The Hindu Business Line : Flying high

On a recent edition of Koffee With Karan, Karan Johar's spicy new chat show on Star World, Kareena Kapoor was asked what her co-guest Rani Mukherji had that she didn't. Kareena, who is in an astonishing position of being among the most expensive heroines in Bollywood despite her movies not doing well, took less than a second to reply: Yash Chopra, she said, seemingly on a sigh and a prayer.

That's where the dusky, diminutive Rani, deemed much less `sexy' than Kareena, scores big. It doesn't matter that Kareena can command a couple of crores (her rumoured fee for a forthcoming Harry Baweja film). It doesn't matter that straw polls among most Bollywood watchers put Rani behind in the looks department. But unlike Kareena, she is part of the Yashraj camp. Which means that this year, Rani has been part of two of Bollywood's biggest grosser, Hum Tum and Veer-Zaara.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist, or a hawk-eyed industry watcher, to know that 2004 was Yash Chopra's year. His banner flew high right through, with Hum Tum and Dhoom, the two movies he produced along with his son Aditya. And then, in November, he returned as director after an eight-year lay-off with Veer-Zaara, a romance set in India and Pakistan. Expectedly, he busted the charts.

On paper, Hum Tum was an iffy proposition. It had Saif Ali Khan as the sole hero (Saif had been wowing audiences in multi-hero projects, like Dil Chahta Hai and Kal Ho Naa Ho, but no one was willing to bet on him solo till the Chopras decided to cast him). It had Rani opposite him, and while she is a hothouse of talent, she doesn't create the kind of buzz that an Aishwarya or a Preity or a Kareena can. The biggest downer associated with the movie was the director. Kunal Kohli's first outing Mujhse Dosti Karoge, with Hrithik, Rani and Kareena, fared miserably. But it was the Chopra magic wand which got Hum Tum ticking — Aditya's meticulous eye for detail and the Yash touch to the romantic passages that made it the biggest earner in the first quarter of the year.

In end-August came Dhoom. It is a measure of the hold the Yashraj banner has on the industry that no one cared that the movie was also directed by a relative newbie, Sanjay Gadhvi, who had done nothing of note before. The film starred Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Uday Chopra, Rimi Sen and Esha Deol... not one of them had had a hit before.

Coasting on macho men, mean machines and glamour dolls, Dhoom hit the spot. And Yashraj completed a hat-trick with Veer-Zaara, a cross border romance starring Shah Rukh, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukherji.

Some writers, including this one, thought that it was one of Chopra's least appealing films. The plot had too many improbabilities and there was no real chemistry between Shah Rukh and Preity. But proving carping critics wrong, the movie took a hefty initial on its opening weekend, and Shah Rukh's adoring fans overseas ensured that the film did more than healthy business. Its only competition came from the colourised Mughal-e-Azam, the Dilip Kumar-Madhubala epic, which is still refusing to leave theatres.

It was also, indubitably, Shah Rukh's year. He ended 2003 with the resounding success of Kal Ho Naa Ho, a Karan Johar production, where his character died with a brave smile and a quip, much like Rajesh Khanna in Anand, the movie that inspired this one. He then returned playing the lead role in his own production, Main Hoon Na, directed by Farah Khan. The lady who had only choreographed till then, borrowed characters and situations from the catch-all movies of the 1970s, piled on the gags, guys and gals, got Sushmita Sen to look oomphy in chiffons, and placed Shah Rukh in almost every frame... what's the point of having the hottest hero in Bollywood as your USP, and not exploiting him to the hilt? Main Hoon Na, despite its monumental silliness, or perhaps because of it, became a huge success.

Shah Rukh was the reason that people went to watch Veer-Zaara in droves. His Veer Pratap Singh, a handsome Indian rescue pilot who falls hopelessly in love with the aristocratic Pakistani beauty Zaara Hayat Khan, proved that the kinetic Khan was turning into a steadier, more composed actor. And he overcame his heroine's stiffness by crying for two. Ladies clutched their hankies, lads lusted over his streaked hair, and Veer-Zaara went on to do good business.

He was also the only thing about the much-anticipated Swades that one wanted to watch. After Lagaan, there were great expectations from Ashutosh Gowariker. But Swades, about a returning NASA engineer to his des (country), on a discovery of roots and self, was a disappointment. There was none of the soaring excitement of Lagaan. Swades, which got green-lighted, and got UTV to participate in its production (Gowarikar's own funds are tied up in it, too), relying only on Shah Rukh's superstar status, plays out like a stodgy documentary.

But the film is a personal triumph for Shah Rukh. The actor has ever been so focused, so centred and so, if you like, un-starry. In a reversal of roles that Shah Rukh has played till now, Swades is an actor's movie, not a movie fashioned to boost a superstar's image. It is truly sad that the movie has spiralled downward so fast. Had it done as well as a Shah Rukh movie usually does, he, and other top-flight stars, would have been far more amenable to backing more unconventional projects. Here's hoping that this breed, so insecure about their position each Friday, will not scurry back to playing safe and narrow.

As far as the heroines go, the top space, visibility-wise, was shared equally by Aishwarya (Bride and Prejudice), Kareena (Yuva), Rani (Hum Tum), and Preity (Veer-Zaara). But for sheer acting skills, Rani takes the top slot, Preity follows a close second, Kareena, who nixed the Kal Ho Naa Ho role and handed Preity a big hit, comes third. Aishwarya, despite her potential international presence and her million-dollar endorsements, takes the bottom.

Big banners, big stars and big movies... 2004 was no different from 2003. And as far as 2005 goes, the pattern looks like holding. The small, independent movie is still finding its feet. But perhaps in the New Year, big banners might get confident enough to cast big stars in edgy, interesting movies. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

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