Singham First Look: Trailor & Poster

While we're on angry (not so) young men, the first look trailor for Singham was out on pretty much the same day as the Ghayal Returns trailor.

On first glance, the key elements from the Dabangg theatrical trailor are to be found tough rustic cop, cop vehicles lined up in army rank fashion, rising sun, most importantly the larger than life savior of the people beating up the goondas that sweet Tamil pulp fiction would applaud. And of course, uptempo background score that only signals doom for those who dare to defy Singham. My favourite part of the promo: the end of it. Not being sarcastic, it is pretty neat when Singham kicks a villain already on the ground. Kicks him all the way to a police barricade with such brute force, that the metal barricade does a 360 degree turn to reveal the release date of the film.

Honestly, this is just a modified version of the Dabangg theatrical. But originality be damned, for the trailor is  being lapped up on YouTube with 106, 215 views even as we speak.

For those of you who are still interested, the first look is out in Bombay Times and HT Café as well.

 A simple one-sheet caricature which shows Ajay Devgan as Bajirao ‘Singham’ the cop comparable to a lion. He is shown as ferocious (and glum) with a caricature of a lion above his head albeit in softer shading. The colour scheme is brick-red with subtle hints of orange and a blingy brown title. Arrgghhh, no more Dabangg-ifying please !! (especially if the shades do not sport lit-up heart shapes in them)

Ghayal Returns Teaser Trailor :1990 Angry Young Man Redux

Now that Dabangg has given every A-list hero a good reason to be angry (on-screen, of course), the original fire-breathing, common man who is out to avenge his brother’s death in Ghayal (1990), is back with Ghayal Returns (what else).

The trailor opens with 2 memorable dialogues juxtaposed from different scenes from the original which features Sunny in one of his angriest diatribes against the police. ‘Uthaakar phenk do yeh vardi, aur pehen lo Balwant Rai ka patta apne galey mein, you b****ards !!’  (Throw away your police uniform and wear Balwant Rai’s leash around your neck, you b***ards !!).The Filmfare and National Awards Jury were bowled over. Existing Ghayal fans will identify, and its catchy enough for those who were too young to have caught it.  This is followed by a menacing, grandiose background score warning of the power to be unleashed in the next few seconds where we see that the man behind bars spewing vwnom at the cops is now a cop himself.

The next few shots simply show how Sunny: the cop - deflects a bullet at gunpoint and punches the baddies. All in slo-mo, magnifying the impact of every drop of blood and sweat that oozes from the villains. The promo ends with him in the classic Ghayal pose – his fist up next to his face, ready to punch the next bad ‘un. (pic below).

The tagline in the promo reads ‘the wounded who will tear the world apart…..’  Strange, considering the tagline of the first one was the same but in past tense!

The Deols who were uptil recently known to be shy when it came to facing the media and promoting their upcoming releases, till Yamla Pagla Deewana happened, to be precise have not only been quick to realize the power of marketing but have utilized it in full-force to unveil the teaser trailer of the sequel to the award-winning action drama.

The trailor was uploaded on The Deols official YouTube channel on the midnight of June 2^nd and also shared on their official Facebook fan page, which is barely two weeks old. The teaser was preceded by a video of Sunny Deol  on the YouTube channel telling his fans that he was back and telling (erm… commanding them) to ‘Like It’ and comment on it (but only good ones !).  The video was rather stern and stoic Sunny paaji-ishtyle and just the beginning. 

A  Bombay Times front page interview (two days after the trailor went up) with Sunny speaking on Ghayal Returns and more specifically the teaser would have reached a much wider audience. (At the time of publishing this post, the teaser had 51, 645 views – huge!)

The marketing push is well-coordinated across mediums and has worked in getting the views for the teaser. On the downside, am not sure how far the nostalgia element will work in this genre considering there are too many ‘angry men against the system’ these days. Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap, Singham, Force – anyone? Plus, the fact that it’s called Ghayal Returns is really not helping.

Ghayal Returns directed by Ashwini Chaudhary and produced by Vijayta Films is slated to release in 2012.

We Want To Know: Is it just us or does the name Ghayal Returns make you want to look the other way too? Or can’t wait for what’s up ahead of the teaser?

First Look: Vidya Balan as Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture

The Dirty Picture  promotional campaign is ready to roll with a front-page Bombay Times exclusive unveiling of lead actor Vidya Balan’s look in the film. The interview alongside is customary, except for a quote on the film being ‘Moulin Rouge meets Himmatwaala’- but more on that later.  

The knotted blouse, floral skirt and the entire demeanour is reminiscent of Julie and to some extent Dimple Kapadia as Bobby. There is an overbearing sense of gaudy. The look is coquettish on the whole, eyes wide open and an apprehensive biting of nails conveying an innocent sense of seduction. The hip over the hand, highlighting the womanly bulge of flesh over the skirt, serves as the contradiction to the girlishness of the facial expression.

Just to give you a quick preview, Vidya Balan portrays Southern siren Silk Smitha, best to known to us Bollywood babies as the dusky, voluptuous seductress who attempted to lure the hapless Kamal Haasan into her folds (pun quite appropriately intended) in the 1983 film Sadma. The Dirty Picture is a supposed biopic of the lady who rose to fame as a ‘soft porn actress’ in the south and was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

The preliminary publicity effort has gone into boosting awareness of Silk while simultaneously building an intrigue factor around her persona and the kind of life she led. Now portraying that in a ‘Moulin Rouge meets Himmatwaala’ set-up throws up a couple of interesting thoughts.  While the movie earlier seemed to give the vibe of a real-life drama, Balan talks of it as a mix between an international romantic musical and an 80s masala flick. The common factor between the two: high on cheesy dialogues, clichés and melodrama. While the film calls for the cheesy dialogues (totally timing dependant) because that was the zeitgeist of the era in which Silk Smitha was at her peak and we can expect the melodrama from director Milan Luthria (Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, Kacche Dhaage) – we are not too welcoming on the idea of clichés.

Having said that, the producer of the film is an expert at marketing real-life inspired dramas. Take a look at the box office collections of Once Upon A Time in Mumbai and Raginni MMS (still in theatres) – proof of two rather ordinary films making it big on the strength of their marketing campaign.

The Dirty Picture, directed by Milan Luthria and produced by Balaji Motion Pictures is slated to release on November 10^th, 2011.

We Want to Know: Intrigued or unaffected ? What do you think of Vidya’s look in The Dirty Picture?