Double Happiness

Kangana Ranaut reinvents herself with a twin role in Tanu Weds Manu Returns

 
Bollywood’s traditional device — of lookalikes or double roles — has been mined now by Anand L Rai’s Tanu Weds Manu Returns, a sequel which some have preferred to its progenitor released four years ago.
The sedate Manu, portrayed by R Madhavan, is back with a two-in-one Kangana Ranaut, fast establishing the status of a being a natural-born comedienne. No longer slotted as a psychotic heroine on the verge of &a nervous breakdown and worse (read: Woh Lamhe and &Gangster), she has found her place in the showbiz sun as a feisty woman, given to caustic delivery dialogue and flexible body language.

TWO OF A KIND:  (from left to right) Bollywood movies that have played with the twin theme include Sharmilee (Rakhee in a double role), Seeta aur Geeta (Hema Malini), Chaalbaaz (Sridevi), Don (Amitabh Bachchan) and Duplicate (Shah Rukh Khan)
Men can’t mess with her. If they do, she fights back as she did memorably with a street hoodlum in the back alleys of Paris. Clearly, Queen was her career-defining performance. And gratifyingly, her awful cougar-like incarnation in &Revolver Rani and a vapid street vigilante in Ungli, from last year, have been forgiven and forgotten.
I wouldn’t quite place Kangana in the class of Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and Kajol in their heydays, but she could well be getting there. At the very least, she’s no longer the Medusa-haired victim, given to depths of despair, which she was at the outset of her career — compounded by a complicated lia-ison in real-life with the much older actor Aditya Pancholi.
In the case of Tanu Weds Manu Returns, the actress succ-essfully forges two entirely unalike personae — and is especially remarkable as the spunky doppelganger from Haryana, a northern state of India, which is rarely depicted in mainstream movies.
A bulky supporting ensemble cast of males, including the edgy Deepak Dobriyal, the laconic Jimmy Shergill and the upcoming Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub from the National School of Drama, can’t stymie Kangana Ranaut’s individualistic spirit. The sequel, then, is essentially worth a dekko for the actress’ return in yet another endeavour which doesn’t treat women merely as an obscure object of desire. The chemistry between her and director Rai is palpable. He allows her to go full throttle, and yet contains her at moments when she could have gone way over the top.
If Weds Manu Returns can be faulted, it is because of its old-as-the-hillocks story premise. A dual role, heck, that’s as archaic as Hollywood’s spin-offs on Alexandre Dumas’s &novella The Corsican Brothers and Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper. And, of course, closer to home, there’s Dilip Kumar’s Ram Aur Shyam (1967) in which the valiant and meek switched identities to defeat their tormentors.
Besides literary and film sources, it has been contended that everyone in the world — even if he or she doesn’t possess a biological twin — has a lookalike lurking around somewhere, be it an entirely different continent altogether. A romantic theory that, but apart from scant resemblances, most of us are unlikely to stumble across an exact clone.
So, dual roles invariably require a suspension of disbelief. “Come on, it’s just a movie, it’s not supposed to be real,” most of us console ourselves. After all, fantasies beget entertainment, don’t they?
Despite this ‘forgiveness factor’, the dual role business in Tanu Weds Manu Returns is a cliched and outmoded notion programmed for a sequel. Consequently, plausibility is conspicuous by its absence. Hang on though: with the prevailing lack of believable stories about recognisable characters &and situations, the audience has come to accept the far-fetched as long as it has sufficient charm, situational comedy, chartbusting music, inspired performances and high production values.
A blend of these elements in double role films has clicked occasionally. Count among them Hema Malini’s schizoid act in Seeta Aur Geeta (1972, admittedly borrowed by Salim-Javed from Ram Aur Shyam), and the half-demure-half-aggressive performances by Raakhee in Sharmilee (1981) and Sridevi in Chaalbaaz (1989).
Indeed, every actor believes he has arrived bigtime on being cast in a double role. Oddly, male actors have achieved mixed results. Shah Rukh Khan is hardly likely to count Duplicate (1998) among his best. Neither is Amitabh Bachchan to be seen at his most accomplished in Mahaan (1983), which went to the next level (an absurd one) by casting him as a father with two sons, who’re all spitting images of one another.
On the upside, Bachchan has been adored in the vintage double whammies Don and Kasme Vaade (both 1978). In fact, the remake of Don with Shah Rukh Khan taking over the Khaike Paan Banaraswalla gig has bec-ome a franchise. The buzz about an impending Don 3 has been constant. In the super-hero Krrish series, which kicked off in 2006, Hrithik Roshan has encashed on his ability to carom between death-defying stunts and boyish vulnerability, a ploy which kicked off with his debut in Kaho Na Pyaar Hai (2000).
With the commercial success and largely fawning reviews of Tanu Weds Manu Returns in the media, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Kangana Ranaut-R Madhavan-Anand L Rai were to show up in yet another re-return. The director has promised that a third part is out of the question. And certainly not with a dual role for his widely-feted muse, Kangana. But then you never know. After all, promises are meant to be broken... wknd@khaleejtimes.com

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The gossip on ‘satku’
She is known as one of the few self-made actors in Bollywood, who became successful without a parent or godfather in the industry
Also queen  of controversy, Kangana has lately made statements that Priyanka Chopra won all the awards she was meant to win for Queen, that people are praying to work with her, and that many Bollywood personalities didn’t turn up for her recent Tanu Weds Manu Returns success party. Insecure, much?
Salman Khan bestowed her with the nickname ‘Satku’

Khalid Mohamed

• khalid@khaleejtimes.com