Amitabh Bachchan voice Power : Shamitabh Movie Review

 Shamitabh Movie Review : Amitabh Bachchan’s voice powers the movie

A reedy, scrawny, voice-less wannabe actor rides piggyback on a hypnotic, heavy baritone to super success in Bollywood : the premise of ‘Shamitabh’ is fabulous on many levels. Because of the cross-connections it makes with real life and reel life. Because of what we already know about the actors, stored in our memory banks. Because of its sheer degree of meta-ness.

Danish (Dhanush) and Amitabh (Amitabh Bachchan) are like ‘whisky’ and ‘paani’ : the former is an unprepossessing runaway, like a million others, who fetches up in Mumbai in order to become a star; the latter is a wasted alcoholic with a voice that we have known and loved, on and off screen. The coming together of the two– the ‘mixture’– becomes ‘Shamitabh’, super-successful Bollywood hero, aided and abetted by a bright young thing Akshara, a small cog in the big movie business.

Much of what constitutes stardom, the way it is constructed in the world’s largest film industry, is part of the film. The connection between how a person looks and how he sounds, and how that contributes to the making of a star, fashions the two halves of `Shamitabh’. And the predictable face-off between the two provides some of the film’s most alive moments.

The trouble is that there are not enough of those moments in which the two riff off each other, the others around them being just admiring ciphers. Large passages are devoted to Amitabh Bachchan and his soliloquies. Why, when we already know what a magician he is with his voice? They make the film a one-sided drone.

Also, so much of suspension of disbelief (how possible is it for an actor to be voiceless and not be rumbled within a moment?) needed to have been balanced by the sort of flourish, which makes us say okay, I buy into this, but only because you are showing it to me with quirk and smartness. ‘Shamitabh’ swings between being intelligent and banal, the latter more so when it begins worshipping at the altar of the nation’s most beloved voice.

Debutant Akshara Haasan, an intriguing mix of mom Sarika and dad Kamal Haasan, has promise. Dhanush shows what a real actor can do with just body language : he is fluid, twists and turns, and says what he wants to, without using any spoken words.

Paradoxically, it is Amitabh Bachchan, whose voice powers the movie, who is not able to break free from the pedestal he is put upon : the lines between Amitabh the superstar playing Amitabh the drunk wastrel are so blurred that the film becomes more paean than anything else, burying the character and the story.

‘Shamitabh’ had the potential to use irony and knowingness and a self-awareness, and the presence of the most durable star in Bollywood whose velvet-and-iron rumble has become part of the national soundtrack, to give us an unforgettable story of ego and identity, rejection and acceptance, success and failure. There are a few moments which sparkle, and we laugh in acknowledgement. But the rest of it is overpowered by unabashed reverence.

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Shamitabh Movie Review : Amitabh Bachchan act is classy in this fun yet flawed film

 Shamitabh Movie Review: Amitabh Bachchan's act is classy in this fun yet flawed film

Ten minutes into Shamitabh, you begin to realize you’re feeling something that seems almost alien – entertainment. You’ll be glad that, after what seems like eons, we have a mainstream commercial movie with a story that’s unique and original, without the tacky underpinnings of the products from the genre. If you’re a Big B fan, the first half of Shamitabh is going to be your LSD.

Daanish, a kid from a village, grows up into a perfectly-cast Dhanush, with dreams of being an actor. Daanish moves to Mumbai and stalks whichever filmmaker he spots, and begins living secretly in a vanity van. When he finally gets a chance to do a screen test, he kills it. The only problem? He’s mute. But this is 2015, and filmmaking now has tools, like dubbing. With these tools, even a tool can be a hero. And as the protagonist mentions, if you’ve got the vocal cords of Amitabh Bachchan, even a dog can be star. So when Daanish comes across Amitabh Sinha (Amitabh Bachchan), a washed up drunkard with a glorious baritone, the collaboration reeks of superstardom. Daanish plus Amitabh become Shamitabh.

Going with the theme of the film, Shamitabh is half a great movie. This is a film about superstardom, starring superstars. It’s about the high of the rise and the constant threat of the fall; the jealousy, the disappointment and all the other emotional baggage that comes with stardom. In one scene, Shamitabh is shooting a movie where his heroine has to visit the loo, so he builds her a toilet out of snow and the commode becomes a romantic theme in the song. Yup, Shamitabh is also an unsubtle commentary of the nature of commercial Bollywood.

