REVIEW OF ZANJEER (2013)

I would like to start the review with two disclaimers.   I am not a big and diehard fan of Ram Charan Teja (RCT) but I have been seeing all his Telugu movies (about 6 movies till date) as I have been watching all most all movies coming out of the stable of Chirajeevi clan (comprising of Chiranjeevi, his brother Pawan Kanyan, his son RCT and nephew Allu Arjun) as average Andhra movie goer has no option but to fall back on either Chiru clan NTR clan or ANR clan.      I do not consider original Zanjeer to be iconic or a cult movie.    It is one of the commercially successful movie of 70s as any of the super duper masala commercial successes.    It has become a `Land Mark’ movie because it was a major success for lot of people like Prakash Mehra, Salim-Javed duo till they separated and most importantly to Amitabh Bachan and all of them had fairly long stint.    As far as angry Youngman tag goes more than Zanjeer, it was Deewar and Trishul which established him as an Angry young man.  

 

Ever since the remake of Zanjeer was announced, I was wondering why they decided to do so and why RCT decided to debut in Hindi with this remake.     In his short career in Telugu industry `Maghadeera’ was his best movie till date which re-written the Telugu movie history by breaking all collection records and it would have been a safe bet to launch him in Hindi industry.    May be he, his father and producers might have thought that they can encash curiosity value but they seems to have not factored the heavy expectation of comparison with the original and comparing RCT’s performance with Amitabh’s performance.    If the producers wanted to make an action movie why should call it remake of Zanjeer when there is hardly anything common except villain killing hero’s father in childhood (which theme might have been used and re-used thousands of time before and after Zanjeer), few characters being named Sher Khan, Teja and Mona darling.      What baffles me is that at a time when most of the super hit action movies made in Telugu and Tamil are being re-made into Hindi (about 14 movies at the last count) and resurrecting the careers of many stars and joining the Rs. 100 crores plus club  like Salman Khan (Wanted and Ready), AK (Rowdy Rathore), Gajani (Amir Khan), RCT should have opted for some masala action Telugu movie for remake.   Compared to him, his father chose better movie in `Prathiband' for his debut followed by `Aaj Ka Gundaraaj' both doing well at Box office and pulled curtains on his Hindi film career after much hyped `Gentleman' flopped. 

Coming to the movie,  thankfully it was not a carbon copy of the original movie and rewritten keeping it more contemporary using oil mafia as a backdrop with lot of action sprinkled which RCT has assigned very well, but the movie did not give scope for showcasing his dancing skills, if one keeps comparison aide, he made a decent debut and nothing better can be expected of him.    He need to do something to improve his tanned skin, protruding chin, and stiff walking style. Thankfully Sher Khan role has been shortened because of Sanjay Dutt going back to jail. Even in this shortened version also he was looking so jaded, immobile in action scenes and absolutely out of place and made Pran turn in his grave.   Priyanka did a good job as bubbling girl and Prakash Raj as usual stole the thunder along with Gill in his humorous villain role and he is the sole saving grace of the movie.

The confrontation scenes between RCT and Prakash Raj have been well conceived and well enacted.   The two constables who did sidekicks of RCT did a good job.   Music has been a big letdown, not even a song is hummable, the original had two super duper songs `Yaarihai Iman mera’ and `Deewane hai Deewan ko na ghar chahiye’.    `Star Power’ the one thing which helped Chiranjeevi clan including RCT in having bumper openings for even an mediocre  movie and make them super hits, will work against RCT in Hindi due to lack of it as far as Hindi industry is concerned.  

It is irony that in an article appearing in today's paper RCT says that his `Maghadhera' cannot be and should not be remade in Hindi because it is not easy to re-create the magic unless the same team comes together, but he and his producers have not realised that the same thing applies to Zanjeer and many other such movies.   With Zanjeer it is curtains to RCT career in Hindi for the time being and he better concentrate in Telugu film industry where he is one of the front runners.     Better Mahesh Babu watch out who too, accordingly to me, taking great risk by remaking his Telugu hit `Businessman’ and letting go away the opportunity to remake a bankable `Pokiri’ (which Salman khan did as Wanted).    But compared to Ram Charan, Mahesh Babu, being tall, fair and very handsome work in his favour.

  

  

S. Prabhakar

8.9.13