Halla Bol: What Price Fame?
In a scene in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Nayak’ (The Hero), the protagonist arrives at a pre-determined location, at his old friend’s request. When he reaches there, he sees that what his friend wants him to do is to be a part of a protest being held in front of a factory. The obviously uncomfortable, to the point of being embarrassed, protagonist backs out in his car, as he puts on his dark glasses, unable to meet the eye of his friend.
In the words of Fred Allen, “A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well-known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.” The dark glasses appear on the faces of both the protagonists in ‘Nayak’ and ‘Halla Bol’ – not as a protection from being recognized, but as a means to hide their own conscience. And both films deal a lot about conscience.
While Ray’s class act dealt with a single individual leading a screen idol into a journey of self discovery while both are traveling in a first class compartment on board the Rajdhani Express; Rajkumar Santoshi’s film is more about the rise of the fallen.
It was an individual oblivious of the screen idol’s image and charisma that acted as a catalyst in ‘Nayak’; while it is being witness to a murder that makes Ashfaque, aka Sameer Khan (Ajay Devgan) question himself. But that’s more or less where the resemblances end.
It’s curious how, over the past few months, there has been a glut of films about films, each dealing with one aspect or another of the entire process of movie making. In ‘Halla Bol’, however, the focus is not so much on the process of film making, but the aftermath of joining and making it big in tinsel town – the loss of innocence, for example, made amply clear by the contrast between a despondent Sameer holding a “Youth Icon” statuette and a jubilant Ashfaque when he is handed a small trophy by his mentor Sidhu (Pankaj Kapoor).
It is said “The higher they rise, the harder they fall”. But that’s not the only reason that a film star is a perfect choice for a film like ‘Halla Bol’. Film stars, while they have these legions of fans, are the ones who we all know as people who mouth words written by others, act out stuff directed by others – in other words, being a film star is the epitome of lack of individuality.
It is the crowd who makes a hero, carries him on their shoulders, taking him that much closer to the silver screen on which his film is being screened. It is the same crowd which tears down the posters of the hero and burns his effigies.
So, the ‘hero’ of the film is not really the screen idol, but the masses. Because they are the ones the film is directed at. Call it film activism, if you like. Nothing wrong in that.
However, the film goes kinda haywire in its objective.
While Sameer’s rise to fame and simultaneous fall as an individual is depicted by him climbing a staircase; and his fall as a star and rise as a human being is similarly shown by him sitting at the bottom of the same stairwell, the same is reflected in the film, too.
When the film could have reached its zenith, it plummets to a nadir with stereotypical characterizations, trite dialogue and cliched sequences.
It’s when Santoshi’s protagonist realizes the true meaning of a ‘hero’, which is off-screen, that he starts becoming a caricature of an on-screen hero.
There was not a single cringe-worthy sequence during Sameer’s rise as a filmstar. In fact, Santoshi has made a fair share of digs at how the cine stars literally sell themselves to sell commodities. But when it came to making his own protagonist rise above such pettiness, both the director and the character fail abysmally. It is during the onset of his self-awareness that Sameer walks the walk and talks the talk of so many so-called ‘heroes’ of the silver screen.
And that is precisely why ‘Halla Bol’ looks and sounds as fake as the claims by the filmi superstars when they endorse hair oils.
Oh, and one more thing, Mr Santoshi. The fourth ‘P’ after ‘Power, Public and Paisa’ could easily have been ‘Price’ – the price of fame, that is. Did it really have to be what it turned out to be?
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Can you imagine Gaekway saying ‘hamare paas power hai, public hai, paisa hai, PRICE …’ ?
@2S:
No, I can’t imagine that. The answer to Gaekwad was given by Sameer. I was talking about Sameer’s repartee. In my opinion, what he did in reply to Gaekwad’s blatant arrogance could have been dealt with in another way.
Sameer, himself, is paying the price for how he has changed. In a similar manner he could also have dealt a blow to Gaekwad’s arrogance, making him pay without soiling the carpet.
Just the way I looked at it.
very well written review as always, Rupak!
I think Santoshi is missing Amrish Puri badly. The movie lacked a good supporting cast.
Pankaj Kappor is amazing as always. I really liked sequences involving him, specially the sword fight and the way he confronts with those truck drivers without speaking a single word also when he confronts with media outside hospital.
Also none of the negative characters were well written and well developed. Gaekwad’s dialogs sounded funny to me.
Also at many occasions the movie lacked logic. Like beating of a super star in public. Can this happen? I don’t believe it. imagine SRK being beaten by a bunch of people in front of a 3000 strong crowd and some policemen and media persons.
was very excited about the film when i heard abt the subject first, plus santoshi-ajay combo. but the first promo did it all. and then the songs n everything else….dont feel like watching it anymore. btw, nice write up.
Very well-written review Rupak. Well-articulated thoughts and sound arguments. Agree with you totally!
Here’s my take – http://www.businessofcinema.com/boc/?file=story&id=6528
Hey.. infact i thought some seeds from nayak had germinated in halla boll.. santoshi must have been inspired from the classic.. but the plant went haywire .. not enough sunlight for photosynthesis..
My problem with Halla Bol is the message and intention of the movie. Does the director, Santoshi genuinely deplore the “darker side of bollywood” or is he just taking a few contemporary issues thinking that they will make a good story! I feel that latter is the case. In which case it’s just “trying to” profit from the misery of other peoples’ tragedy.
Had the “Jessica Lal” case not acquired massive proportions and gained such a high profile, justice would not have prevailed. Justice in this case was obtained because it finally could not be swept under the carpet and ignored. That fault lines were too glaring. The movie does not challenge and will not change anything. If people in power can “get away with it”, they will. Not every case is a “Jessica Lal” one. If evidence can be destroyed and changed it will still continue as before.
Finally, Santoshi, if I’m not mistaken, does not himself have an unblemished slate in bollywood!