What happened to Chandu & Adi?
Vivek Oberoi stormed the industry with his impressive performances in Company & Saathiya. And a promise was born.
He showed some continuity of that pattern in Home Delivery, Road, Darna Mana Hai, Dum & Yuva.
As of now, he went on a self-destructive trip and created this envelope of haughtiness around him, so much so that all the characters he plays look nothing more than an annoying extension of that snooty persona.
Case in point- Omkara. While he was good in parts, in the song Beedi, he just didn’t rise up to the occassion in such a master-showcase of performances. He could have exploited the vulnerable side of Cassio to his best, but alas! Enough has been said about his flimsy portrayal in the film(not sure if it was the script or was it the dependence on Oberoi to portray it the way he wanted to).
He shows that promise again, now in Shootout at Lokhandwala & Dus Kahaniyan….
But, are we gonna see another Chandu?
Tags: Acting, Teaching Film-making
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
the actor hasn’t changed…it is the choice of his films and their fates which have changed. for instance a pyare mohan and naksha can’t bring viveik back his glory. but then ppl didn’t much of his honest perfomance in home delivery either…rough time indeed.one hit and the bloke is back on track…
Well he had the best of lucks to be working with master craftsmen like RGV and Mani at the very beginning of his career. As i was saying this to T! the other day…Mani can make a wood act. Errr Mani can make Vivek act..lol
- I liked him in Company. After which I don’t know what happened. Somehow somewhere the attention from the media, his initial stardom or the fact that he started taking his “he can act” tag overtly seriously… that’s made me over-express every slightest of emotion using his face and body… to the point of unbearable irritation. Potentially good actor, walking the incorrect path.
@illuzon, more than the hit, i wish if he could drop his personal life and recreate the magic he did in his early days. he has immense ‘energy’(a la SRK) which can be used brilliantly on screen, but one has to exploit it wisely or it just screws up the entire film.
@OM, u r right about mani & rgv. but what happened to a vishal?
i expected a good performance from him in omkara but all i got was misplaced emotions.
@oz, completely agree with your observations..
He could never act. Was a wooden actor. We were blinded by the RGV factor in Company. No other reasoning. His father had more acting bones then him.
Hey, is Vivek (or whatever his spelling is these days) that bad an actor? Though he was okayish in Omkara – not a bad performace, unlike, say, Fardeen in Bhoot.
Muzzy .. that his father is a much better actor is no doubt… sample parinda …..
Actually i think he is one of those actors whose screen presence depends a lot on direction.
How else do u explain the transition from Company , Yuva, Omkara .. (being tolerable) to Kisna, Pyaaremohan, Naksha (grrrr ….)
and thanks for the shootout at lokhandwala link … the pics are WOW
All about S@L looks good, especially Sanjay Dutt. Kekta Kapoor (and her gang) stick out like a sore thumb though!
chandrakant nagre.. a role i know i was born to play.. my dream role, if you will.. oh i just LOVED that character SO much. and i just absolutely hated vivek in company… because he was SO FREAKIN GOOD. i’ve seen this movie at least 8 times by now, and i never get tired of it.. it’s my relief movie.. everything about it, from the direction to performances, even background score.. simply AWESOME =D>
watch vivek in that scene towards the end.. where he’s talking to malik on the phone.. and giving him the ultimatum.. “jo khoon aaj tak is company ko banane mein lagaaya hai.. wohi khoon ab is company ko barbaad karne mein lagega…. malik, tu aur teri company…. KHALLAS!” F*CKING BRILLIANT!!!! and watch the tear that rolls down his eye as he says it. i love watching that scene over and over and over. goosebumps. i remember saying to myself “this f*cker is here to stay, and he’s gonna rock!”
then come saathiya.. and maybe it’s the fact that i’d already seen alai payuthe, but saathiya didn’t even come close.. and vivek was just passable.. but i knew it was a good choice at his end to go from something like company to the other end of the spectrum like saathiya, so he can showcase his talents.. and it paid off. two hits in a row, and he was H-O-T property.
