Dear Farhan Akhtar,
By now, you must’ve got used to the idea that your latest film Toofaan hasn’t quite stormed into viewers’ hearts. On the other hand, since OTT has made it fashionable to headline and pitch Malayalam and Tamil cinema as superior to Hindi, one week after Toofaan, came another pugilist’s story, Sarapatta Parambarai, starring Tamil hero Arya (real name Jamshad). His Hindi film connection is that he is married to Dilip Kumar-Saira Banu’s grandniece Sayesha, daughter of retired actress Shaheen and actor Sumeet Saigal.
Like Toofaan, Sarapatta… is also about an unlikely candidate groomed for a crucial bout against the reigning champ; about drawing inspiration from Mohammad Ali, creating a storm in the ring but sprouting a paunch and going to seed before shedding the flab to make a comeback.
Also overlong at nearly three hours, the similarities shouldn’t be a surprise since neither you nor Arya came up with an original blockbuster idea but shared Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky series as your common source material.
However, the Tamil film has fetched thunderous applause. Ever wondered why?
Winding back to 1975, there are glimpses of the Emergency in Arya’s film as small-town clans clash in the boxing ring in Tamil Nadu. The action sequences are choreographed with a punch. And there are refreshing bouts of humour too.
On the flip side, it was saddening to see how the gruelling hours spent on transforming yourself into Toofaan Ali, growing paunchy and then redeeming yourself by getting fighting fit again did not get a rapturous response. Because backstage sweat cannot carry a film if the on-screen narration doesn’t offer a new thought.
It’s a huge challenge and makes for great PR when an actor slogs on his physique for a film. But from Aamir Khan (Ghulam, Dangal), to Priyanka Chopra (Mary Kom), Hrithik Roshan (Guzaarish) and Shabana Azmi (who gained 25 kilos for It’s A Wonderful Afterlife), putting on muscle, piling on the pounds and then fighting the flab are routines we’ve seen before. Clearly, Arya too went through the same punishing regimen as you. So did R. Ma-dhavan when he buffed up and wore boxing gloves for Saala Khadoos.
Films based on a boxer’s life are also not a novelty. Aamir and Sharat Saxena confronted each other in Ghulam. Saxena had done it earlier too when he played coach to Mithun Chakraborty in Boxer.
The Tamil film was also far better received because it did not distract itself with a hackneyed Hindu-Muslim love story. From Bombay to Gadar, My Name Is Khan, Kedaarnath and even the awful Akshay Kumar film Laxmii, the frictional romance between a Hindu or Sikh and a Muslim has been told in a dozen different ways by Hindi cinema. Toofaan, didn’t say it any differently.
Go as far back as 1973 when B.R. Ishara, the boldest filmmaker of his time, made Dil Ki Rahen with Rehana Sultan. Later, when Ishara and Rehana wed in real life, they lived precisely as they’d preached in their film. The Hindu-Muslim love story had the heroine question her mother who wanted the man to convert to Islam. Her dilemma was wrapped in the melodiously meaningful Rasm-e-ulfat ko nibhaye toh..., and a powerful climactic statement made when the mother finally observed, “A man who cannot be true to his religion cannot be true to his wife.”
Therefore, preaching against conversion in Toofaan was also not a pathbreaking thought. The problem is that we admired what director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and you accomplished in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and had great expectations from you.
Incidentally, this is addressed to you
because apart from being one of the producers and the hero, the story idea of Toofaan is also credited to you.
Next time around, will you tell us a new story, please?
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author
