Chennai Express
Red Chillies Production
Cast: Deepika Padukone, Shah Rukh Khan
This is one movie from which everyone can learn
so much! You can learn that Rohit Shetty has decided never to make any movie
which is even slightly meaningful. You can learn that Shah Rukh Khan can still
relive his comic timing from his earlier installments of Baadshah and
Duplicate. You can also learn that if an actress cannot speak English in proper
diction; give her an accent so that no one would notice! :P
Believe it or not, Chennai Express has done so
many things right that you should not be amazed at its box office earnings! All
MBA students will appreciate the power of distribution as the movie spent
nearly 30% of its total cost on reaching approximately 4000 screens in India
and abroad. They left people no option but to watch this movie as theatres only
played this for more than an entire week! They opened on a Thursday so that
they can take advantage of the long weekend! The movie was heavily promoted
through various channels to the extent that a Chennai express game was launched
on android and java! Not to forget the “Raksha Bandhan” offer of buy-1-ticket-and-get-1-free! And of course harping on huge brand names like Rajnikant and
YoYo Honey Singh through the “Lungi Dance” video!
So it doesn’t really matter if the movie wasn’t great, did not have an outstanding story or the acting wasn’t up to the
mark! The product reached the end users and was brilliantly marketed to make
the movie take where it is now.
Story in a nutshell: Rahul (SRK, who else?) is
fed up of his life working as a halwai for his grandfather’s business and wants
to go out and explore the world, all that at the age of 40! (really?) Btw, he
is unmarried and has no love interests in his life currently! (yes, possible in
India!) He has been given the task of spreading his grandfather’s ashes in
Rameshwaram but “Naughty @ 40” catches up to him and he plans to take a detour
to Goa and spread the ashes there instead. To fool his grandmother, he gets on the Chennai Express, planning to get down at the next station. Enter damsel in
distress, Meenamma (Deepika) and he pulls her on the departing train DDLJ style,
but also ends up helping the goons who are after her. What follows is
unimaginable sequence of events which lead him to a village in Chennai where
Deepika Padukone’s father is the Don who wants to marry her off to another Don
from another village, obviously against her wish! Add lies, confusion,
car-flying action, romantic revelation for both, blood-soaked fight sequence
for SRK and Hindi-Filmy Drama Happy-ending for all.
Ashish Tickoo, management trainee in the HR
department at RIL and one of the finest theatre artists that I know, sums it up
pretty nicely, “Definitely not a movie you are proud to have watched. The
stereotypes and caricatures have been utilized quite humorously but it does
ache you to see an actor who has done films like Chak De India and My Name is
Khan indulge in such shenanigans. All said and done, not one of the better
movies, but there have been worse!”
Music of the movie is forgettable. “Lungi Dance”
video is devoid of Lungis and if facebook reaction is any measure, people have
been infuriated rather than impressed with this move. Quite a few of the
dialogues in the movie are in Tamil, without subtitles, as the story is
narrated from Rahul’s point of view, which was a great move since most of the
people could relate to the character’s situation. (I am sure all of us have
been through that!) The movie borders on regionalism/racism but I guess it has
been able to pass through. All in all, it’s a movie in which you do not even
try to use your brain to look for logic. Just sit back and watch SRK fans forcing themselves to like this movie.
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