then came road and dum, both with avg performances, but nothing shone there. manoj easily outshone in road, which btw, is another movie i really loved. but when it’s a ramu film, you just say yes, which he did. same goes for yuva. you just don’t say no to mani, even if he asks you to serve chai on set. you just do it. good decision, and paid off to some extent (he got mani ratnam on his CV.. no bigger payoff than that!) but jr.B came out of this one and stole the limelight. in between with masti and darna mana hai, he was starting to be barely avg.. i loved masti, and the story and dialogues were the real winners here. but chalk up one more for vivek. his story with nana was also the best one in DMH.
but then he gears up with ash in KHGN.. publicity goes skyhigh with their onscreen kiss and real-life affair.. it’s lookin good.. it’s lookin good.. but BOOM! panned by critics and audiences alike, vivek hits the ground with a huge thud, and hopes to recover with kisna. again, publicity is at its peak. vivek, the latest “new kid on the block” teams up with ghai for an epic story.. this is going to bring him back in the race with JA, jr.B, and hrithik, right? nope, thanks to the “WTF kinda story was that mr. ghai?!?” story, vivek hits another bomb. and i feel for him now. this ain’t lookin good.. especially bc soon after, the promos of home delivery and pyare mohan weren’t looking promising.
kaal had come and gone by now, but all the hype was centered around KJ producing it and the controversy about the tigers being ill-treated.. throw in an item number with SRK, and JA in the cast, and you have far too many reasons not to pay attention to vivek. why this became a hit, i still have no clue… but ok.
now “naksha” is something i was really looking forward to, because i had just seen “national treasure” a little while before that, and i thought to myself “why don’t we have any such adventure movies?” i had just seen the stills for naksha, and they were lookin cool. but then i saw the promos :(( sunny paaji doing bhangra in the middle of nowhere with our lad and skimpy sameera with tribespeople all around them.. and a song that goes “shake what yo’ momma gave you” made me go “shit shit SHIT!” but i figured i’d watch it anyway.. but never got around to it… and from what i’ve heard.. probably a good thing i didn’t.
vivek let me down in omkara. for the same reasons tushar mentioned.. so now S@L is what i’m reaaaally waiting for. it’s looking like he’s going back to doing what he does best. being the gritty, raw, angry young man. and i hope that for his sake, it works. but again with practically the whole industry in it, will he stand out??? only time will tell.. the poster with him in front looks kickass.. the other poster with sanju baba in front, but big B relegated to the back :o really makes you go “damn, is the media gonna create a controversy about this?” i mean, when have you really seen big B standing behind someone in a poster??? :-?
Off topic…Anantha or T! is going to write on this soon..But, a sad news….Peter Boyle ( http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20061213/116604486000.html)(http://imdb.com/name/nm0001967/) is dead. The ever so sweet of Ray Romano in Everybody Loves Raymond. RIP
@Striker: thtz a great summary, sir! Disagree with you on both Yuva and Omkara though – thought he was pretty decent in Omkara, and that he did share a decent chemistry with Kareena in Yuva. Spot-on abt the rest of his movies, though (esp Kisna…ebody associated with tht movie, wht the heck were they thinking!). And thought John was much better in Kaal (associated PJ, heard the movie was called Kaal for all the leg Esha had on show – terible one, I know !!)
thanks ranjit
though i didn’t make much of a statement about his performance in yuva, i felt it was as passable as his performance in saathiya. not bad, but not great either. his chemistry with kareena was definitely decent.. in fact, i’m not big on kareena, but i felt she really gave a good performance in yuva. the only other place where i felt her performance was top-notch was believe it or not.. k3g. she was so annoying it made me want to slap her silly, but that WAS poo’s character, wasn’t it?? she pulled it off really convincingly. getting back to vivek, abhishek’s performance easily overshadowed vivek’s, and that was all in the characterization that mani sir gave lallan.
but yes, he did let me down in omkara, so we do disagree there
- Om, what a sad news… thanks for letting us know…
Kareena…yeah, wht she does defnly depends on the director. I liked her in K3G (yeah, me2), Omkara, Yuva, Chameli (not great, but hey she tried), Dev (esp tht scene where Fardeen comes searching for her after the riots…the stillness she conveyed was awesome, I thought), parts of Asoka…but then she was hands-down-terrible in Khushi, Yaadein, Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (aaah!) and a whole lot of others!
