Box Office: Rocky Handsome flops
Rocky Handsome failed
to relaunch John Abraham's acting career. After an advantageous start on
Friday, thanks to the holiday, box office collections dropped over the
weekend.
Trade analyst Vinod Mirani gives us the box office verdict
They may be doing it legitimately now. But they're still doing it wrong. Nishikant Kamat's Rocky Handsome, an official remake of South Korean hit The Man From Nowhere,
is about a pawnbroker on a single-minded mission to rescue his
seven-year-old neighbour from a bunch of neurotic gangsters engaged in a
disturbing racket of drug mafia, child trafficking and organ
harvesting.
I watched the original many years ago, a fairly foreseeable plot in
the same space as Leon: The Professional (also remade in Hindi as Bichhoo),
but its blunt, brutal action is still fresh in my mind. What can be
more satisfying than a silent, simmering, slow burn action hero
exploding violently and systematically on screen, sparing none!
Rocky Handsome is a faithful copy (right down to the bad
grammar 'I Kill You') but not necessarily a good one. Much too affected
and overblown in its execution to realise the attributes of its slick,
sinister source, resulting in a sloppy, stupid film.
It's certainly well shot though. Shanker Raman's grey, grim palette
creates an air of relentless gloom and the use of Bombay Rockers track
alternating between a night club brawl and frenzied dancing are the few
occasions Rocky Handsome scores.
The problem is Kamat's approach is steeped in stereotypes. Every
single scene commits itself to hard-selling its titular hero --
emphasising on his strength (frequently flaunted six-packs),
significance (plastered next to a former Indian President) and
sentimentality (Shruti *sigh* Haasan). The point is driven aggressively
until it begins to look he's capable of zilch in their absence.
It takes concrete storytelling not style to camouflage John Abraham's
limitations. He bears the physicality of a man who could take on a
dozen but his blank, pained surface cannot offer threat or evoke
sympathy.
That his co-actors are equally inadequate hardly helps. Juggling
direction duties, Kamat doubles up as a bad, bald guy along side Ted
Maurya as the equally demented sibling controlling Goa's dark
underbelly. While Maurya provides new insights in the art of hamming,
Kamat's menace is as penetrable as the bulletproof car he's hiding in.
As the narcotics cop hoping to make a breakthrough, Sharad Kelkar is
the only one with some sense and semblance to where it's all heading.
Model Nathalia Kaur shows up too. It's evident she's in it purely for
her ability to sway hips. Even after they're cruelly tortured in a
scene right before she's back on the cabaret ramp furiously shaking them
in all directions. Primarily because Rocky Handsome alters the
chronology of the original to accomodate, as I mentioned earlier on, its
leading man's swagger.
Diya Chalwad, the little girl he's jousting to protect, uncomfortably
rattles off her rehearsed lines like some bored kid who'd rather stay
home watching cartoons. A tender, unique friendship between two wounded
souls, which forms the basis of its action-packed mission, is sorely
unconvincing in Rocky Handsome.
Cinema is a poignant medium where even fleeting screen time can
effectively establish lingering emotionality. All it asks for are
compelling performers. Rocky Handsome hasn't got any and no decibel of
background score can amplify phony affection nor can clunky dialogue
sounding less like conversation and more as awkward Hindi subtitles.
South Korean filmmaking isn't one to hold back on violence. Gore and grace go hand in hand in its nimbly choreographed combats. Rocky Handsome
disappoints on that front too. Kamath spends a sweet amount of time
building up the hero's arrival on the scene and projection but as soon
as it's slaughter time, the camera slips in a crazy rush to document the
bloodshed. What survives is limp and spiritless.
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