The ‘conflict’ in director Balki’s previous films Cheeni Kum and Paa were ham handed to say the least, but this time we have something imaginative. As Shamitabh becomes a star, his greed starts to eat him inwards. Amitabh, who is kept a secret and presented to the public as a valet named Robert, begins to wonder why he doesn’t get the lion’s share of the credit. Acting and screen presence is all about the delivery, he growls. To get you high, a bottle of whiskey doesn’t need water, but water does need whiskey. Even if a whiskey bottle is 43% whiskey and 57% water. His voice didn’t suit the industry in the ’80s, so how is it fair that someone with no screen presence becomes a star because of that very same voice? Neither can live without the other. The ego clashes and jealous bickering between the two are fun, as are Amitabh’s drunk philosophical putdowns.

However, it seems Balki took the dual nature of his film too seriously because the second half of the film crashes and burns. Balki loses the drive and is unsure of what to do with the characters, so he includes some truly horrendous contrivances to pad things up.

There is also a ton of stupidity in the movie, like the eyeroll-inducing, Finnish sci fi technology behind getting Amitabh’s voice in Daanish’s throat. Other contrivances include a random assistant director (an awkward Akshara Haasan) who rescues Daanish from being thrown out of Film City for stalking, puts him on a screen test, sends him to Finland, and convinces her director to cast him in his film as the star (twice). Talk about luck by chance. There’s also an unintentionally hilarious subplot of a tabloid reporter who realizes the discrepancy in Shamitabh’s voice and travels to Finland as an investigative reporter and then blackmails Shamitabh. Not to mention the hundred thousand product placements crammed into nearly every frame of the film.

If you were disappointed by the endings of Paa and Cheeni Kum, prepare to face something similar. During the closing minutes it becomes clear that Balki doesn’t know what point to make, so he just abruptly gives up and the credits roll, leaving you with a mixed bag of emotions.

Fortunately you’ll still remember the one thing that kept the film going – Bachchan’s performance. Such style and elegance is seldom seen in cinema. Even when he’s lying in the dirt, blabbering with a sozzled face, Bachchan is a class act. And it’s great to see him play a character instead of his own French bearded self. Amitabh points out that he’s the larger part of the name Shamitabh, and Big B is pretty much the only significant and memorable part of the film. This might as well have been called ShaMetabh.

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Shamitabh Movie Review : Shamitabh is a treat for Amitabh Bachchan fans

  Shamitabh Movie Review

  Genre:   Comic drama

 Cast:    Amitabh Bachchan, Dhanush and Akshara Haasan

    Director:     R Balki

    Rating 3/5


An unusual plot premise is coupled with a writer-director’s self-confessed Big B-fixation in Shamitabh.

Dollops of stylistic flourishes and narrative sleights are added to the mix and stirred with utmost vigour. The result of the exercise is too uneven to be consistently enjoyable.

Parts of the engaging, if over-indulgent drama,are an ode to the romance of Hindi cinema.
Shamitabh thrives on the infectious energy that the two lead actors – Amitabh Bachchan and Dhanush – generate when they are set off against each other, which is almost always in this 153-minute film.

The two stars are in fine fettle, especially in the first half. But once the novelty of the gravelly voice meets starry-eyed village lad construct wears off, the film assumes the likeness of an oversized ship driven by a fist-sized engine.

Inevitably, Shamitabh, despite scaling some high points, tilts over and runs aground before it can make it to the shore.

Seasoned adman R Balki’s third directorial feature is in many ways like his first two: Cheeni Kum and Paa.

The film ventures into uncharted terrain, conjures up passages that are genuinely startling and gives the three key members of the cast free rein to express themselves, but eventually, as it nears its business end, succumbs to the lure of average Bollywood melodrama.

Shamitabh is embellished with great music (Ilaiyaraaja), some outstanding camerwork(P C Sreeram) and many impressively deft directorial touches.

The bright flashes are, however, eventually lost in a miasma of excesses that leave avoidable pockmarks on the otherwise imposing edifice.

It is the unique story that lends Shamitabh much of its weight until it loses its way somewhat in pursuit of the brazenly implausible.

A geriatric wreck who has nothing to lose and an Igatpuri youngster who has everything to gain if the two men can sink their temperamental differences and fill in for what the other lacks.

All through the history of cinema, such odd pairs have yielded great chemistry on the big screen, but only when the balance between the pivotal figures has attained perfection. Shamitabh does not quite make that grade.

