Acknowledgement: I am an Anurag
Kashyap fan and will continue to remain so.
Anurag Kashyap has never defended
himself or his work. He never cared about what the critics said. He shows to
the audience what he wants to show. Yet, when his magnum opus Bombay Velvet
failed at the box office and critics were out with their knives, he comes out in a defensive mode and gives an explanation. This is completely unlike Anurag Kashyap. He did not get angry
with the criticism but he is angry with himself. Because he knows this isn’t 'him'.
Probably for the first time, the expectations and the ensemble cast got the
better of him. He did not want a film on his resume which he thought, did not
have the original ‘him’. It was slightly condescending to say that audience
will take time to understand the shocking narrative. Even the average film-goer
will say that the narrative wasn’t any different from usual period films let
alone be shocking. But we will give him the benefit of doubt. It was the anger
speaking rather than the director himself. We do find fault with others when
others cannot see what we intend to show them.
It is a fact that none of his
earlier films had the kind of star power that this film has. Ranbir Kapoor,
Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar. The biggest pressure on him was the launch of
Karan Johar. Here is a successful director and producer, loved by the metro
audiences and the media, who has his own talk show, judges a dance reality
show, and hosts award ceremonies. He wanted to try his hand at acting. Chooses a
negative role and to be directed by Anurag Kashyap. The onus of his success
lies on the director. If Karan Johar is successful as an actor, Karan Johar
will win all praise singularly. If he doesn’t, the director will be criticized
for wrong casting and not being able to get the best out of a newcomer.
For the first time, he was
feeling the pressure of the box office as well. This can be gauged from a few mistakes
in the script (Spoilers ahead). Karan Johar’s character gets impressed with
Ranbir’s character all too easily. It was as if the director was short of ideas
on this one. The turnaround of Siddharth Basu’s character from honest to corrupt
was as swift as a formula one car. Ranbir’s character wanted to kill Anushka’s
character himself then why did he have someone keep a bomb in her room. It wasn’t
that he had not killed anyone earlier. The double role of Anushka’s character was
laughable. There wasn’t any logical explanation to keep the union leader alive.
Vivaan Shah’s character was not required. It would have reduced the length of
the film which seemed stretched at the end. All these points in the script made
it look like a typical bollywood masala film where one keeps the logic at home.
Unlike Anurag Kashyap again.
It is a blessing in disguise that
Bombay Velvet failed at the box office. It is a learning for everyone to not
get swayed by 100 crore collections. Indian audiences are slowly moving towards
meaningful cinema and Anurag Kashyap must take credit to be the one to start
this. I hope he comes back stronger and with renewed vigour to show his true
mettle.
