Shamitabh: Just a brilliant idea

SHAMITABH

Staring: Amitabh Bachchan, Dhanush, Akshara Haasan

Rated: 5/10

It is only once in a while that such a differently abled movie comes out of the Bollywood stable to generate confusion in the mind of the viewer. Was it extraordinary? Or was it merely distinct? Was it that kind of cinema which is meant to jog your imagination and persuade you to appreciate a film? Or was it just an experiment meant to worship Amitabh Bachchan’s baritone.

Director R Balki’sShamitabh falls in this undefined zone. It is an idea as big as truth itself, Shamitabh says in the film. It is brilliantly executed. It is well merged and it comes wrapped in pithy humour. But does it sweep you off your feet? Not at all. It is more for the mind than the heart or soul.

Two persons — a dumb, short and lanky Dhanush from the hinterland of India has a very common small town dream — to go to Mumbai and become a star. What sets him apart is his singleminded passion to be a star despite the unsurmountable handicap of being born without a voice.

Then there is Amitabh who is having fun in this movie. He is an unkempt, insensitive, frustrated drunk with a voice as deep as the Pacific Ocean and as smooth as butter. Through the good work of Akshara, an assistant director, and Finnish audio research, the two merge seamlessly for the audience and the result is superstardom for Dhanush. For Amitabh, it means that his voice is finally feted by the film world, something he had been rejected for earlier in his struggle to become an actor himself. He makes peace with life by drowning himself in whisky and receding to a graveyard where he can respect the dead amid the debauchery of alcohol — and a reserved berth in case he pops it.

The film, needless to say, is all about the towering Amitabh Bachchan and Balki’s overindulgence in the legendary star of more than four decades. The truth aboutShamitabh is simple: Anyone could have been Dhanush but no one could have played the role Amitabh plays.

The problem with the film, however, is that it takes too long to bring Amitabh in and that it does not really give you a story around the idea. In the more than non-AB half hour, Dhanush fails to hold forth even though Balki stitches up sequences meant to engage gently. Like the school antics of a dumb child, like the single mindedness of this child when he grows up, like the dutiful wait for his mother to die before he can pack up for Bollywood.

As you wait endlessly for Amitabh to appear in voice and person, the ennui sets in which the rest of the movie fails to sweep away, despite Amitabh and despite the idea of merging one man’s voice with another man’s existence. Also, it would have been much more comfortable to see Amitabh a little less drunk and a little more tidy.

Last question: So would you see Shamitabh? Not many would. It lacks the slick romance and humour of Cheeni Kum and the moving chord of Pa. It is, indeed, a unique idea which is pretty welcome but without much of a sequential story around it. Difficult to carry appeal even if Big B is the master executor. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 8 February, 2015