An aged, mealy-mouthed, self-destructive alcoholic Amitabh Sinha (Bachchan) is a spent force, having been thwarted four decades ago in a bid to make it as a movie actor.
His rich baritone is the man’s only belonging that counts for anything and he still revels in mouthing lines from Mughal-e-Azam.

A young wannabe actor Danish (Dhanush) is the exact opposite. He is full of passion and ambition and wants to see his name up on the movie billboards.

But he, too, suffers from an impediment.He does not have a voice – his vocal chord is paralysed. But his dreams are unstoppable.

 An enterprising and sympathetic assistant director Akshara (Akshara Haasan) gets the two men to collaborate. Danish gets a voice processor, and Amitabh gives words to his thoughts. As the Voice and the Face combine, a star is born.

So far so good. Beyond this point, Shamitabh resembles a stretched sham of a story, too laboured for its own good.

The film spends much time critiquing the ways of Bollywood, but ends up repeating many of the very follies it takes a dig at.

It throws in a musical number that goes Piddly and potters around props borrowed from lavatories. The stink it raises is inoffensive and evaporates all too soon.

Shamitabh is watchable on account of the great performances. Amitabh takes the gruff, irritable dead-end disaster of a man literally to the graveyard level.

His character lives in a Mumbai cemetery, a place from where he draws his macabre standoffish shell.

Dhanush matches the veteran move for move with an endearing level of effortlessness.
Akshara Haasan, in her debut, holds her own with an air of confidence that bodes well for the future.

Shamitabh is recommended only for its storyline, the quality of the performances and its technical brilliance.

While Bachchan is indeed the selling point of the film, Shamitabh might have benefitted had Balki gone a little easier on his obsession with the ageless superstar.


NDTV

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan hugged Amitabh Bachchan after watching Shamitabh Movie

Aishwarya Rai hugged Amitabh Bachchan after watching 'Shamitabh'


Aishwarya Rai Bachchan hugged father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan after watching ‘Shamitabh‘ here.

Amitabh, 72, who shared pictures on the blog from last night’s screening of his latest release, said his mind remained “stagnant and alone” despite the praise and compliments.

“The show is over… The apprehensions remain… The praise and the compliments abound… But the mind remains stagnant and alone… The appreciation of the daughter-in-law after the film is over..,” Bachchan wrote on his blog.

The screening was attended by his son Abhishek, Shamitabh’s actress Akshara Haasan, media persons besides Aishwarya.

Amitabh Bachchan to commentate in India-Pakistan 2015 World Cup

 Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is busy cramming to get into the intricacies of cricket terminologies ahead of his debut commentary stint during the upcoming India-Pakistan match of the 2015 World Cup.

Bachchan, 72, who will be joining seasoned commentators Harsha Bhogle and Kapil Dev for the highly-awaited February 15 match, said he is taking tips from them.

“I am excited about the live commentary and I will be joined by Harsha Bhogle and Kapil Dev. I am taking tips from them and getting all the ‘mid-off and mid-on’ right,” he told reporters during the promotion of his upcoming film ‘Shamitabh’ in the capital.

The actor said the whole stint is a part of advertising the R Balki-directed film, which releases on February 6, a week ahead of the World Cup.

“This is all Balki’s decision as there is an integration between the sports broadcasters and the makers of ‘Shamitabh’.

As the film is releasing just a week ahead of the World Cup, we are just cashing in on the timing,” he said.

In the film too, Bachchan lends his voice to Dhanush, who plays a mute young actor with impressive acting skills but makes his mark in the world of films with the help of the old and washed out superstar.

“‘Shamitabh’ is a statement about our film industry and life. The film will see many directors and actors who are playing themselves in the film. The film revolves around voice,” he said.

Bachchan is teaming up with Balki for the third time after ‘Cheeni Kum’ and ‘Paa’, which made the actor win his third national award for playing a progeric child. He feels Balki is always refreshing to work with.

“It’s my third film with Balki and in all his films I played different characters. It’s always refreshing to work with him. In ‘Shamitabh’ too he tried to do something different. Abhishek saw ‘Shamitabh’ the other day and felt that it’s his best work till date,” he said.

The ‘Yudh’ star recalled the tough times of shooting the movie as it had a unique way of filming.

“I had to record the entire script in my voice before going to the sets. Balki and I used to sit in the studio and do the recording. Then Dhanush and I used to match the facial expressions listening to that recording. The whole process was very tedious,” Bachchan said.