The first thing I saw in India was a massive, stories-high billboard: Shah Rukh Khan advertising Tag Heuer. I'd never seen a billboard of this size. And there was not one, but endless billboards. The entire route from the airport to the hotel was papered with ads: I could see nothing but Shah Rukh Khan selling watches. American movie stars will only shill for luxury products in countries most of their fans will never go to. What are they protecting? And what was it that makes Shah Rukh Khan able to do so, without compromising his image as movie star?
RA.One: a modern-day Ravana.
Well, part of it is that Shah Rukh Khan is kind of the Tom Cruise of Bollywood, not the Jack Nicholson or the Dennis Hopper. He's never had much of a problem with "the system" or been particularly angry at authority. "The Shah Rukh Khan persona was ceaselessly available for consumption on television and in print ads," writes Anumpama Chopra in her book King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema. "The Shah Rukh Khan brand was innately urban. Shah Rukh was a yuppie who loved and pined in Armani suits," Chopra says. Khan is an unabashed capitalist, one whose happy confidence sells well abroad. Khan's film Dil Se (From the Heart: 1998), an "unqualified flop" in India, was the first film to break into UK film charts.
Shah Rukh Khan and co-star Kareena Kapoor in a booty-respecting dance sequence from RA.One. Please Bollywood: quit with the autotune! It really blows chunks.
RA.One is a good example of the kind of film the world seems to be producing, in an effort to cash in globally. It's partly set in London. The storyline is relatively juvenile and totally implausible: a nerdy dad designs a computer game to impress his son; the game's villain becomes real and must be stopped. The film borrows touches from Terminator, Iron Man, The Matrix and other American sci-fi/superhero movies, is saturated in CGI effects, yet stays fairly Bollywoodesque in tone. Shah Rukh attacks everything with gusto. (Does he have the energy of a panther, sleeping in the sunlight for the other 23 hours of his day?) He plays two characters: buffoon father with a clownish mop of hair, and superslick videogame hero GA.One. The overall effect, however, left me lukewarm.
What I really need to do is hunt down Endhiran, and this Chitti character... this guy looks like he means business!
What I really need to do is hunt down Endhiran, and this Chitti character... this guy looks like he means business!
Rajnikanth makes an appearance in RA.One, as Chitti!
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