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It is yet to be seen how Brahmastra performs at the box office. But from the trailer, it seems that Ayan Mukerji’s magnum opus is the big event film that will revive Bollywood.
December 2021 saw a rare and unexpected event unfold at the Indian box office. It was the same event that made Aamir Khan allegedly shift the release date of Laal Singh Chaddha so it doesn’t clash with Yash-starrer KGF Chapter 2. December 2021 saw Kabir Khan directorial ‘83 and Allu Arjun-starrer Pushpa clash at the box office. What happened next was unexpected and unprecedented.
‘83 failed to match up to the box office numbers of Pushpa: The Rise, so much so that it brought to the forefront the contentious Bollywood v/s South cinema debate. Will Bollywood be able to match up to the grandeur and storytelling prowess of South cinema? Will Bollywood survive the popularity of South stars – the Vijays, the Allu Arjuns or die a slow, painful death?
While it may be too quick to jump to any conclusion, we might get a solid answer to the rather pertinent questions raised above, towards the end of 2022. It won’t be wrong to say that a lot is riding on Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha and Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra. Both are big-event, mainstream commercial films. Both are highly-anticipated and have a stellar cast.
The trailer of Laal Singh Chaddha left Bollywood fans worried. While it did live up to the expectations, it wasn’t as spectacular as expected, given that the magnum opus is five years in the making. Brahmastra, on the other hand, is five years in the making too. In fact, there is a running joke that if one took a time machine and went to the year 2060, one would find Gehraiyaan promotions are still on and Brahmastra is still being shot.
Humour aside, the 2-minutes-55 second-long-trailer of Brahmastra does a rather good job at dispelling any and all doubts that the detractors of Bollywood had about the future of the industry and its creative prowess. While the criticism directed at Bollywood films not doing well commercially and critically is justified, it won’t be fair to opine that the industry is doomed to fail, based on two years of lull. It is, of course, yet to be seen how Brahmastra performs at the box office. But from the trailer, it seems that Mukerji’s magnum opus is the big event film that will revive Bollywood.
The VFX, needless to say, is visually stunning and unlike anything seen in a Bollywood film. The trailer doesn’t give away much of the story but from what we do know, the narrative (and the scale) is grand and unlike what we’ve seen in a Bollywood film. The stellar cast coupled with grandeur only add to the film’s appeal.
On a personal level however, the trailer inspired a feeling of hope in the Bollywood fanboy in me – hope that had been crushed by films like Bachchan Pandey and Heropanti 2 this year – hope that Bollywood still has the gumption and resolve to tell good stories and entertain the audience.
The trailer ends with a war cry by Shiva (played by Ranbir Kapoor) – ‘Ab, Khel Shuru’, which translates to ‘The game begins now.’ The Bollywood fan in me couldn’t help but hope that the game – the one that is played at the box office and the one that is being played between Bollywood and South cinema as I write this – has just begun.
While I love South cinema with all my heart, just as much as I love Bollywood (if not more), the Covid-induced lockdowns and the demise of Sushant Singh Rajput put the Hindi film industry and its stars in a difficult position.
The final nail in the coffin were the subsequent NCB raids followed by the Aryan Khan drugs cruise case which played out in the media for months at a stretch.
To emerge from a setback which was as terrible and nerve-racking as the one described above requires courage – something that the Hindu right wing and the Bollywood detractors hoped and prayed Bollywood stars and the filmmakers didn’t have. The good news is that they did. It is, however, yet to be seen if Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra is the Brahmastra (both literally and figuratively) that Bollywood needs for its revival. Rest assured, as Shiva says – ‘Ab khel shuru!’.
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