"Doctor, I cut the umbilical cord with a Swiss knife. Hope that’s okay?” This is what Shruti (Shruti Haasan), the annoying do-gooder, says to a doctor after she has extorted a baby from a screeching pregger in the back seat of Gabbar’s car. We neither see the doctor’s bewildered expression, nor do we hear the expletive the doctor may have mumbled. But this is a statement of much import. For this is exactly what director Krish should have said to A.R. Murugadoss from whose story and Tamil film (Ramanaa, 2002) Gabbar Is Back is derived. Except that Krish and his star Akshay Kumar haven't cut the umbilical neatly, but have smashed it to smithereens with stardom ka danda, wrenching it from all things that madeRamanaa a half-way decent film. For example, that one had a real-world setting where real-ish people operated; this one has stuttering links to reality solely for the purpose of manipulating our emotions in the crassest way possible. That one had music by Ilayaraja; this one has noise generated by Yo Yo Honey Singh, among others. Much like the 10 tehsildar who are kidnapped in the first few seconds of the film and dumped in a secret location, we are bewildered too when we are chucked in the middle of something that’s been going on for a while. We catch-up quick. Gabbar, aka Aditya (Akshay Kumar), heads a secret kill-the-corrupt mission. His honest minions collect details of who got how much bribe and, depending on their score, bhrashtacharis are moved up and down the corruption rating chart. The one on top is dangled, every Friday, from a lamp post/bridge/flyover, garlanded with files on his corrupt compatriots and a CD from Gabbar where he announces his next target. Gabbar moves department-wise — PWD, police… — and his CDs contain such witty lines: “Our system is like bachche ka used diaper. Kuch geela, kuch dheela.” Taliyan, I say. Though the film's terrible background music is mixed with some of Gabbar Singh’s famous dialogues, there is nothing Gabbar like about Aditya. He’s neither menacing, nor memorable. Aditya holds a sober job and is a humshakalof many one-week-wonders Akshay Kumar has played in the past. Aditya has grabbed the alias because of the reputation of fear it carries, but the film does nothing to make the name fit the character. Because, well, it’s Akshay. Gabbar is on a killing spreeand in Mumbai’s police headquarters, where five nincompoop senior cops are busy chomping on samosas, constable Sadhu (Sunil Grover) is investigating and getting close to Gabbar. Gabbar’s anti-corruption crusade, meanwhile, takes him to a hospital where an instant connect is made with our own feelings about super-speciality, super-smug, super-chor hospitals. This all-violins-out
outing leads to the film’s real villain, Digvijay Patil (Suman Talwar) who repeatedly announces, “I am a brand”. Instantly we know that Gabbar will bajao his band. But only after we are treated to a flashback starring a star and a tragedy that’s so fake that it’s laughable. This is followed by some more tacky fight scenes that involve the same-old slaps, flying kicks, humans smashing into glass windows, tables, chairs, cupboards, and when we finally arrive at the climax we find that this Gabbar doesn't just kill. He also delivers pravachans to the nation's youth who are weaving the future, one post at a time, on Twitter and Facebook. Director Krish and superstar Akshay’s GIB is a hectic, loud film that skids from one episode to another introducing characters — all prefabricated, one-dimensional ones necessary for simulating a vigilante melodrama — and pushing the story to its inevitable end. All vigilante films are devious. They cast us in the role of hapless onlookers as tragedies claim sweet innocents and the only thing left to do is to bay for blood. For our satisfaction, stars have been bludgeoning the corrupt for ages, and saying, take the law in your own hands. Though exploitative and formulaic, many were good films. GIB is a bad film that’s also disturbingly cynical in its plotting. Somewhere in the bombast and bakwas of GIB sits a tiny kernel of truth — about our ironic, sad lives, about Bharat Sarkar that does everything unscrupulous under the aegis of Satyamev Jayate. The film dips into that — making us weep over our own frustrations, anger — and first lets us draw satisfaction from watching the powerful and corrupt quake with fear and die, and then, pandering shamelessly to our mob mentality, goads us to take action without accountability. The worst message possible in these moronic. Sure, somewhere the slaps that are delivered need to be delivered. Sure, some scenes are funny. But GIB says it’s noble to act, not introspect; that if you are angry, you must be innocent. That’s the biggest lie we tell ourselves. And GIBtells it again and again. The doofus played by Shruti Haasan is totally superfluous to the film. She irritates us with nonsensical chitter-chatter about “according to Google… as per Google…” I googled and, well, according to Google, Ms Haasan has had a successful lip and nose job. So that, perhaps, is why she was hanging around pouting — to exhibit her newly-remodelled face. I fear that in a year’s time all Bollywood actresses will look the same, their faces sitting somewhere in the face-card that moves from Aishwarya Rai to Katrina Kaif. That’s Bollywood’s template of beauty. It’s another matter that Aishwarya and Katrina may not look like themselves in a year’s time. Akshay Kumar sometimes uses a stunt in fight scenes and all villains stand around
