Good Artist – Bad Artist

There are good artists whose work is a sheer enjoyment. And there are ones that don’t even deserve to be called artists. You can safely ignore their work & move on. And there is a third category - bad artists. It’s unfortunate to see their talent going waste.

In a span of last 10 days, I’d the opportunity to witness the good art and the bad art. While the good art made me seek the original work that inspired this art, the bad art that followed, left such a bad taste that it robbed me of an opportunity to remain under the spell of the good art. As the good artist is making me happy with each of successive product, the bad artist is making me despise his successive product.

Othello’s Indianization as Omkara couldn’t have been any better. As one of the reviews said, if Shakespeare was alive, he would have indeed smiled. The Indianization was so complete that a 2-bit role of Bianca was made into more than 2-song role of Billo Chaman Bahaar. If there was any chink in the armor, this was the one.

Mind you, Othello is not an easy story to tell. The script is quite complicated. And even more complex is the screenplay. But a music director has achieved the impossible with aplomb. Hats off to Vishal Bhardwaj. Devgan’s forte is intense role. And having got a tailor-made role he does it to perfection. But the real treat is Iago – Langda Tyagi by Saif. In early 90s people used to talk about Khan trio – the bare-chested one never anywhere close to the other two when it came to acting. Saif however, now can claim to have completed the acting triangle of Khans. He is come of age and proves that his national award wasn’t a fluke.

Moving over to the other Khan – The Bollywood Badshah. His was the only character that was sketched properly. And what he managed to offer was one of his worst performances till date. In the entire movie he appears to be not interested in acting. He just comes, blabbers loudly & nonsensically and moves on for there is no reasoning for the way the other three characters behave. This despite of the movie being longer than 3 hours. Karan Johar still lives in 90s when Indians used to go gaga over huge castles & sprawling lawns. He doesn’t know that they are found in every other movie. The very opening shot of Ms Mukherjee in her full wedding attire sitting all alone on a solitary bench far away from her house where sangeet is going on, defies any logic. It is followed by SRK & Ms Mukherjee going away from each other turning back alternatively to see each other & blushing – am transported to Anil Kapoor & Sridevi times – please give me a break. Mitwa is a good example of how a nice song can be picturized in an equally bad measure. Very pathetic visualization and cinematography. Sr Bachchan rocks and again proves that he is an institution of acting. Interestingly, nothing would have been robbed off the story even if he wasn’t there at all.

I have always believed that movie-making is an art first and business later. Johar’s turning this notion upside down. The movie is such a callous waste of time & money. And Johar finds himself ensconced in the third category – that of bad artists. Being artist, nevertheless, it’s saddening to see his talent go waste.