Kitne Mahan Logo Ne Itni Mahan Galti Kaise Ki

Ali Peter John

The most prestigious production company which had some of the biggest films to its credit had decided to make the film. They had a dream cast like Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan who many other filmmakers were trying to bring together for more than twenty-five years and they had a very  popular female star in Kaitrina Kaif and they gave Fatima Sana Sheikh what they called a “role of a life time”. They took two years to complete the film which was shot on exotic locations like Malta and Thailand. They had a time – tested director like Vijay Krishna Acharya who last directed “Dhoom 3”, in which Aamir dared to play a negative role because he had faith in the director. The overall making of “Thugs of Hindostan” was remotely and invisibly handled by Aditya Chopra who is known as a man who hardly makes any mistakes. A film made with all the resources at its command could have created a storm at the 7000 screens around the world it was released at, but …..

But it was a storm of a very unexpected kind when the film was screened for the learned critics and it was difficult to believe that not one critic found anything to appreciate, not even the performance of Mr. Perfectionist. They saw Fatima Sana sheikh as a dumb doll with very little to say or sing. The only saving grace of the film, they all said was the performance of the man who has grown into an addict at giving perfect performances even if he was cast in a bad film.

How could so many minds working together to make a masterpiece and a blockbuster or bigger film make mistakes, small and big? How could  a script with so many flaws be okayed by the likes of super and superb actors like the Big B and Mr. Perfectionist? How could the team not realize that films showing other kinds of thugs and martyrs, shaheeds and even the common man and an ordinary man called Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had  fought for freedom(Azaadi) against the British? The word Azaadi is used by the Big B so many times that it tends to get repetitive and even boring. How could the makers not realize that two Britishers could not speak in Hindi of a kind that the late Tom Alter was forced to speak in the Angrez characters he played throughout his life? How could a girl of the eighteenth century wear the kind of shimmering and short as short can be costume in a dance number? How could the dialogues in most of the film be so mundane and predictable at times?

This is not a critic’s view or a trade analyst’s opinion or a film historian’s judgment but a feeling from the heart and mind of one who has been brought up  watching films as if life depended on them and who later had to make films a part of his and a way of earning his daily bread. This is also the view of the common cine-goer on the first day of the release as observed by me.

People in the business of films say that the film has broken all first day records by collecting fifty crore and the good time for the film will last till the last firework of Diwali goes up and out,  but what about the days to come? And what about the more dangerous thugs, the pirates who leaked the film on the very first day?

 A film like “Thugs of Hindustan” demands repeat value. Does it have the qualities of entertainment to have that very essential element for it to survive and break records like experts had expected it to? That is a billion dollar question which only time can answer, not me with all my experience, at least.

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Tags: Bollywood, Bollywood News, Bollywood Updates, Television, Telly News, Thugs Of Hindostan, Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Katrina Kaif, Fatima Sana Sheikh