as if in a game of Statue, waiting for his kicks to arrive. But he has very healthy gums. His dentist would be proud. He still, however, insists on wearing shirts with hoods. His wife should be worried. Source: Article, Gabbar has ‘nothing to do’ with Sholay: While his character is named after the iconic villain from Sholay, Gabbar is Back’s leading man Akshay Kumar says the film has no other connection to the classic Dharmendra-Amitabh Bachchan caper. “We have just two-three dialogues from Sholay, otherwise GIB has nothing to do with Sholay. The film begins with my character writing an anonymous letter to the (police) commissioner, about corruption. I can’t sign my real name, and Sholay happens to be playing in the background, so I sign it as Gabbar,” Akshay told us. About the South film Ramanaa of which GIB is a remake, Akshay says, “Our film is 60 per cent like Ramanaa but we have added a lot of real incidents. I was told not to watch Ramanaa and I prefer it that way. I don’t want to copy any actor.” Source: Article, ‘Gabbar’s not a masala film’: Shruti Haasan, whose film Gabbar is Back releases today, isn’t very happy about it being projected as a masala film. “I don’t know why people call it a masala film. It’s an entertaining film with a message, which is a great balance.” Would that be her favourite genre? “Comedy is a genre I enjoy very much. I come across as serious, but I’m a goofball. I also want to explore action. I trained in it when was young, so maybe I could mix action and music. That'll be great! Maybe perform stunts with an electric guitar,” she says about her filmy fantasy. Shruti shares screen space with two other actresses in the film — Kareena and Chitrangada. How was that? “Kareena’s track is wonderful and it is integral to the story, so I like how it has turned out,” she said. Source: Article. Decoding Gabbar’s look: Akshay Kumar has a new look in Gabbar and the credit goes to his designer Rick Roy, who planned the look. “In terms of the look, we worked on his hair and beard first. I sat with Akshay and Shabina (the producer) on a style that will work for the character. We explained to him what we had in mind. Akshay was super supportive — he grew his hair and beard exactly the way we wanted it. After that, we worked on a colour palette. We didn’t want any costume to stand out randomly, so we used a lot of dull colours and matte fabrics for his shirts. The point was to give him the look of a no-fuss, cool common man.” Rick says he was impressed that despite being a star, Akshay never behaved like one. “I never heard him raise his voice on sets or throw a fit. It’s my second film with him in three years. Even on a stressful shoot day, you meet him in the morning and you feel happy and positive. Akshay doesn’t interfere. He is all about the character. When he sat with Shabina and me for the initial meetings where I explained the look, he saw the references and sketches I made and said, ‘Cool’. That was all. The only things he told me about were technical things like stretch and dupes and his stunt sequences.” Source: Article,
outing leads to the film’s real villain, Digvijay Patil (Suman Talwar) who repeatedly announces, “I am a brand”. Instantly we know that Gabbar will bajao his band. But only after we are treated to a flashback starring a star and a tragedy that’s so fake that it’s laughable. This is followed by some more tacky fight scenes that involve the same-old slaps, flying kicks, humans smashing into glass windows, tables, chairs, cupboards, and when we finally arrive at the climax we find that this Gabbar doesn't just kill. He also delivers pravachans to the nation's youth who are weaving the future, one post at a time, on Twitter and Facebook. Director Krish and superstar Akshay’s GIB is a hectic, loud film that skids from one episode to another introducing characters — all prefabricated, one-dimensional ones necessary for simulating a vigilante melodrama — and pushing the story to its inevitable end. All vigilante films are devious. They cast us in the role of hapless onlookers as tragedies claim sweet innocents and the only thing left to do is to bay for blood. For our satisfaction, stars have been bludgeoning the corrupt for ages, and saying, take the