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Friday, April 19, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD JULIE 2
EDITOR'S PICK
'Julie 2': A look at the murk behind the glam (Review By Subhash K Jha ; Rating : *** )
Films about the movie industry tend to demonstrate the sleazy side of showbiz
- but with a gentle touch.
"Julie 2" goes about it with hammers and tongs. The story of the rise and fall
of an ambitious actress has a familiar ring to it. A lot of the experiences that
Julie (Rai Laxmi) goes through seem inspired from the events that transpired in
the life of actress Nagma. The whole episode where Julie has a roaring affair
with South Indian superstar Ravi Kumar (Ravi Kissan, delightfully Telugu in his
speech and manner) is borrowed from Nagma's link-up with Sarath Kumar, as is
Julie's subsequent link-up with a cricketer which ends rather crudely with the
cricketer declaring to the shocked actress that he can't marry her as she has
been with too many men before him.
"Not that I expect you to be a virgin. But there has to be a limit," he drawls.
This is where the audience either hopes for the character to be killed or
commits collective suicide.
Then there is veteran actor Anant Jog who smacks his lips as though he has just
found a juicy chicken leg when he meets the heroine.Subtlety is not a quality
that the characters of this film value. Writer-director Deepak Shivdasani
strings together the betrayals of the men in Julie's life with a sledgehammer
impact. There is no ambivalence in the way Julie's men are presented in the
plot.
Apart from her faithful man-Friday endearingly named Ambani, all the men in
Julie's life are jerks, lechers and potential rapists. By the time she sobs: "No
one wants to love me, they all want only my body", Julie's slump into
self-destruction is nearly complete.
The only man who seems to genuinely care for her is her first film director
played with an affectionate swagger by Nishikant Kamat. One of the film's most
compelling episodes has Kamat ticking off a sleazy film financier who openly
propositions the shocked and tearful Julie, by hinting at a sexual liaison with
the financier's 18-year old sister.
At times like this, the narrative gathers its wits to deliver a telling blow on
the grime behind the glitz of show world. At a time when the predatory culture
of Harvey Weinstein has come out in the open, "Julie 2", in its subverted way,
tells us why the sexual predators of Bollywood cannot be exposed.
The film deploys an unusual level of melodrama to create an aura of progressive
ruination around its protagonist. It finally slumps to a groaning halt. But not
before executing an end-game that attempts to take the saga of the casting couch
to a suspenseful level. Debutante Rai Laxmi stands impressively tall even as her
character crumbles to the ground. She has a fairly firm grip over her
character's messy life and proves herself quite a "chick' off the old oomphy
block".
It is a little startling to see seasoned actors like Pankaj Tripathy, Rati
Agnihotri and Ravi Kissan pitching in with bombastic performances. But then,
bombast is the need of the hour. "Julie 2" is an old-fashioned high-pitched
melodramatic take on an actress' journey from zero to wow. It has plenty of
unexpected twists and turns in the plot, not all of them convincing. The
narrative neatly balances the engaging and the corny.
Produced and directed by Deepak Shivdasani, Julie 2, is an upcoming Bollywood Thriller slated to release on October 6, 2017. The film stars Raai Laxmi, Rati Agnihotri, Sahil Salathia, Aditya Srivastava, Ravi Kishen, Pankaj Tripathi and Nishikant Kamant in key roles. The film unfolds dark secretes of Bollywood and exposes the naked truth of Underworld and Politics.
