His films are commercially successful, but isn’t it time to address the proverbial elephant in director Prabhu Deva’s films? While he has mastered the art of making “masala entertainers” — a cocktail of high-octane action, dance and drama — his money-spinning projects are criticised for being regressive and depicting a shoddy portrayal of woman. However, Sonakshi Sinha, star of his latest film, Action Jackson, out this Thursday, defends Deva.
“It’s about playing a character and he’s not the only one to have shown a little bit of naughtiness. It has been going on ever since cinema started,” said Sinha.
In her previous two films that were an ode to ‘80s Hindi cinema (often described as the industry’s creatively bankrupt era) directed by Deva, the so-called “naughtiness” extends to the hero Akshay Kumar referring to Sinha as “mera maal” (roughly translated as ‘my object’) at least three times in the action film Rowdy Rathore and pinching her midriff to show his affection.
In R … Rajkumar starring Shahid Kapoor, Sinha’s character Chanda is stalked by Rajkumar, played by Kapoor. She slaps him, he kisses her hand and at one point he even enters her room to see her change her clothes, calling her “his lollypop”. Instead of being angry at her privacy being invaded, she acts cute and falls in love with him. Such scenes may have made many self-respecting women cringe, but Sinha is convinced that there’s nothing wrong here. Her cavalier attitude is laced with conviction for her idol director.
“To pin point and pick on somebody, it’s wrong. Instead of picking on negatives, there are lots of positive things in his films to concentrate on. If they [Deva’s films] were bad in any way, people would not have watched them. The box-office figures show how popular he’s among the people,” said Sinha. The majority of Deva’s film such as Rowdy Rathore have crossed the Rs1 billion (Dh59 million) mark, despite receiving less-than-enthusiastic reviews.
“I am not bogged down by any of it and I don’t read reviews.” Perhaps that’s a good thing because she escaped a barrage of scathing pronouncements such as “R … Rajkumar’s title should have been changed to R … Regressive/Rubbish”.
“I had rather let my work speak for itself and the numbers speak. The box office numbers are the [equivalent of] reviews for me,” said Sinha, adding that Deva has cracked the code for making “wholesome entertainers”.
Action Jackson doesn’t stray far from his formulaic concoctions. Like always, there’s a hero spouting rambunctious one-liners such as “it’s my way or the sky way” or “No commitment, no appointment, only punishment” mixed with some sword fights, stylised songs and questionable ways of wooing women. One of the scenes in the trailers include gangster AJ (Devgn) stepping out of a public toilet, when he nearly bumps into the object of his desires (Sinha). He bangs the door closed and exclaims: “she’s always around when my pants are down.” He zips up his pants for better effect. So did Devgn cringe while saying those lines?
“When you see the film I am not trying to put the girl down. It’s a funny portion in the film. In real life, I would never say that to a girl, but we are not trying to pull any woman down here.” Devgn, 45, plays a gangster who falls in love with Sinha’s character. He claims Action Jackson is not a violent film.
“It’s a love story told in Prabhu Deva style. There’s a lot of humour, passion, drama and emotions in this one ... I am not sure if we have been able to convey that the story base is love in the promos but there’s a very strong love angle to this film.”
The husband of actress Kajol and a father of two young children — Nysa, 11, and Yug, 4 — goes to the extent of claiming that Action Jackson, contrary to its title and teasers is a family-friendly feature.
“I have made it a point not to do vulgar or violent films. Action is not just about being violent, even when you see a sword fight in Action Jackson we keep in mind that we don’t show blood. Nowadays, my son walks around with this small sword toy on his back, so I see to it there’s a difference between violence and action. After a long time you will see some slick, stylised action.”
It’s not Devgn’s first time at playing a gangster with a heart. His checkered-career is filled with playing either a cop’s role (the Singham series, Gangajal, Deewane …) or a ruthless gangster (Company, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, Khakhee).
“Gangsters with a heart can never go out of style... In my eyes, I have done some of the best cop films and the best gangster films. People still talk about gangster Sultan Mirza in Once Upon A Time ... and the righteous cop Bajirao Singham when it comes to cop movies. Those were real but in Action Jackson, I play a very stylish gangster.”
Naturally, being armed with good dance moves is a pre-requisite for owning the stylish-guy act in Bollywood films. His director Deva — who began his career in films as choreographer — compelled his hero to let loose on the dance floor. In Devgn’s words, Deva “[messed] up his happiness”.
“Everybody knows that I am not comfortable with dancing. But he studied my body language and created steps for me. For example in Austria, I was asked to learn how to do a moonwalk and I was holding a cup of coffee while observing. He asked me to casually do the steps and said: ‘why don’t you do it with the coffee in your hand?’ So I did it while taking sips of coffee. He’s spontaneous and that helped me a lot.”
While such spontaneity is no guarantee of a good film, the lead players are convinced that their director nudged them in the right direction as actors.
“He has made me more poker faced than I am. I would take it as a compliment because I take pride in being an actor with minimum expressions that says the maximum ... Acting is not about making faces, it is about conveying the character. So I enjoyed playing AJ.”
For Sinha, the idea of reuniting with director Deva did the trick. So does she consider him as his lucky mascot?
“Prabhu Deva doesn’t need luck. He has his own conviction about his own work. I have been somebody who is able to fit into all his characters in his film. I guess that is why it has worked for both of us. We enjoy a great work rapport. I understand what he requires me as an artist ... At the end of the day, his films deliver a complete package.”
