While everyone unanimously slammed Sajid Khan’s Himmatwala, it came as blow to all Ajay Devgn fans who were expecting a box office shattering performance from the film. Sajid’s confidence, rather arrogant overconfidence had created a larger than life hype which went a step ahead to hammer down the expectations of all. Besides a roaring opening, courtesy a Sajid Khan directed Ajay Devgn starrer film and a national holiday, a negative word of the mouth publicity has done this film irreparable damage, for good.
So the huge question remains why does Himmatwala disappoint or fail? Contrary to the humungous expectations placed on the film, it fails mainly for its conception itself. Since I had the unfortunate work woe of critiquing the film, I can cross my heart and assure our readers, it is essentially maiming for our mental health to watch a ridiculous and poor film like Himmatwala.
While remakes are all about lending to classics a newer perspective, the problem in this case is Himmatwala was neither a classic nor there was an ounce of refashioning involved. The film will rather traumatizing-ly remind you of the clichés of 80s, often deemed to be the worst decade of Hindi cinema. While Farhan Akhtar’s Don was a fantastic remake of the old classic, with a vibrant screenplay and fresh vision, Agneepath’s remake was a piece of neat work done artistically. Himmatwala however shifts between a spoof and a remake, enough to scar similar ventures in Bollywood for a long time to come.
It was easily assumed that Himmatwala will smoothly surpass 100 crores and establish newer box office records. However, the miscalculation occurred right after its first show concluded. The negative word of the mouth publicity as social network statuses and mostly critics, all ensured the film scrambles right through.
While in recent times, a lot of undeserving, ridiculous films have raked excessive revenue unnecessarily, Himmatwala seems to have suffered the rightful culminated brunt of it all. Films like Son Of Sardaar, Dabangg and Dabangg 2, even Bol Bachchan, all attempts to tickle the audiences’ funny bone, in all its mindlessness and stupidity. Yet, Himmatwala dauntingly yet differently makes the audiences suffer. Recreating corny 80s’ dialogues and fight with tigers, giving the film’s actor almost superhero powers becomes all too much to digest in one shot. Comparing it with all the above films which might be slightly mindless but all set in the contemporary times which makes it more plausible! 80s’ were a period of glossy frames, overbearing melodrama and stories which are typical – a wronged mother, bichari sister, avenging hero and a heroine who is randomly placed on the hero’s shoulder for dancing around the tress.
While Bollywood has come of age, assigning the real power to scripts and rejecting hero worship giving way to talented acting by celebrating the wonderful work of newcomer actors in a brilliant film, like the recent Kai Po Che!Himmatwala tries to pave way for the 80s’ terrain of thought which becomes unbearable to relate to!
The film fails for its lack of vision, overuse of loud elements, tacky colors, dimwitted dialogues and creating a poor replica of a 1983 mediocre film in 2013 which seems irrelevant and misplaced. Blemishing the face of mindlessly hilarious entertainment, the film will be remembered in a mundane, dark way for being so utterly ridiculous that audiences napped their way through it!
