The Hindu Business Line : The second film syndrome

The second film syndrome has struck again. Nikhil Advani's Salaam-e-Ishq, which we were told would be 2007's biggest multi-starrer, fails to sustain interest. At a running time of three hours and forty minutes, it is too long, and too inflated. The parallel tracks of six couples at varying stages of `pyaar-vyaar' needed much more skilled handling.

The director's first film, Kal Ho Naa Ho, produced by Karan Johar, was a super-hit, but there was so much similarity in the styles of both men, that we couldn't help wondering how much of the movie belonged to whom?

A bitter public spat resulted in Advani moving out of the Johar camp. Word on the street was that the friends fell out over credit-sharing in the movie, which had Shah Rukh Khan die cheerfully in a hospital bed, leaving behind a shattered Preity Zinta and a saddened Saif Ali Khan to pick up the pieces.

Salaam-e-Ishq, inspired by Love Actually, doesn't have any of these stars. But it does have a Khan — Salman, paired with Priyanka Chopra, and a whole bunch of others — veterans Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla (him going through a mid-life crisis and an attraction to a much younger woman, her trying to hold up with dignity); middle-of-the-roaders Akshaye Khanna and Ayesha Takia (him scared of marriage even after an engagement, her wondering when he will grow up); John Abraham and Vidya Balan (him trying to come to terms with an accident having befallen her); determined-to-be-back-among-the-roles Govinda, and an American actress (him a good-hearted, illiterate taxi-driver; her in search of true love); and Sohail Khan and Isha Koppikar (him desperate to consummate a marriage, her helping him along).

Too many stretched-out strands, too many clichés: Advani even dusts up the old loss of memory thing and inflicts it upon Balan, which results in Abraham going through their track with a slightly-open mouth, fast becoming as much of a trademark as his shoulder-length hair.

It is a well-known fact that the second film is almost always the more difficult to pull off, particularly if the first has been a success. There is the burden of expectation, as well as the more primal thing: does the director have anything more to say?

Take, as top example, Farhan Akhtar. His Dil Chahta Hai turned cult almost as soon as it hit the theatres, because we had never seen anything quite like it. He turned the long-standing poor-good-rich-bad tenet on its head, celebrated affluent, privileged young people and their rituals with an insider's intimacy: you knew that the director was using up a lot of his own experiences in his debut, because these were the characters he knew from the inside.

With Lakshya, he moved away from the familiar, and couldn't quite hack it. The first half, which had confused hero Hrithik hanging out with his pals and his girlfriend rang true (this is what we, metro-based, English-speaking types, have done in our time, and doubtless, continue to do so); the second in which he goes off to the Army to find himself, is much less assured. Farhan has had to resort to a remake, Don, for his third. Can he give us an original this time around, and redeem himself?

Sujoy Ghosh's Jhankaar Beats was another in the same mould: the characters in the film speak in Hinglish/accented Hindi, think in English, live in smart homes in Mumbai suburbs, and have the kind of conflicts only People Like Us can. It was a delightful debut, leaving us primed to enjoy the follow-up. Home Delivery, in which addle-pated characters mill around plotlessly, was a crashing disappointment. Was this the same man who made the movie, or was it someone else?

The list goes on. Onir's My Brother Nikhil was a sensitive-but-sharp look at people living with AIDS. Sanjay Suri plays the infected person with a pleasing vulnerability, and Juhi Chawla, now free of the burden of being a standard Bollywood heroine, his extremely effective supportive sister. And then came Bas Ek Pal, supposedly an ode to love and loss, starring Juhi, Suri and Urmila Matondkar, Jimmy Shergill, and Rehaan Engineer. Good idea, good actors, but lousy execution.

Give `em another chance

There are those who put their first dismal failures behind them, and come up with a much better, more polished product in their seconds. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra comes to mind, with his Aks, and Rang De Basanti (the first failed because it focused on the presentation to the exclusion of credibility; the second worked because, well, we know all about it).

Rohan Sippy flubbed his preppie romance, Kuch Na Kaho, despite, or perhaps because of, the presence of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai (in 2003, when the movie released, there was no chemistry between the lead pair), and music that has lasted; he did better with Bluffmaster, again starring childhood pal Abhishek and replacing Aish with Priyanka.

Kunal Kohli's dismal Mujhse Dosti Karoge (established stars Hrithik, Kareena and Rani couldn't do anything with a mothballed script) was dustbinned as soon as it became evident that his Hum Tum with Saif and Rani was going to be a spectacular success.

But second chances are given to very few. This year, several first-timers will return for the next round in the ring. Siddharth Anand, after his Salaam Namaste (pre-marital sex and pretty stars) is busy making Tara Rum Pum; Shimit Amin, after Ab Tak Chappan, is on to Chak De India, having deserted Ram Gopal Varma and grit for Yash Chopra's brand of fluffy romance; Meghna Gulzar is returning after an awful Filhaal, with about-to-be-released frothy comedy Just Married; and Farah Khan, post the mega success of Main Hoon Na is doing Om Shanti Om.

Agey agey dekhiye, hota hai kya...