Well, at least she has a few decent performances – unlike, say, Amisha and the like!
S&L! Wow… I did not realize that the line up was this huge!
Funny that I should read Pavan Kaul’s quip about making a movie minus the high maintenance actresses. Look’s like Apurva Lakhia has managed just that. He he…
he hardly did anything in Omkara. i’d say a very non-noticeable performance. his best, as striker has put so nicely, remains to be Company but i credit RGV more for it as the movie is over all brilliant with some superb performance from everyone. this is one of my movies which i didn’t mind buying a DVD for.
Saathiya was his next best and rest all have been very average for me. Now he almost gets lost with other performers.
Personally, i don’t rate him as an actor.
Ok. that should have been S@L :P Mea culpa!
Vivek Oberio tried to become a ‘Hero’ a la ‘Kisna’, but he is an actor. So people will never accept him in a typical ‘Hero’ role – good or bad.
I found him very decent in Home Delivery and Yuva – his timing in both movies was spot on. It showed that he can make you laugh/smile without doing silly things, well, I found it funny.
In my opinion he is a better actor than Hrithik Roshan and if he gets rid of his cockiness.. he will go further.
Honhaar, agree with your assessment of Vivek – though I havent seen Home Delivery. He has the trappings of a decent actor.
Hrithik..was good in KMG (though the movie sucked IMO) and the second half of Lakshya..he’s real good at making the audience empathize for him, but has so far shown no real talent for comedy. Often guilty of overacting too , but he’s not bad. Gets full marks on sincerity, for sure.
ranjit, agree with your views on hrithik. i liked him in KMG and lakshya.. but watch out once his nostrils start to flare, and the vein in his forehead starts to pop. that’s when the overacting begins.. but overall, definitely not one of the rotten apples.
Every(read: majority) actors would get top marks on their sincerity even Vivek would, don’t you think? Vivek is prepared to do varied type of roles – he is prepared to work with any directors as long as the role interests him. Where as Hrithik just want to build his own brand hence he is doing characters which are larger than life and rejecting roles like Karan of RDB. You would not see him working with a newcomer director or a small director. So who would get top marks?
I did not like him in KMG but agree with him being a bit decent in Lakshay.
HG, that’s a great point about hrithik sticking to the big guys. he did work with relative newcomers in arjun sablok (na tum jaano na hum) and kunal kohli (mujhse dosti karoge), but technically, the former was india’s “first” corporate production (pantaloons) and the latter had rani and kareena and was produced by yash chopra i believe, so in a sense still “big” films. you’re right, he does want to build his own brand, and that’s respectable in its own right. i recall a certain big B, SRK, and aamir having done that and taken conscious decisions towards their movies, and to say that it has paid off would be an understatement.
getting to your question about who would get top marks? hrithik is paving the way for himself so he can be sustainable in the longer run.. that deserves some credit right off the bat, since as a relative newcomer himself, he’s picking the right projects. then again, these projects are coming TO him, as opposed to him going AFTER them, so he’s in a comfortable position where he CAN pave the way for himself. in the process, hrithik is not only proving his abilities, he’s also stealing the show from an able cast, as was the case of dhoom 2.
vivek’s situation is slightly different, and he wants to show the world the actor in him, so somewhere along the way when the “big” stuff wasn’t working (kisna; KHGN – i consider this big bc of ash and she is trying to create a brand for herself as well, with no luck), he experimented with the “smaller” stuff because that was the “IN” thing, and he could get noticed more this way. i’d say top marks to that as well. a willingness to experiment can go a long way.. it’s just a much tougher ladder to climb, whereas in hrithik’s case, a film like dhoom 2 or krissh can be predicted to be a superhit from day 1.
both, given their situations, deserve top marks in my book. although i’d respect hrithik more if he started experimenting too.. it would be a refreshing change to see someone like him do a S@L or RDB.
