30 years After Big B’s Shahenshah, Bollywood Comes A Long Way With Harshvardhan Kapoor’s Bhavesh Joshi Superhero

1988 – This was the year when Amitabh Bachchan’s Shahenshah had released and opened to a roaring response.

2018 – This is the year when Harshvardhan Kapoor’s Bhavesh Joshi Superhero is releasing and is pretty much a dark horse in the waiting.

So what’s the common factor? Well, while there has been a gap of 30 years between the two films, what remains same is the subject matter and the genre. Both films have a common man turning into a superhero and the issues that they are fighting for are also topical and for the common man.

While in Shahenshah, Amitabh Bachchan fought the cause for slum dwellers, in Bhavesh Joshi Superhero, Harshvardhan Kapoor is standing up against the water mafia. Amrish Puri was the villain of the piece in the former while latter has Nishikant Kamat representing the evil force.

Meanwhile one waits to see how does the vigilante element take a different dimension in the two films which are separated by three decades. After all, Amitabh Bachchan was a towering personality back then in the 80 when he was at the peak of his popularity. Hence, his mere presence ensured that the baritone of ‘rishte mein toh hum tumhaare baap hote hain’ was taken seriously by one and all.

On the other hand when Harshvardhan Kapoor is doing just his second film and hence one can see him all vulnerable as he mouths the dialogue, “Hero paida nahi hota, banta hai”.

Well, for someone who was born in 1990, a couple of years after the release of Shahenshah, Harshvardhan is taking baby steps in the world of films. However, what has to be seen is how Bollywood is rewriting the script for superhero films with Bhavesh Joshi Superhero with an almost newcomer at the helm of affairs. This would indeed be the true test for filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane whose last release was a realistic Trapped [2016].

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder