‘Selfiee’ Review: The Star and the Fan and a Film That Works Because of the Latter – The Wire
A Bollywood star, a star-struck fan. Like most actor-audience relationships, this love story is destined to be incomplete. Their probability assembly, nonetheless, nullifies all expectations. The fan sees an individual inside an Almighty: dancing sneakers hiding toes of clay. The frequent man swears revenge. The actor identified for making the general public dance to his tunes is dancing on the whims of his favorite devotee. The myths have shattered, the roles reversed.
Which film does this sound like: Shahrukh Khan’s Fan (2016) or this Friday’s launch, Selfiee, starring Akshay Kumar? There’s virtually an in-joke right here: that even a month after Pathaan’s launch, Khan’s spectre nonetheless looms over Kumar. However that gained’t be the entire story as a 2019 Malayalam launch, Driving License, completes the puzzle, as Selfiee is its remake.
In the event you stroll into this movie with sub-zero expectations, I gained’t blame you. It’s directed by Raj Mehta helming such masterpieces as Good Newwz and Jugjugg Jeeyo (which, like Selfiee, had been bankrolled by Dharma Productions). They resembled shoddy episodes of Comedy Nights with Kapil. Mehta thinks his films are humorous and his audiences dumb so, scene after scene, his inventory characters carry out their buffoonery to a ‘slapstick-ey’ rating, which conveys one of many following: “Comedy!” “Joke!” “Did you not get it — LAUGH!” Then there’s the manufacturing home which, over the previous few years, has produced so many terrible movies that it’s troublesome to maintain observe. Lastly, Kumar himself – an actor turning right into a punchline: somebody who’s unhealthy 11 months of the yr and insufferable in August.
Selfiee’s begin conjures up little hope. It opens to a monologue by Kumar (extra needy than honest) dedicating this film to his followers world wide. Mehta quickly slips into his classic mode. The prodding background rating seems; so do flat characters and apparent foreshadowing. There’s actor Sooraj (Abhimanyu Singh) who, beginning his profession with Vijay (Kumar) and now doing foolish advertisements and sleazy movies, craves his competitor’s downfall. One other pressured subplot, pivoted on Vijay and his spouse (Diana Penty) about to turn out to be mother and father by a surrogate being pregnant in New York, unfolds just like the equal of a screaming Chekhovian gun. Vijay’s co-star, an actress, farts on set and interrupts a scene – yeah, to this point so unhealthy.
However as Selfiee finds its rhythm, a distinct story begins to take form – one cognizant of the facility imbalance between a star and his fan. Its actual hero, then, isn’t a star (neither contained in the film nor exterior it): Emraan Hashmi. A sub-inspector at a Bhopal RTO workplace, Om Prakash holds an un-sexy, un-macho job: approving driving licenses. There’s nothing particular about him – and he doesn’t really feel particular. Besides when the lights dissolve contained in the theatre and Vijay seems on display. Om has admired the star for over a decade – a lot in order that his son has turn out to be a devotee, too.
The star-fan bond right here isn’t unidimensional. Om is unusual however not ‘irregular’: he has a household, a job, an id. He doesn’t go to Mumbai; Vijay involves Bhopal. First to shoot a movie after which to get his driver’s license made earlier than flying to New York. Om makes a easy request: Vijay, the cop, and his son take a selfie. As anticipated, a misunderstanding sours their equation, and Om decides to make Vijay grovel.
Hashmi’s sincerity and admiration are putting – neither a notch up nor a notch beneath – melding each humour and pathos. When he’s requested to care for Vijay’s driver’s license, Om says he’d ship one that will “appear to be a marriage card”. When Vijay lashes out at Om, making him a mini-celebrity on information channels, he comes house and sees the poster of a Vijay movie caught on the bed room wall. It’s peeling off from the sting; Om seems at it once more and sticks it again: quarrel is non permanent; love is everlasting.
Vijay’s insults sting much more as a result of they occur in entrance of Om’s son. The star hasn’t derided a fan however a father. So he fights for his dignity, exhibiting his son that love is a two-way avenue. Hashmi’s consideration to element makes his efficiency ring true. His Bhopali accent stays within the background; the truth is, you’ll need to pressure your self to detect his refined adjustments in pronunciation (the way in which he says “choice”, as an example, opening the ‘o’ to make it sound like “oaption”). Until the time Hashmi controls the movie, Selfiee is compelling, significant, and shifting. His anchor additionally ensures that Mehta stays away from his frivolous tropes.
Kumar’s character lacks specificity
However the different half, pushed by Kumar, lacks strong specificity. His Vijay seems like a typical Bollywood star – he isn’t a personality as a lot as an thought. A dedicated actor may have improved the function, however Kumar hasn’t accomplished something besides sleep-walk by his elements for years. Mehta’s commentary on the connection between the Indian media and Bollywood – by way of indignant information anchors and “#BoycottBollywood” – is, at greatest, surface-level and, at worst, stale.
The film turns into much more insipid when it tries arduous. Its central battle – centred on a star and a cop preventing over a driver’s license – might not have the identical power and rigidity as most mainstream movies, however Mehta makes it worse by making Selfiee what it’s not. A number of overlong sequences carry a sports activities biopic vibe. One in all them has Vijay answering Om’s questions on driving guidelines in entrance of excited spectators with a dwell scorecard broadcasted on information channels. It’s a bit… an excessive amount of. And with the Chekhovian weapons flung at us early within the film, it’s simple to guess the plot twists, making massive parts drag.
But I used to be shocked. Possibly as a result of, not like many Bollywood movies, Selfiee tucks in it a real fondness for the followers. Not like Fan, it’s not milking and massaging a star’s ego – it’s the viewers’s self-respect that issues extra. Or perhaps as a result of Bollywood films – and Kumar’s specifically – have spawned a lot disappointment in recent times that ‘not unhealthy’ has begun to resemble ‘good’. Selfiee isn’t fully spectacular, and but it’s Kumar’s greatest in a very long time. Whereas leaving the theatre, I used to be virtually glad. Is that this Stockholm Syndrome a brand new section of relationship between Bollywood movies and us? I’ve no thought, and I can’t even say ‘get your popcorn prepared’ as a result of, on this duel, we’re each members and audiences.
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