Yeah, Hrithik does get the cream, doesn’t he – though I am sure Vivek would hardly reject a YC or KJo production himself!
I forgot to mention (the immensely flawed) Fiza – directed by a relative newbie – in which I went ‘wow, this guy can act!’ after the overrated KNPH (tht Mission Kashmir has him doing exactly the same thing all over again is another matter).
But he was downright terrible in tht Barjatya movie – apparently, not e’body can do a Salman!
ranjit.. as you mentioned, vivek HAS previously worked in both! kaal (dharma – KJo) and saathiya (YC).. and now neither is looking at him bc of the fate of his recent movies.. this is why i’m rooting for him to bounce back with S@L.. it’s like he’s going back to where he started
arey waah bhaiya, bada achha discussion chal raha hai yahaan pe
will catch up soon with all the great comments..
And striker…the third star-son Fardeen..I always thought he was useless, but he did manage to surpise me in Jungle and Pyar Tune Kya Kiya – nothing spectacular, but he was competent. But other than a stray Dev (which was no great shakes either) or Lov Ke Liye Kuch Bhi, its been all downhill otherwise.
true.. only ramu can bring out that little bit of hidden whatever (i can’t call it talent) in fardeen. watching him in anything else means taking a dose of the meds that oz suggested while watching baabul. ramu makes fardeen tolerable.
what i find lacking in the likes of Vivek and Hrithik is they lack versatility. They can do one kinda roles very well but it looks similar when they attempt something else like say comedy and romantic roles and doesn’t quite look natural. Again, there are some directors which can bring the best out of them. Like Sanjay Leela usually gets it out of Salman. So for vivek, he looked convincing as Chandru, very convincing I should say but didn’t leave a mark in Omkara or say Dum (although that could be cos Saif stole the show and left no chance for everyone else).
Aamir I rate cos he puts his own effort into his roles and adds a personal touch to it and can pull a wide variety of roles convincingly e.g. Lagaan, DCH, QSQT, Andaaz Apna Apna and Sarfarosh. All are so different and under different directors as well.
As an actor, even though SRK might be king today (i think its got a whole together different reason), I believe Aamir is far better than him.
@Windmill: I agree, Aamir is a better actor than SRK anyday – this despite SRK having a better screen persona. SRK used to be terrific (sample Darr or Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa), but playing the Rahuls of the world seems to have gotten to him (much like playing Vijay got to AB).
Hrithik is plain bad at comedy. Vivek at least pulled it off in Masti and certain sequences of other films. Fareen too displayed a flair for comedy in Love Ke Liye, I thought (though that could be Aftab plugging in the missing gaps; he’s got great comic flair, like Ritesh).
Btw, don’t think much of the junior B’s comic flair either – found Bunty’n'Bubly quite dumb, and Rani scored over him in all the comic sequences IMO.
i heard that adi’s role was gonna go to abhishek.wonder how would it have turned out. and hrithik was supposed to do b n b but was changed later as he couldnt do justice to the character n also cus he doesnt have a chemistry with rani.
i personally rate abhishek very high. i dont know the reason for all the bashing he s been going thru lately even after proving himself as an actor. a good actor doesnt necessarily has to jump shout emote or do a national award kinda film to prove himself. for me, its all about the comfort with which he appears on screen.
abhishek is a master at underplay, and suddenly erupting in wondrous colors, cases in point-naach, sarkar, no i wouldnt yuva. in that one he was superb in all scenes. hope you are listening anurag.