R. Balki’s Shamitabh is not the first film to show an obsessive film
Akshay Kumar and Lisa Haydon in 'The Shaukeens'
Rangeela: Urmila Matondkar was Mili, the starry-eyed girl from a Mumbai middleclass family who dreams of becoming a star. Jackie Shroff played a moody Rajesh Khanna-like superstar who takes her under his wing. The film was suffused with in-house jokes about a tantrum-throwing star played by Shefali Shah and apparently based on Moushumi Chatterjee, and a firangi-fixated director played by Gulshan Grover, based on Shekhar Kapur.
The Shaukeens: Lisa Haydon played an Akshay Kumar fan who stalks him at shootings until breaking point. She even gets a group of lusty old men to pull strings to help her meet Akshay Kumar. Someone, preferably the director, should have served her a restraining order. It was also interesting to see a superstar like Akshay make a mockery of himself in this Abhishek Sharma directed fare.
Shamitabh: In R. Balki’s film, the phillum-obsessed hero (Dhanush) is so focused on cinema that when in school he’s asked the name of Mahatma Gandhi’s wife he answers, ‘Rohini Hattangadi’. Luckily the teacher doesn’t ask him to name Ben Kingsley’s wife.
Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon: Obsessed with Madhuri Dixit, small-town girl Antara Mali comes to Mumbai with her best friend to become a star. One of Ram Gopal Varma’s underrated and understated films.
Guddi: A supremely spontaneous debutante Jaya Bhaduri played a film-crazy school girl who has a massive crush on Dharmendra. Her obsession was so deep that she tells her fiancée she can’t marry him because she’s already married in her mind to her idol. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s charming film had Dharmendra playing himself and a array of actors, big and small, made guest appearances in this film about the uneasy star-fan relationship.
( Source : dc )
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