To give a review or even rate the movie will be akin to showing candles to the sun... Literally ! The art of the nonsense which was first started with the series of slapstick by Govinda - David Dhawan has been perfected and institutionalised by Salman Khan...
Salman started his career with a chocolate faced,lover boy, boy next door image... He was known and adored (especially by the youth) for his physical brawn than for his acting prowess... Somehow through the years he has been able to survive and even carve a niche for himself in Bollywood when most of the Shahenshah and Disco dancers were given a run for their money... Salman had since then gone on to prove that the art of the nonsense makes more sense and can be turned in to a major money churner... In the process he has not only helped in reviving the careers of Bollywood veterans (Govinda himself is an example) but also making good of the no gooders in his family too (Arbaaz, Sohail, Malaika et al with daddy dear also jumping the bandwagon with 'Ready')...
the movie's story is a rip off from any average mid 70s movie where there is a damsel in distress waiting to be saved by the hero combined with the god old Samaritan (aka Bawarchi) combined with a large loving family of the Barjataya/ Johar/ Chopra formula... And Voila ! we have a clear winner here !
Not withstanding the many glitches and almost paper thin story line, Salman yet again manages to do the impossible... Rake in the moolahs and set the cash register ringing...
Now that the usual convent bred, English speaking critics have gone to town rubbishing the movie and more so Salman Khan; yet the 'Ready' team, is laughing all the way to the bank...
The only reason the movie is able to pull it off at the B.O (as also the numerous Dabbangs and Partners etc) is because Salman has created his own genre of movies and audience who love those movies... Salman refreshingly takes us back to the 60s and 70s where watching movie did not require special understanding of theatre and cinema (as most of the urbane-sophisticated movie critics would have us believe) nor did you have to have a special understanding of the different genre of movie or movie making and the art of craftsmanship of masters like Kuberick, Hitchcock et al... Bollywood movies thrived successfully on a large middle class following in the 60s and 70s which only promised to entertain the mass.. Period...
Frustrated with a crumbling system of reeking of injustice, corruption and red tapism , angry at its own impotence to change one's destiny and living conditions; they tumbled in ones and twos in to the dark theatres to find solace in the almost invincible hero who could do anything and everything... For them the hero epitomised the covert and overt yearnings of people like themselves who were slowly crushed under an unresponsive and draconian system... It gave them an almost vicarious and should I say, sadistic pleasure when they saw the hero slap his dictatorial boss and throws away his job only to become insanely successful (that too in a short span of time) in his new found business !... or looking at the angry young man taking to the underworld to prove a point to the world that he also can become successful and have 'bangla, gaadi and bank balance '... or just the simple joy of dancing around the tree with the most beautiful girl and rescuing her from the evil villains...
30-40 years hence, things have not changed much.. The fruit of liberalisation has accrued to a chosen few while the poor is again crushed under the weight of a slew of government schemes whose benefits rarely reaches them... Though the angry middle class of the 70s have been pacified to an extent (seeing their children benefit from the 'liberalised economy') its the rural mass which is a shimmering and seething entity now... For them and for numerous of their brethren who have migrated to urban area in the hope of a better future (but alas!), actors like Salman Khan provide an window to be able to dream again wide eyed, aspire and lose themselves in the cool darkness forgetting their toil, misery and pain for the 2 and half hour of bliss when they feel themselves come alive..
For those and many more, Salman will continue to rule their hearts (and hence the box office) not only in years but in decades to come ! So move over the Kubericks, the Benegals, the Rays and the Hitchcocks of the world for Salman is here to cock a snoot at all and do some serious 'dhinka chaka dhinka chaka'....
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