law in your own hands. Though exploitative and formulaic, many were good films. GIB is a bad film that’s also disturbingly cynical in its plotting. Somewhere in the bombast and bakwas of GIB sits a tiny kernel of truth — about our ironic, sad lives, about Bharat Sarkar that does everything unscrupulous under the aegis of Satyamev Jayate. The film dips into that — making us weep over our own frustrations, anger — and first lets us draw satisfaction from watching the powerful and corrupt quake with fear and die, and then, pandering shamelessly to our mob mentality, goads us to take action without accountability. The worst message possible in these moronic. Sure, somewhere the slaps that are delivered need to be delivered. Sure, some scenes are funny. But GIB says it’s noble to act, not introspect; that if you are angry, you must be innocent. That’s the biggest lie we tell ourselves. And GIBtells it again and again. The doofus played by Shruti Haasan is totally superfluous to the film. She irritates us with nonsensical chitter-chatter about “according to Google… as per Google…” I googled and, well, according to Google, Ms Haasan has had a successful lip and nose job. So that, perhaps, is why she was hanging around pouting — to exhibit her newly-remodelled face. I fear that in a year’s time all Bollywood actresses will look the same, their faces sitting somewhere in the face-card that moves from Aishwarya Rai to Katrina Kaif. That’s Bollywood’s template of beauty. It’s another matter that Aishwarya and Katrina may not look like themselves in a year’s time. Akshay Kumar sometimes uses a stunt in fight scenes and all villains stand around
as if in a game of Statue, waiting for his kicks to arrive. But he has very healthy gums. His dentist would be proud. He still, however, insists on wearing shirts with hoods. His wife should be worried. Source: Article, Gabbar has ‘nothing to do’ with Sholay: While his character is named after the iconic villain from Sholay, Gabbar is Back’s leading man Akshay Kumar says the film has no other connection to the classic Dharmendra-Amitabh Bachchan caper. “We have just two-three dialogues from Sholay, otherwise GIB has nothing to do with Sholay. The film begins with my character writing an anonymous letter to the (police) commissioner, about corruption. I can’t sign my real name, and Sholay happens to be playing in the background, so I sign it as Gabbar,” Akshay told us. About the South film Ramanaa of which GIB is a remake, Akshay says, “Our film is 60 per cent like Ramanaa but we have added a lot of real incidents. I was told not to watch Ramanaa and I prefer it that way. I don’t want to copy any actor.” Source: Article, ‘Gabbar’s not a masala film’: Shruti Haasan, whose film Gabbar is Back releases today, isn’t very happy about it being projected as a masala film. “I don’t know why people call it a masala film. It’s an entertaining film with a message, which is a great balance.” Would that be her favourite genre? “Comedy is a genre I enjoy very much. I come across as serious, but I’m a goofball. I also want to explore action. I trained in it when was young, so maybe I could mix action and music. That'll be great! Maybe perform stunts with an electric guitar,” she says about her filmy fantasy. Shruti shares screen space with two other actresses in the film — Kareena and Chitrangada. How was that? “Kareena’s track is wonderful and it is integral to the story, so I like how it has turned out,” she said. Source: Article. Decoding Gabbar’s look: Akshay Kumar has a new look in Gabbar and the credit goes to his designer Rick Roy, who planned the look. “In terms of the look, we worked on his hair and beard first. I sat with Akshay and Shabina (the producer) on a style that will work for the character. We explained to him what we had in mind. Akshay was super supportive — he grew his hair and beard exactly the way we wanted it. After that, we worked on a colour palette. We didn’t want any costume to stand out randomly, so we used a lot of dull colours and matte fabrics for his shirts. The point was to give him the look of a no-fuss, cool common man.” Rick says he was impressed that despite being a star, Akshay never behaved like one. “I never heard him raise his voice on sets or throw a fit. It’s my second film with him in three years. Even on a stressful shoot day, you meet him in the morning and you feel happy and positive. Akshay doesn’t interfere. He is all about the character. When he sat with Shabina and me for the initial meetings where I explained the look, he saw the references and sketches I made and said, ‘Cool’. That was all. The only things he told me about were technical things like stretch and dupes and his stunt sequences.” Source: Article,
- Movie name: Gabbar Is Back (U/A) 130 min
- Cast: Akshay Kumar, Shruti Haasan, Sunil Grover, Suman Talwar, Jaideep Ahlawat
- Director: Krish
