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Quarterly report: Heroes to the rescue

The winners and losers of Bollywood's pretty eventful first quarter of 2016 were thanks to real-life dramatis personae

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'Interesting' is an adjective which can mean precious little. It's a bit obscure and evasive. However, that's the first word that pops up in my mind to describe the state of Bollywood movies - loved and hated - in the first quarter of 2016. The report card for the first three months - with a rapid-fire rate of two, and at times, three to four movies released a week - is that a fistful of them rocked big-time, some just about made the cut, while the majority flunked both with the mandarins as well as the masses.
Now that's show business, as usual, you might say. I wouldn't agree with that. Reason: at least three Mumbai-produced films were game changers, bonded by the fact that two of them were stories based on real-life individuals (Neerja; Aligarh). The third, Airlift, hinged on the real-life event of the mass evacuation of Indians from war-torn Kuwait, during the Gulf War in 1990-91.
Biopics and fact-based films have been impacting mainstream cinema steadily but surely (take the random examples of Bandit Queen, Dirty Picture, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Mary Kom, Main Aur Charles). Indications are that reality is fast becoming the creative go-to source. At the very least, plausible plots are being constructed. Funky fantasies and plagiarising Hollywood scripts are no longer the only options.
Indeed, Neerja has proved to be the year's game-changer, so far. Here was an emotionally charged tribute to the young Pan-Am flight purser, Neerja Bhanot, who showed exemplary courage while dealing with a 1986 hijack by terrorists. The overwhelming response to the film has strengthened the notion that a woman-centric project can reach that hallowed mark of earning Rs 100 crores and more.
Moreover, director adman Ram Madhvani - who only had the arthouse film Let's Talk in his bio-data prior to Neerja - pulled off a project of sense and sensi-bility, found reasonable support from the strictly formula-friendly financiers, and attained worldwide exposure in a chain of multiplexes.

Sonam Kapoor's performance, in the title role, has silenced the detractors who were dismissive about her, slotting her as a fashion diva rather than an actress of any calibre.

It's a double-edged sword for her now. How does she top Neerja? Obviously, she can no longer be an ornamental prop in extravaganzas à la Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. Perhaps the answer is to partake the best of both worlds: feature in big-budget movies as well as the unconventional - with selective acumen. Easier suggested than done, but with a little bit of luck and fortitude, the balance can be achieved.
Hansal Mehta's Aligarh, a compassionate account of the fierce ostracism faced by a university professor, wasn't exactly a winner at the cash counters. Quality-wise, however, it was applauded across the nation as well as at international film festivals for its topical theme. Come year-end, it's more than likely to be garlanded with awards for its subject as well as Manoj Bajpayee's outstanding performance as the beleaguered Dr Shrinivas Siras.
Over to Airlift, directed by Raja Krishna Menon. The thriller incited controversy for its details on the evacuation mission in Kuwait. Government officials and a navy captain involved in the actual heroic event challenged the film's authenticity, inadvertently fuelling the audience's interest further. Some appreciated the film, others had reservations.
Be that as it may, Akshay Kumar's characterisation  of the messianic Ranjit Katyal (inspired considerably by Oskar Schindler as depicted in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List) was praised lavishly for breaking away from his stereotyped, all-brawn-no-brains roles as seen in Singh is Kinng, Rowdy Rathore and other films.
The crop of comfortable cash earners was led by the Karan Johar-produced, Kapoor & Sons, remarkable for its likeable performances by senior actors Rishi Kapoor and Ratna Pathak, supported by the youth quotient of Fawad Khan-Siddharth Malhotra-Alia Bhatt. Uneven in its scripting, the dysfuctional family drama had some sparkling as well as some over-the-top moments.

According to trade vigilantes, Sunny Deol's Ghayal Once Again performed fairly well, reviving the career of the actor-director who seemed to have vanished into limbo for a time. Purported comedies of the utterly lowbrow kind, Kya Kool Hain Hum 3 and Mastizaade, were nixed. A fatigue-level seems to have set in among audiences for this brazenly exploitative genre.
Among the other no-nos, Fitoor turned out to be Calamity No 1 of the year, so far. Prakash Jha's Jai Gangaajal was the done-to-boredom harangue about the corrupt ways of politicians. Priyanka Chopra's impersonation of a tough cop didn't quite gel either.
March concluded with John Abraham flaunting his abs (yet again) in Rocky Handsome. No surprises, no wow effect. So do the action-packed exploits of
Mr Handsome qualify as 'interesting'? Barely, literally speaking.