So the Mister, once an admirer of Akshay Kumar, has now
blacklisted him. He thinks Indian Film Industry's this slightly sub-super star
has moved over to the dark side and become a 'chaaploos', a** licker of the
Modi govt. I don't really take his word on it. After all he is a cynic and
paranoid - a very dangerous combination for an Indian journalist. Although he
is sort of a Mr. Know-It-All. And his points in support of his argument are
hard to ignore:
1. Kumar's movies, instead of focusing on good and/or entertaining content, now focus on pleasing the govt. He is trying too hard to create a nationalist patriot image. Toilet - Ek Prem Katha is one shitty (pun intended) example. The movie promotes stalking more than it promotes building of shauchalayas in Indian homes. It was a badly executed movie and made tax free in UP.
2. Before that AK won the national award for Rustom - a sub standard film and a below par performance and that too, when Dangal came out the same year. Lobbying much?
3. And what's with releasing movies on Republic day or Independence day? Is it just to tap in the long weekend profits or a conscious effort to create a nationalist image?
4. Even his Kajaria tiles ad - shown mercilessly a thousand times in each theater before and during movie screenings - have a needless angle of nationalism inserted in them.
5. To top it, videos of Akshay Kumar waving an ABVP flag in a rally surfaced. Bleh!
1. Kumar's movies, instead of focusing on good and/or entertaining content, now focus on pleasing the govt. He is trying too hard to create a nationalist patriot image. Toilet - Ek Prem Katha is one shitty (pun intended) example. The movie promotes stalking more than it promotes building of shauchalayas in Indian homes. It was a badly executed movie and made tax free in UP.
2. Before that AK won the national award for Rustom - a sub standard film and a below par performance and that too, when Dangal came out the same year. Lobbying much?
3. And what's with releasing movies on Republic day or Independence day? Is it just to tap in the long weekend profits or a conscious effort to create a nationalist image?
4. Even his Kajaria tiles ad - shown mercilessly a thousand times in each theater before and during movie screenings - have a needless angle of nationalism inserted in them.
5. To top it, videos of Akshay Kumar waving an ABVP flag in a rally surfaced. Bleh!
Personally, I think it is good to talk about important issues like menstrual hygiene, building toilets and using them and even 'Make in India'. But becoming a poster boy for pop patriotism to stay in good books of the governing party doesn't do justice to Akshay Kumar's image. He has played an army man or navy officer or special RAW agent as many times as Amrish Puri played the baddie in movies. And all those videos of dancing with soldiers at borders are becoming a bit too run off the mill now.
It pains me to say that I enjoy his mindless comedies like Houseful or Entertainment. But this overdose of gyaan is beginning to seem like an endless social science lesson.
I didn't see Padman because I already have read a lot about Arunachalam Muruganantham and didn't want to see a glorified, romanticised version of it. But I give Twinkle Khanna the credit for this movie. After all, she made the original Padman a household name with the short story on him in her second book.
What really pleases me is that Twinkle Khanna isn't a blind follower of her husband's latest inclination towards the saffron party. She continues to have a mind and voice of her own. Khanna trumped her husband's overtly patriotic and irritatingly pro-ruling party antics with the last line of her column in this Sunday's Times of India on the April Fools' Day - "Around the world, April Fools’ Day comes once a year, but we Indians celebrate it every day, we just call it achhe din."
