I just don't understand why 'Besharam' didn't work. The cold response did surprise me as I, for one, had found the movie quite funny, wittily written and well-acted, too. And these are three things alien to the so-called "100-crore blockbusters" of the moment.Yes, I would agree with those complaining about the done-to-death references to the Kapoors and the choice of the female lead. Now, now, don't get me wrong: Pallavi Sharda is a pretty thing to look at, speaks her lines with passion and dances lively.
But all that effort to score big with this "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity does give an over-projection to her acting and dancing (when the girl dances, it looks as if her deliciously low-cut kurtis will burst at the seams). Likewise, when she speaks emotional sentences, her face resembles Renée Zellweger sucking on a lemon. But who had gone to check out Pallavi Sharda, anyways?
Anurag Kashyap had recently said that he and his brother, Abhinav Kashyap would like to be different brands of film-makers. What he meant was Abhinav would primarily be into mass-entertainers, while he will continue with the dark, morbid stuff.
I wasn't complaining of their mutual agreement as in "Besharam' I had found a movie that can be both engaging and at the same time, thoroughly entertaining. If this isn't a mass entertainer, maybe they are mistaking 'mass' for the term used in Physics.
So, is it the Khan PR Sabotage machinery at work? Because we know very well what a certain Bollywood superstar 'khan' do when it comes to sabotaging careers, don't we? Vivek Oberoi went from 'Viveik Oberoi' to 'Viveik Anand Oberoi' and back to 'Vivek Oberoi' in three years, and it's never been the same for him. Similarly, one can recall the fall-out between the Khans and the Kashyaps over creative control and credit.
And Ranbir Kapoor is already the undisputed first choice for the multiplex audience with 'Wake up Sid', 'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani', 'Rockstar', 'Barfi' etc. In tight times like these, if he starts delivering massy, single-screen hits as well, where will the Khans seek refuge then?
I only hope people don't stoop to such low gimmicks. I would prefer 'Besharam' to 'Chennai Express', 'Bodyguard' and 'Ready' any day. Or for that matter 'Dabanng-2', which, at least for me, was Abhinav Kashyap's 'Dabanng' all over again, only this time with a new villain and self-referential punch-lines.
With the Khan brothers taking offence to anything and anybody any time, and dollying out their own version of "retributive justice", so as to speak, I can only think of one line to say- "Arre, Avengers se yaad aaya, Salman aur Arbaaz kaise hain?"