An earnest expression of love for cinema
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| Shamitabh (2015) - By R. Balki |
Our Rating: 8.0
IMDb Ratings: 7.1
Genre: Comedy | Drama | Thriller
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Dhanush, Akshara Hassan
Country: India
Language: Hindi
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 153 min
Color: Color
Summary: The film revolves around a very unique plot, where it shows two different individuals having different talents and when they become one, the mixture measures up to be a very big hit in the industry. But in the meantime, ego comes in the way and prepares to shatter the bond into pieces.
Shamitabh is a 2015 Hindi feature film written and directed by
R. Balki whose previous assignments include Cheeni Kum (2007) and Paa (2009). The
movie stars Amitabh Bachchan, Dhanush and Akshara Hassan in the pivotal roles. Shamitabh
also features cameo appearances from various famous showbiz personalities like Rekha,
Javed Akhtar, Prahlad Kakkar, Karan Johar, Mahesh Bhatt, Rajkumar Hirani, Boney Kapoor, Ekta
Kapoor, etc. Shamitabh is the third film that R. Balki has directed and each features
Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role. Balki is renowned for making unconventional
films. While Cheeni Kum was about a sexagenarian bachelor cook who falls for
a woman half his age, Paa was about a young boy suffering from Progeria—a rare
syndrome characterized by premature aging. And, in keeping up with his
reputation, Balki delivers yet another unconventional film in form of Shamitabh,
which revolves around a highly talented but dumb aspiring actor who borrows
another man’s voice (thanks to some fictitious Bluetooth-based voice embedding technology
developed in Finland) to shoot to fame in Bollywood—the popular moniker for the
Hindi film industry.
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| A Still from R. Balki's Shamitabh |
Shamitabh can be best described as an earnest expression of Balki’s love
for cinema. The movie offers endless tributes (it’s for the keen eye to discern
them) to various stalwarts of cinema like Charles Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Cary
Grant, Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, Rajinikanth, and Amitabh
Bachchan himself, among others. Shamitabh
is also aimed to be a satire on the lack of originality and creativity in Hindi
cinema. While celebrating the power of cinema and its indelible impact on the
masses, the movie simultaneously mocks the desperation people show (and the
endless compromises they are willing to make) to climb the ladders of fame. Balki
doesn’t back down from taking a swipe at the media either. Although, it may
come across as a light-hearted film, Shamitabh actually does manage to pose
several important questions highlighting the hollowness associated with stardom
and the endless hardships and exploitation that the young and upcoming talent face (like casting couch) in order to establish themselves in the tinsel town. The movie also accentuates the importance of team bonding and coordination in professional endeavors. By subjecting his own film to atrocious product placements, Balki seems
to be making a statement about the growing commercial opportunism as well the fast
dipping standards of cinema.
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| Amitabh Bachchan in R. Balki's Shamitabh |
Cinema at its most basic level serves the purpose of amusing our
senses, with both sound and images. One of the key instruments that cinema relies
upon, much like prestidigitation, is deception. After all, that’s precisely
what the Lumière brothers had achieved with their 1895 film “L'arrivée d'untrain en gare de La Ciotat” wherein the sight of a train being pulled by a
steam locomotive into a railway station was put to such devastating effect that the
audiences got so overwhelmed by what they saw on the screen (the moving image of a train coming directly at them) that they screamed and ran to the back of the room in terror
and panic! While cinema has come a long way since those early days, deception
still remains integral to it. In Balki’s film, we see how three people (a mute,
a drunkard and an assistant director) fool the world by creating a larger-than-life
phenomenon called “Shamitabh”—the screen name of the superstar character played
by Dhanush in the movie. The element of deception lies at the very core of Shamitabh’s
plot. In order to get a better understanding of this, the plot needs to be
closely examined.
