MxMIndia

Tag: Sajid Khan

  • That Sony would actually go with Malik this season amazed me no ends, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    #MeToo India: A Year Later…

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    It’s been a little over one year since the #MeToo movement erupted in India. Tanushree Dutta’s accusations against co-star Nana Patekar triggered off a chain reaction, whereby several women, including many in the media and entertainment business, came out with their accounts, some anonymous, accusing co-workers of sexual harassment.

     

    Fourteen months is a long-enough time period to look back and wonder: Did the #MeToo movement really change things for the good? The answer is not very encouraging. The #MeToo movement in India has fizzled out spectacularly, with no major signs of any fundamental shifts in the thought process. Yes, it provoked many organisations into putting more robust sexual harassment policies in place, and may have sensitised many working men about how they should treat women co-workers. But a lot of these ‘changes’ were perhaps borne out of fear – the fear of being caught on the wrong foot, the fear of losing one’s career, or the fear of bad PR for a corporate.

     

    The real test of the movement’s success or failure can be judged through the current career status of those accused in it. If we focus specifically on the entertainment business, the accused in the corporate sector lost their job, and many of them have since been marginalised. But if you look at actors and directors, the picture is a more mixed one. Alok Nath had a film release earlier this year and director Vikas Bahl’s Super 30 released with him getting the director’s credit (the very well-made film went on to do good business too). Sajid Khan, one of the most prolific offenders, has not managed to restart his career, and that’s something even those indifferent to the #MeToo movement will be happy about, given the quality of his last few films.

     

    But the biggest and the most darning evidence that the movement is all but history is the re-establishment of Anu Malik as a judge on Indian Idol. The music composer was removed midway in the last season when accusations against him surfaced, to be replaced by Javed Ali. But in this season, he has been a part of the show right from the start, as if nothing really happened last year. Interestingly, he shares a platform there with Vishal Dadlani, a strong voice on social media on a wide range of social topics, including gender equality.

     

    That Sony would actually go with Malik this season amazed me no ends. He was eminently dispensable. The show does not rely on any one judge, and Malik, in any case, has a jaded imagery by now. It’s not like he’s the Amitabh Bachchan on whose shoulders a big show like KBC firmly rests. Keeping Malik away from Indian Idol would have simply been good optics. But Sony, I think, have chosen to take a legal position than a socio-cultural and ethical one, and reinstated Malik. There has been a social media backlash, but it’s not of a proportion that cannot be managed.

     

    It’s unfair to call out Malik and Sony, because the decision is symptomatic of the larger concern on how #MeToo was more of a fad than a real change. And hence, we can expect more men accused in the movement last year to slowly get ‘rehabilitated’ over the coming months.

     

    Do we need #MeToo Season 2 to take forward the unfinished job in changing mindsets? Perhaps yes.

     

     

  • Every week, Deepa Gahlot casts a critical eye over media reviews of Bollywood releases… in Reviewing the Reviews

    Reviewing the Reviews: Housefull 2

    Housefull 2

     

    Key Cast: Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Riteish Deshmukh, Shreyas Talpade, Asin, Jacqueline Fernandez, Zarine Khan, Shahzan Padamsee, Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty, Boman Irani

     

    Directed By: Sajid Khan

     

    Written By: Sajid Nadiadwala

     

    Produced By: Sajid Nadiadwala

     

    Sajid Khan is one of those filmmakers who revels in making crude comedies that work with a section of the masses and that encourages him to make more.

     

    Of course, films like Housefull 2 are critic proof and everybody who writes about it acknowledges it. The film has got 1 to 2 star ratings and teeth-gnashing rants from all except the trade papers and a weird 4 stars from the Times of India, which unfortunately serious cinema fans don’t take seriously any more. Four stars for this film, then what would they do when faced with a real masterpiece?

     

    Kunal Guha of yahoomovies gives it 1 and writes, “People getting kicked in the behind and falling in a puddle of embarrassment. Laughter track? Yes, please. Anyway, the film is about four friends, three of whom are pretending to be the fourth person- Jolly, who is the son of UK-based millionaire, JD. Why? Because it’s the only way to charm any prospective father-in-law. And just for fun, the two sets of fathers of the bride are arch enemies. How does that alter the plot? It doesn’t but allows for bitter exchanges filled with pokey insults and ridiculing confrontations. So much for your hard-earned multiplex ticket.”

     

    Sudhish Kamath of The HIndu titles his piece Dumb and Dumber and says. “The plot does not matter, you know what you are going to see, you are familiar with the territory because well, the stars and the action is just a rehash of the previous part that was successful and the plot and the background is just an excuse to unleash that action you have come to watch.”

     

    Rajeev Masand –1-star– says that it is for four-year-olds. Surely not! Kids do have better taste and thins one got a UA certificate. “Housefull 2, directed by Sajid Khan, is ‘bigger’ than the last film, but not necessarily better. To be fair, you can’t use words like ‘better’ or ‘funnier’ to compare these films; and asking me which one I preferred out of Housefull and Housefull 2 is like asking me what I’d rather have between a migraine and a hernia. Thank you, but I’ll pass. ” Ouch!

     

    Raja Sen of rediff. com calls it Shamefully Bad, slams down 1 star and writes, “Look, I have nothing against stupid comedies. The keyword, however, for Khan’s films is that he stresses the stupid part much too much, and all at the expense of the laughs. Even a basic, childishly simple gag – where a compulsive thief walks out of a sauna and pinches a character’s towel – is turned flat by Khan’s perplexing decision to equip that character, and only that character, with a towel for his head, which basically means he can wrap it around his privates and saunter out instead of being genuinely starkers and embarrassed. And so we have Chunky Pandey hiding behind a towel – a towel he’s holding in his bloody hands – and crying about how he wished he had a towel. Come on, Sajid, at least try to see the joke through, foolish as it is.”

     

    Anupama Chopra of Hindustan TimesT gives it a kindly 2 and writes, “If you are wondering about the quality of humour, here are some sample lines: At one point, a character says, “I got your virgin, I mean version” and “Langoors have my angoors.” Another one remarks, “You have piles in your brain.” One sequence has Riteish Deshmukh being bit on the rear end by an angry crocodile while Shreyas Talpade’s crotch is sucked by a python. In another, item-queen Malaika Arora Khan serenades Chakraborty and Boman Irani. And just when you think you’ve hit rock bottom, Khan springs a level lower. My vote for the grossest visual is Chakraborty romancing a dwarf maid.”

     

    Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gives it 1.5 and comemmts, “Several times in Housefull 2, random characters laugh at their own jokes and sing out: sense of huuuuumour. It pretty much says everything about the film, a sequel to the film of the same name which came out two years ago. You have to be able to find the doings of this vast cast amusing. And if you don’t, you have to be able to summon your funny bone to keep sitting, while pondering the cosmic corniness of the world according to Sajid Khan and other such weighty matters.”

     

    It’s all more in the same vein. The film makes money, Sajid Khan sticks his tongue out and goes from gross to grosser.