FX-Driven Action May Be Passe

“There are two very sharply demarcated halves of Indian cinema, those before Dhurandhar and those after Dhurandhar. It’s like BC and AD,” says Ram Gopal Varma.

In a panic, the larger-than-life digitally driven Telugu fantasia Kingdom and RajaSaab have scrapped their proposed sequels (after confidently announcing them at the end of the first part). The most anticipated films for the rest of the year — Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Love & War and Shah Rukh Khan’s King —have no special effects in them.

Says Ramu, “You see, basically, a lot of different films will come and anything can do well, but it is doubtful that the special-effects driven action film which Telugu cinema is churning out for the past some years now will find a market.”

Ramu draws attention to how Aditya Dhar’s film has converted the climate of a standard vendetta film with its raw, gritty treatment.

“Ranveer Singh has no entry scene. In fact, he is almost molested by a mob in his entry scene. Dhurandhar technically is a template film. There’s a hero, there’s a heroine, there’s a villain, there’s a lofty cause for the hero. Right. But in the way it’s being treated,

it is the exact opposite of what we’ve been feeding upon all these years. I’m talking about all action films —they are the same, no? Hero, heroism, hero elevation. Mostly vendetta.”

In a panic, the larger-than-life digitally driven Telugu fantasia Kingdom and RajaSaab have scrapped their proposed sequels (after confidently announcing them at the end of the first part). The most anticipated films for the rest of the year, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Love & War and Shah Rukh Khan’s King, have no special effects in them.

When the hero stops being larger than life

Ramu points out how Telugu pan-Indian biggies like Kalki 2898, Baahubali, RRR and HanuMan perfected the art of FX spectacles. “All those films which we’ve been subjected to the last five, six years were the benchmark. Now suddenly, this Dhurandhar comes — the only film I saw where the hero doesn’t have an elevation shot. So-called slow motion, background score and all. All the other characters have. In fact, he stayed in the background most of the movie. The story is not being made to bend backwards and forwards to please, to pander to any hero’s whims.”

“Dhurandhar doing these kind of numbers, and becoming a bigger hit than all of them indicates a sea-change in audience’s taste,” says RGV. He explains the key difference between Hollywood and Bollywood. “A Leonardo DiCaprio kind of a star is doing a film like Body of Lies. If you remember that shot when he’s hit on his fingers, he shows genuine pain.

So heroes doing gravity-defining turns and all that, where the hero you don’t even think is a human being, is what we’ve been fed upon in the last few years. In the opening sequence, Ranveer gets battered by some. That kind of treatment — with a vulnerable hero —being accepted in such large numbers is what we’re seeing at the box office.”

Why Telugu FX blockbusters suddenly look dated

Suddenly, says Ramu, the Telugu FX-driven blockbusters look dated. “The biting fight in Pushpa 2, flying around and biting everyone, which is definitely extremely enjoyable to all the audience. But I don’t know how that will work after this. This is a truly miraculous time transition because in just a year or two, people’s tastes have changed completely because of Dhurandhar. Which is why I use that word—it’s a quantum leap in cinema. “Can you think of a film which is the gritty reality of Dhurandhar-kind of action, where you see the pain, the very injuries, what can be sustained in that kind of a thing? It is not fantasy. It’s real. Every character is vulnerable. You see them as human and not larger than life like we have become used to recently.”

Trouble for digitally driven action

Ramu foresees digitally driven action films being in trouble. He says the biggest test will be on March 19 when Dhurandhar 2 clashes with Yash–Geetu Mohandas’ Toxic. “They belong to opposite sides. A lot of people I know loved the Toxic teaser. But I almost feel they love it because they secretly hate Dhurandhar for its success. I want to see Dhurandhar 2 and Toxic. I want to see them back to back just to feel the difference.”

( In Hollywood, all the stars can act. A Leonardo DiCaprio kind of a star is doing a film like Body of Lies. If you remember that shot when he’s hit on his fingers, he shows genuine pain. heroes doing gravity-defining Stunts, where the hero you don’t even think is a human, is what we’ve been fed upon in the last few years. In the opening sequence in Dhurandhar, Ranveer gets battered. That kind of treatment with a vulnerable hero IS being accepted in large numbers.”)