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| Dhanush in R. Balki's Shamitabh |
In Shamitabh, Daanish, a cinema-obsessed bus conductor, comes to
Mumbai to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming an actor. It’s quite obvious
that despite his average looks, he is gifted with special acting talents. Unfortunately,
he cannot speak. His luck brings him in contact with a female assistant
director, Akshara Pandey, whom he manages to impress. She decides to help him
realize his dream but all her efforts go in vain as no filmmaker would accept a
dumb actor. Through the help of her doctor father she learns of a voice embedding technology
that can make it possible for dumb men to speak by borrowing other people’s
voice. After a long struggle they accidentally discover an ideal voice—the baritone
of a drunkard named Amitabh Sinha who himself had come to the city of dreams
four decades back with the hope of becoming a superstar but had failed in his
endeavor despite his good looks and physique because ironically his high bass voice
was considered unsuitable for a hero at the time.
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| Akshara Hassan in R. Balki's Shamitabh |
After his initial reluctance, Amitabh agrees to be Daanish’s voice (once Daanish agrees to split his earnings with him). In order to keep it all a secret, Akshara makes Amitabh sign a non-confidentiality
agreement. Akshara then records a sample clip of theirs (Daanish’s video superimposed with
Amitabh’s voice) and shows it to her director who instantly calls Daanish for
an audition. But, for this deception to succeed, Amitabh must always stay
within four hundred meters of Daanish (owing to a technological constraint). So, Amitabh
takes the disguise of a valet in Daanish's service. When the director asks Daanish to find a
suitable screen name, he zeroes on to Shamitabh—a portmanteau made up of Daanish & Amitabh. Things begin on a good note but soon Amitabh stars feeling
cornered as he continues to remain a non-entity in the eyes of the world while
Daanish becomes the nation’s heartthrob. The irony that the very voice that had
been his greatest undoing was now helping Daanish attain unprecedented levels of
stardom begins to haunt him. Soon, things start to fall apart as ego clashes
between Sh-Amitabh become more and more frequent until the point it becomes impossible
for the duo to coexist. The constant tussle between the two alter egos set the
ball rolling for a heartbreaking climax that may not seem perfect for a Bollywood
film, but, nonetheless, proves to be quite satisfying in the end.
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| A Still from R. Balki's Shamitabh |
Overall, Shamitabh is part entertaining and part thought-provoking
but there are also some glaring flaws and inconsistencies which are not easy to overlook (like, say, a simple ventriloquist act would have left a greater impact on the audience than the voice technology gimmick). It’s
also Balki’s most ambitious film yet; some may even put it in the experimental film category but it’s too commercial to be called one. Suspension of Disbelief
is a prerequisite for anyone who wants to enjoy the film. Shamitabh relies
heavily on the soliloquys and monologues delivered by Amitabh Bachchan’s
character. No, they are not Shakespeare good… but, yes, they invariably pack a
strong punch! While Dhanush delivers a
solid performance with some occasional flashes of brilliance, Akshara Hassan, who is
making her debut in the film, makes her presence felt in a role that could easily have been a whole lot meatier. As to Amitabh Bachchan (the song "Piddly Si Baatein" sung by him is already a hot number), it’s easily the best
work he has done in years (and, of course, he did the movie free of cost as he
confirmed in one of the interviews) but it certainly pales in comparison to his supernal performances
in Main Azaad Hoon (1989), Aks (2001), and Black (2005). The overall chemistry
between the movie’s three lead characters is nothing short of brilliant; some of
the scenes between Dhanush and Bachchan are pure gold. Veteran composer Ilaiyaraaja’s evocative music and P. C. Sreeram’s detailed cinematography add a lot of value to the movie. Some people
may nitpick about movie’s editing but there’s nothing really to complain about, perhaps with the exception of a couple of scenes. In the context of contemporary Hindi cinema, Shamitabh does come across as a breath of fresh air, but it certainly isn't tailor-made for casual viewers on the lookout for a popcorn flick to spend a cozy evening. However, if you truly love cinema or are a diehard fan of Amitabh Bachchan, then
Shamitabh is not a film you can afford to miss!
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