Films about heroes who harangue and punish the corrupt go back to when Guru Dutt turned his back on hopeless humanity in Pyaasa. Since then corruption has grown epidemic. And so have films on the theme. What sets Gabbar is Back apart in the genre is its unabashedly massy tone. Here is a film about a man who decides to take charge of a social order on the brink of anarchy when all the formal faculties fail. He doesn’t believe in reprimanding the corrupt. He believes in punishing them with death.
So we have bribe-happy district collectors and other law enforcers hanging limp on trees and hoardings. Ouch! Yup, this Gabbar means business. And to the character’s good fortune, he is played by the very watchable Akshay Kumar. For my money and time, Akshay is by far the most complete star-actor package among contemporary A-lister heroes in Bollywood. How he delivers his lines on the rampancy of corruption, his demeanour and his wry detached disdain for the corrupt are all brought to the surface with a forceful equilibrium constantly at play.
This is a star-actor at the pinnacle of his power. Akshay Kumar exudes the kind of understated confidence while delivering lines about a corrupt-free nation, that requires a lot of sang-froid, inner conviction and most important of all, an audience that would believe in the hero’s convictions.
With due respect, none of the other A-lister superstars of Bollywood have the power to sway the masses with idealistic rhetoric. It’s in his eyes. Akshay makes you sit up and listen without raising his voice. To his good fortune, in Gabbar, he gets lines about a Swach Bharat that are compelling rather than corny. The lines flow with furious passion without getting swamped in bombast. That’s a near-miraculous achievement in a film which is designed as a high-octane melodrama with every sequence punctuated by elaborate background acoustics (Sandeep Chowta).
Rajat Arora’s dialogues are Akshay Kumar’s biggest support system here. Director Krish, known down South for fashioning flamboyant fables, here exercises unexpected restraint when one least expects it. This is where this film about a self-appointed anti-corruption vigilante scores. It taps Akshay Kumar’s spiritual energy and harnesses it at key points of the narrative to underscore rather than over-punctuate the theme of corruption.
By the time Akshay’s Man Of The Masses gets to the climax on top of a car to deliver a rousing speech on youth power the narrative is perfectly attuned to its leading man’s monkish equilibrium and how it can be projected outwards to convey the angst of a wounded ravaged civilization. Even when the arch-villain, an unscrupulous builder played with operatic gusto by Suman Talwar is busy hamming it up to the hilt, Akshay maintains his attitude of detached contempt.
Thank God for Akshay Kumar. The screenplay would otherwise have been more of a scream-play. The characters and the twists and turns in the lot constantly scream for attention. The exception besides Akshay, is Sunil Grover. Known as the drag-queen Gutthi on Kapil Sharma’s comedy show, Sunil plays a low-rank police constable in a police station filled with officers who are more bothered with the chutney for their plates of samosa than the collapse of the law and order and situation, epitomizes India’s smothered voice of the conscience.
It’s such sudden spurts of sensitivity that redeem what would otherwise have been just another loud boorish and garish film about corruption in high-rise places. Builders are the baddies here, you see.
Jaideep Ahlawat usually so riveting on screen here seems uncomfortable in his suited avatar as a CBI officer. His belated entry should have done to the narrative what Nawazuddin Siddiqui did to Kahaani.
No such luck. The villains are all clumsy cardboard cut-outs conveying the corrupt element with as much subtlety as an uncovered sewage.
The women are sketchily portrayed. Shruti Haasan bustles in and out playing a lawyer who is busy delivering homilies and babies on the streets rather than fighting cases. Chitrangada pops up to do an awful item song, best left edited out. And Kareena Kapoor Khan, looking like a zillion bucks (so what’s new) sings a romantic song with Akshay and perishes in a clumsily staged building collapse.
Luckily the film survives to tell a tale that’s as relevant today as it was when Kamal Haasan, all dressed up in wizened prosthetics blew the lid off governmental corruption in Hindustani.
Gabbar Is Back knocks the bottom off the action genre with a breathless ode to Swachh Bharat. The film may appear louder than life to the dainty-hearted. But the tone is unapologetic massy. You can’t change the disintegrating social order by being subtle.
Miraculously Akshay Kumar does exactly that.
Don’t ask how. Just go for his bearded, brooding leadership qualities. Swachh Bharat needs such a hero.
Speaking on the hero being named after the most celebrated villain of Hindi cinema, Akshay told Subhash K Jha. “I couldn’t have just played a simpleton called Gaurav, No!! It had to be Gabbar (laughsIn all honesty, as daunting as it was and still is if I may add, my character had to become like Gabbar. My original name in the movie is Aditya, it’s not until I have no other option left do I call myself Gabbar, just to put the fear into people’s heads to get revenge for my losses. I’m not playing, or trying to reincarnate Gabbar, I’m bringing Gabbar back to life!! It’s probably been one of the most powerful and thrilling characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing, and I couldn’t have dreamt of portraying anything or anyone else in this film. When one has a certain mission to accomplish, it’s Gabbar’s mentality you need at that time!! I think what we’ve done by making Gabbar a brand when anything needs to be done slightly out of legal context when a ‘No’ just doesn’t suffice, become Gabbar & the job will be done. Remember this is just a film, please don’t take Gabbar’s actions into your own hands!!!!!!!!!! Please…………….. I feel that although we have major & I mean major issues when it comes to corruption in India, the good news is that we are already improving thanks to our new government, which is a blessing for our country in my opinion, give it time and we really could be a Green Clean Nation!!!!!!!”
Akshay was all praise for his co-star Shruti Haasan in Gabbar Is Back. “She delivers dialogues like she’s been doing it for years, when she cries on screen your heart bleeds, so she immediately keeps you on your toes as you didn’t expect a performance like that, it helps make scenes realistic. With experienced heroines you tend to know what they’re going to do and how they’re going to deliver, newcomers add an uncertain zest to the mix, which is exactly what our industry needs right now, Flavour!!!!!!”
About joining politics to do a Gabbar on corruption Akshay says, “I’ve never been tempted to join, but I do like to support and encourage those politicians that do bring great things to our people. Despite the many who give our nation a bad name, there are also many who stand up for what’s right and what’s needed, they must not be lost in the corrupted crowd. There is good and bad in us all, it’s what we choose to focus on that matters.”
