Year Ahead: The Same Old Story

The slate has already been drawn up for the year, promising an abundant harvest of films ranging from the outstanding and the mediocre to well, let's say, the surprising - of the pleasant kind. So here's looking forward to 2016 with renewed optimism.
The accent appears to be on action thrillers with the occasional romantic heart-grabber, besides dramatic biopics. Also, the trade is already anxious about two biggies that are likely to clash during the festive Ramadan/Eid season, what with the simultaneous premieres of Shah Rukh Khan's Raees and Salman Khan's Sultan - unless, of course, wiser business sense prevails.
The year kicks off with the Bejoy Nambiar directed Wazir due on January 18. Amitabh Bachchan orchestrates the moves of a wheelchair-bound chess grandmaster with Farhan Akhtar fitting into the suit of an anti-terrorist squad officer. Designed as a thriller, its slickly-edited promos have already set off a buzz.
A week later, Sunny Deol returns to direction (after the no-show of Dillagi over a decade-and-a-half ago) with a sequel to the 1990 action flick Ghayal, which was then helmed by Rajkumar Santoshi whose career is now at a low ebb. Sunny Deol once again thirsts for justice in a vice-ridden city in Ghayal Once Again, aided by an ensemble of younger actors including Shivam Patil who is believed to be an actor of potential, and back-from-limbo Soha Ali Khan.
Towards the month end (January 22), the irrepressible Akshay Kumar executes an Airlift directed by Raja Krishna Menon, who gets an opportunity to earn his spurs after a couple of insignificant movies. Nimrat Kaur, who made an impact with The Lunchbox and a steely presence in the American TV series Homeland, plays the female lead in this retelling of the true-life story of the massive evacuation of Indians at the time of the Kuwait-Iraq war, circa 1990.
Come February 12 and it will be the turn of actor-turned-director Abhishek Kapoor's Fitoor, a contemporary take on the 19^th century Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations, top lining Aditya Roy Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, and Tabu who stepped into the mojdis of Rekha - the unpredictable diva chose to drop out of the project midway through the film's shoot for reasons best known to her.
A week after that, Neerja - Ram Madhvani's tribute to the exemplary courage of the Pan Am flight attendant, Neerja Bhanot - should give Sonam Kapoor that one big opportunity to assert her acting credentials. Trailers of Neerja, which show chilling moments from the reconstruction of the tragedy on board a flight hijacked by terrorists in 1986, have amassed high praise on social media, including a supportive tweet from cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar.
Chances are that the big ticket for the month of March will be on the 18^th with Dharma Productions' Kapoor and Sons, about why it's still all about loving the family, presided over by Rishi Kapoor as a feisty grandpa. Its youth quotient includes Pakistan's Fawad Khan with Sidharth Malhotra re-wooing the Student of the Year debutante Alia Bhatt. By the way, their off-screen romance is the stuff that gossip entertainment tabloids thrive on.
Mid-April belongs to Fan, steered by Maneesh Sharma who's a bankable director that entered the show town scene with Band Baaja Baaraat. Shah Rukh Khan's the eponymous 'fan' who, rumours suggest, actually plays a double role of sorts, with a schizophrenic streak.
The summer vacation season of May livens up on the 13^th with the release of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Mirzya, a retelling of the legendary Mirza-Sahiban love story. Curiosity is high since it introduces Anil Kapoor's son, Harshvardhan, who has been weaned on cinema since his childhood.
The period love story has competition, though, with the concurrent release of Tony D'Souza's biopic Azhar on cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin, who was accused of involvement in a match-fixing scandal around 2000. Incarnated before the camera by Emraan Hashmi, the cricketer's second wife, actress Sangeeta Bijlani is being played by Nargis Fakhri who is known more for her glamorous appeal than her acting chops.
Next, on May 20, set designer/director Omung Kumar reprises his flair for biopics. After Mary Kom, he delves into the travails of Sarabjit Kaur, a woman who campaigned tirelessly for over two decades for her wrongfully-incarcerated brother in a Pakistani prison. Priyanka Chopra and Vidya Balan were in the running for Sarabjit before Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was confirmed after months of speculation.
After being inordinately delayed, Jagga Jasoos, which reunites Ranbir Kapoor as a detective with his Barfi! director Anurag Basu, will fetch up on June 3, in the company of Katrina Kaif. Incidentally, the thriller with underpinnings of comedy is said to have a rocking music score by Pritam Chakraborty. And just one chartbuster can contribute immeasurably to a film's appeal at the ticket counter. Fingers and ears crossed.
July 8, declared as a national holiday in India for Ramadan/Eid al Fitr, will be verdict day on the box-office clout of Shah Rukh versus Salman Khan. The former enacts a crime lord of Gujarat in the Rahul Dholakia-piloted Raees - a characterisation with boundless acting dynamics. Salman's big ticket for the year, Sultan, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, casts him in the unconventional role of a wrestler whose muscles and baleful gaze in the initial posters indicate a fight-to-the-finish between the Khans. Star wars of the Bollywood kind, anyone?
Hrithik Roshan, missing from the scene ever since the erasable Bang Bang, re-collaborates with his Jodhaa Akbar director, Ashutosh Gowariker, in an adventure saga set in ancient Mohenjo Daro. Scheduled to open on August 12, its plotline is being kept strictly under wraps.
The Diwali week, commencing October 30, could witness fireworks, what with the combat between Karan Johar's emotionally-charged Ae Dil Hai Mushkil - a triangular love story between Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma - and Shivaay, an espionage drama directed by actor Ajay Devgn. Let's just hope that the widely known age-old hostility between Karan Johar and Ajay Devgn doesn't move to the exacerbation line.
Next, but not the least, Aamir Khan's Dangal, directed by Nitesh Tiwari, is up as the Christmas week attraction. Reliving the story of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat who trained his medal-winning daughters in the sport, the endeavour may have an element of déjà vu, since Salman Khan's Sultan would have pre-empted Dangal. But then all's fair in love and sport.
May the best movie win.