Sivaji: Swades meets Nayakan?

I’m sure most of you have already seen this trailer (thanks Ramya), and I hate the fact that I now have to wait for at least two and a half weeks before getting to see THE BOSS – Bachelor Of Sosial Servees.

Thalaivaa!!

Got to admit that the release of the trailer today did steal the thunder from all that excitement of getting to watch the Pirates 3 premiere on Thursday night at Sathyam Cinemas. Had planned to watch Dead Man’s Chest for the fifth time and now, I can’t help but watch the two and a half minute trailer back-to-back, over and over again.

Here are a few thoughts on The Boss.

1. In spite of the shocker of a movie that Anniyan was (though it did exceedingly well, I didn’t like it much personally), I’m pretty sure Shankar is gonna rock this one. He’s got a formula that can’t go wrong. Let’s see now:

Style: Check (Baba was him at his worst without the moustache and all, this one has power dressing from Manish Malhotra… Let’s just erase the memory of Thalaivar in that blonde wig. We know it’s just intended to shock and he won’t be doing more than one para of a song with that on!)

Babe: Check (Certainly better than Nagma, Soundarya, Meena, Manisha Koirala or Nayantara. Thalaivar’s rarely got his choice of babe right! The best of the lot, Ramya Krishnan had to settle for vamp, so did chubby Jo!)

Comedy: Check (Vivek rocked Shankar’s last and if the jokes in the trailer are any indication, the comedy has to do with Thalaivar’s attempts to become fair. How lovely! Every dark man’s fantasy becomes a feel good joke.)

Action: Double Check (Shankar’s always given us an overdose, so nothing to worry about in that department. And with Thalaivar around, there’s so much more potential to kick butt.)

Sentiment: Check (From the promo we figure that though his intentions are noble, his family and lover do have a problem with the means he uses for reform. Seems like a decent enough premise for family sentiment.)

Punchlines: Check-mate (Looks like he doesn’t need them here. When he takes that phone and says “BOSS,” it is more than a punchline. It is knock-out line.)

* * *

After watching Swades, I couldn’t help thinking: What if the same movie was made with Thalaivar in the lead but in the six-song six-fight comedy-track format.

Noble intentions (a film on reform) served with formula seemed to be an ideal potion to work magic with the masses. Not that arriving at that formula is an easy task. For a director like Shankar though, that is the easy part.

He already has mastered the formula, what he didn’t have was a noble subject with a hero of demi-god status. Which he now has.

The script he had last written for Superstar went to Arjun. We know the film went on to be a super hit. Had Superstar done that movie, we wouldn’t have had to wait till Chandramukhi to prove to all of India that even in this day and his age, there is only one sun, one moon and one SUPERSTAR!

* * *

Shankar has played the Robinhood card before with Gentleman.

After one vigilante outing in Indian and an ordinary-man-turned-chief minister in Mudhalvan, (I’m skipping all his light hearted films) I thought that the master of formula tried too hard with Anniyan. Any hero who cries, even if he’s Spider-Man, is plain sissy. And we had two sissies and a psycho in Anniyan. Vikram as a sissy common-man (Ambi), then as the wannabe model wanting to do “the yoyo” (Rampwalk Remo: Complete Wuss again!) and as then as the psychotic over-actor who quoted mumbo-jumbo from Garudapuranam was not my idea of a superhero.

It’s good that he’s going back to the Robinhood story. Nayakan was classic Robinhood. So when the boss says, “The rich get richer, the poor get poorer,” we can feel the credible angst of athe angry young reformer. We don’t care he makes those phone calls. As long as he can transform stones to homes. And it only gives us more reason to cheer that this 21st century reformer is our very own SUPERSTAR.

* * *

If I go nuts (In case I already haven’t) in the next 16 days, you know who to blame.

P.S: Regular movie programming continues on Sudermovies. Just posted Cheeni Kum.
Update: Also up: Ek Chalis Ki Last Local, Shootout at Lokhandwala, Shrek 3 and Pirates 3: At World’s End.

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Sivaji: Swades meets Nayakan?

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