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Monday, December 23, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD READY
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***
She`s a runaway bride. He`s a runaway rogue, a little rough around the edges but
a good hearted lovable soul. Salman Khan can play this character over and over
again with his eyes closed. In Ready he is back to playing the
lover-boy clown.
Mr. Fix-it and Ms Hum Apke Hain Conwoman flirt and get
naughty in exotic locations. They don`t generate chemistry. They are just being
around.
Jeez, these two never tire of saying cheese! And when the going gets cheesy
there`s always the family to fall back on. There are three families, living in
homes that appear to have been built to accommodate over-sized families. The
setting is almost laughably anachronistic.
Salman Khan and his director Anees Bazmi pay a hefty comic homage to Hum
Aapke Hain Koun. The Salman-Asin romance unfolds against the backdrop of a
commodious joint family where every family-member seems determined to have a
good time even at the expense of good taste.
True, Asin lacks the gamine charm of Madhuri Dixit. But then the Salman Khan in
Ready is not quite the Salman Khan from Hum Aaapke Hain Koun.
He hasn`t aged. He`s just become more smug and self-confident. Many times we
catch him looking bored on camera. But that is this iconic star`s style
statement.
When you are Salman Khan you can slip out of a character when you want. No one
is complaining.
Bazmi`s script, a shoot off of a Telugu hit, accommodates more characters than
Goa during the tourist season.
Every character is over-dressed and over-the-top. Then men are constantly
looking for reasons to say goofy corny things to one another. That`s the
required mood of this panga-`mirth`-lena comedy with an attitude
that stretches from one end of the lengthy narration to the other with hardly a
break for the plot to gather together its thoughts.
Bazmi keeps the proceedings neatly on the side of good taste. Innuendos are
avoided, and partly so because Salman has an image of the good-bad boy. He never
offends refined sensibilities with his wildly bratty antics, though he never
shows any inclination to be one of those refined types himself.
He is happy being human in a way only Salman Khan can be. He gets able support
from some solid performers like Akhilendra Mishra, Sharad Saxena, Manoj Pahwa,
television comedian Sudesh Lehri and Mahesh Manjrekar whose hilarious act as
Salman`s dad is lifted from Sanjay Chhel`s Khubsoorat.
Strangely the women performers are all vapid to the point of seeming sedated.
This is a men`s comedy with women welcome to join the fun.
But nobody minds. And not because this is a mindless comedy. The quality of the
gags is often higher than what we usually get in Bollywood comedies. But the
film suffers from an overloaded narration.
There is too much effort to cram in entertainment at every possible
level. There is also a rather lame attempt to define the status of women in
feudal households. But the attempt is so hurried and cursory, it`s almost
farcical.
Replete with tongue-in-cheek references to many earlier blockbusters including
Sooraj Barjatya`s Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Ready is like one
of those familiar tunes sung to a new set of lyrics that you may not approve of
but you empathize with because it offers the comfort of the familiar.
Having said that, the film, it must be confessed, doesn`t really offer even
diehard Salman fans the fun-quotient expected from the mega-star. Too many
people colonise this domestic comedy. Boisterous uncles, over-dressed aunties,
under-intellectualised gangsters and irksome henchmen are all greedy to be
noticed. The trouble is, they aren`t doing anything that is terribly exciting or
engaging, except playing the foil to the star of the show.
And we all know who that is.
Sumit Dutt, who directed Salman Khan in the songs "Character dheela" and "Dhinka chika" for "Ready", was surprised by the 45-year-old star's energy levelsRead More
Mahesh Manjrekar gets chic makeover for 'Ready'Filmmaker-actor Mahesh Manjrekar has been known for his casual and unkempt look in films so far. But he has got a makeover Read More
Set amidst the appealing locales of Thailand, ‘Ready’ revolves around Prem (Salman Khan), the sole heir to a sprawling empire owned by his father and uncles. Prem’s father desires that he gets married and settles down, though Prem intends to enjoy his single status to the fullest.
Enter Sanjana (Asin), an orphan whose greedy uncles are constantly conspiring to acquire her property.
In a dramatic twist of Fate, the eternal bachelor Prem falls in love with Sanjana, and is ready for marriage owing to a case of mistaken identity Sanjana has just returned to India to live with her feuding uncles, who have their own devious plans for her marriage, in order for each to take over her inheritance.
