(Looking for a proper review? Best to keep looking. This is just some spew about a film I more-or-less randomly saw which seemed like it warranted a mention.)
Saw this poster at a local multiplex:
Generally, when I see a poster featuring a man that's holding a gun and the perspective makes it look like the gun dwarfs his head, I'll automatically seek that film's trailer out. That was the case here, and that trailer managed to convince me to roll the dice on this film before it left theaters.
DABANGG is like getting smacked in the head with a two-by-four made of dehydrated rainbows, ground-up unicorn horns, two cups of blood, and a couple of blocks of C4. It is not for everyone - those who are overly squeamish about either gratuitous onscreen violence or subtitled musical romances will want to give this a big fat miss. (CRANK 2 it's definitely not, but this film's got enough bloody, sadistic violence to guarantee an R rating if it had been submitted to the MPAA.) By Bollywood standards this is a relatively short movie. With a single, seemingly endless trailer for something called GOLMAAL 3 attached to the print, in a little under 2 and a half hours the credits had rolled and I was on my way home in a daze.
The man pictured under foot above has but seconds to live. You can't really tell in the still, but he's just made the mistake of trying to grab a rifle that's a little bit too far away to reach in time. The man who owns the foot that's in that boot is our hero Inspector Chulbul "Robin Hood" Pandey, a shamelessly corrupt, murderous police officer/romantic lead. He's moments away from dramatically taking his sunglasses off and shooting flirtatious looks right into the camera as he ends yet another human life. That, interspersed with elaborate, bass-heavy Dolby Digital 5.1 musical numbers, is basically everything you need to know about this movie.
There are so many seemingly random fluctuations between action, comedy, romance, musical, and tragedy that I kept having mid-90s Stephen Chow flashbacks. DABANGG is a film whose sheer eagerness to please ultimately wins out over its multitude of fundamental flaws. Shoddy CG work, questionable wire-fu, and uneasy, uncomfortable combinations of romantic comedy goofiness and violent corrupt-cop action drama would be faults in some other films. Here, they're largely irrelevant as your brain barely has time to object to the insanity it's casually being asked to accept before the subwoofer kicks in and our hero starts singing the film's theme song, which is mostly about how he's the first man to jump into a fight and the last man standing after it's over. Right in the middle of that song, he literally bitch-slaps a guy for cheating in a foot race and then uses the power of dance to present the trophy to the rightful winner. It's the sort of movie where everyone who lives is guaranteed a happy ending, but you can't be quite sure who's going to live and who's going to get their brains splattered across someone's sunglasses. Other than the hero, that is.
I don't know how much I'd like seeing it reduced to living room size, its gloriously loud surround mix tamed to civilized levels. What was overwhelming in theaters might be merely irritating at home. I'll find out when it hits Netflix Instant. I do know that when experienced big and loud, the (beautiful) cinematography dominating your field of vision completely, DABANGG successfully does the one thing it was ever meant to do - it entertains via a drunken concoction of music, dance, family drama, and wholesale slaughter.
You'll notice I didn't spend much time talking about the story. I'd say I paid it as much attention as it warrants.
(I also know that the next time I'm in a fight to the death with one of my mortal enemies, I'm flicking some of my blood straight into the motherfucker's eye because why not?)
Saw this poster at a local multiplex:
Generally, when I see a poster featuring a man that's holding a gun and the perspective makes it look like the gun dwarfs his head, I'll automatically seek that film's trailer out. That was the case here, and that trailer managed to convince me to roll the dice on this film before it left theaters.
DABANGG is like getting smacked in the head with a two-by-four made of dehydrated rainbows, ground-up unicorn horns, two cups of blood, and a couple of blocks of C4. It is not for everyone - those who are overly squeamish about either gratuitous onscreen violence or subtitled musical romances will want to give this a big fat miss. (CRANK 2 it's definitely not, but this film's got enough bloody, sadistic violence to guarantee an R rating if it had been submitted to the MPAA.) By Bollywood standards this is a relatively short movie. With a single, seemingly endless trailer for something called GOLMAAL 3 attached to the print, in a little under 2 and a half hours the credits had rolled and I was on my way home in a daze.
The man pictured under foot above has but seconds to live. You can't really tell in the still, but he's just made the mistake of trying to grab a rifle that's a little bit too far away to reach in time. The man who owns the foot that's in that boot is our hero Inspector Chulbul "Robin Hood" Pandey, a shamelessly corrupt, murderous police officer/romantic lead. He's moments away from dramatically taking his sunglasses off and shooting flirtatious looks right into the camera as he ends yet another human life. That, interspersed with elaborate, bass-heavy Dolby Digital 5.1 musical numbers, is basically everything you need to know about this movie.
There are so many seemingly random fluctuations between action, comedy, romance, musical, and tragedy that I kept having mid-90s Stephen Chow flashbacks. DABANGG is a film whose sheer eagerness to please ultimately wins out over its multitude of fundamental flaws. Shoddy CG work, questionable wire-fu, and uneasy, uncomfortable combinations of romantic comedy goofiness and violent corrupt-cop action drama would be faults in some other films. Here, they're largely irrelevant as your brain barely has time to object to the insanity it's casually being asked to accept before the subwoofer kicks in and our hero starts singing the film's theme song, which is mostly about how he's the first man to jump into a fight and the last man standing after it's over. Right in the middle of that song, he literally bitch-slaps a guy for cheating in a foot race and then uses the power of dance to present the trophy to the rightful winner. It's the sort of movie where everyone who lives is guaranteed a happy ending, but you can't be quite sure who's going to live and who's going to get their brains splattered across someone's sunglasses. Other than the hero, that is.
I don't know how much I'd like seeing it reduced to living room size, its gloriously loud surround mix tamed to civilized levels. What was overwhelming in theaters might be merely irritating at home. I'll find out when it hits Netflix Instant. I do know that when experienced big and loud, the (beautiful) cinematography dominating your field of vision completely, DABANGG successfully does the one thing it was ever meant to do - it entertains via a drunken concoction of music, dance, family drama, and wholesale slaughter.
You'll notice I didn't spend much time talking about the story. I'd say I paid it as much attention as it warrants.
(I also know that the next time I'm in a fight to the death with one of my mortal enemies, I'm flicking some of my blood straight into the motherfucker's eye because why not?)
