken something from hollywood to remind us that “shlock” isn’t necessarily uncool. There are times we want to watch hard-core masala movies, for the things that they give us that no “sensible” movie can. And please don’t include “song and dance” in this category. We’ve just lost the directors who know how to use the musical format, and that’s why these breaks come off as silly.
Padawan - any idea on what’s the buzz? I want to review Unnale Unnale, but won’t be able to get to it anytime soon. What’s the word on Mayakannadi? The trailers looked a bit scary
shyamala - ah, thank you for the compliment on what is possibly my most favourite part of writing these reviews: digging up the cheapest of puns.
Rangan
Looking at the categories you have created, does that mean you would not be reviewing tamil movies?
Please DO review them.
The cheaper the pun, the happier I am!
As a fan of 80s HW action films, I get a certain enjoyment from these Indian dishum-dishum-fests as well. They’re cheezy, but they make no bones about what they are.
BTW, Sunny Deol films get screens in Chennai???
I haven’t seen either of them. But I am definitely not going to see Mayakannadi - one the trailers do look scary :-). Second - Cheran looks like a clown with that Ghajini-haristyle.
Unnale Unnale - A friend of mine said that Sada was the best performer in the movie and I instantly knew what was in store…
“Unnale Unnale - A friend of mine said that Sada was the best performer in the movie and I instantly knew what was in store…”
I thought UU was a tepid film and that Sada doesn’t do much besides pout or scowl.
No reviews this week? I’m already experiencing withdrawal syptoms.
Well, I love masala films. But Big Brother is an affront to the genre — specifically in what it purports to make of Gandhi (a precursor to Sunny Deol) I found it quite fascist.
Guys, there’s a good way to do outright masala: CHEEYAN!!!!! specifically: Saamy, Dhool, etc.