August 11 will witness the start of a potentially action-packed battle for eyeballs. Three films, which will attempt to attract significant viewership, will be released on that day: Anil Sharma’s period action drama Gadar 2: The Katha Continues starring Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel, Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s action thriller Animal starring Ranbir Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna and Amit Rai’s satirical comedy OMG 2 starring Akshay Kumar and Yami Gautam.
Although Kumar has had a string of theatrical failures lately, he can propel OMG 2 to success – if the content generates positive feedback at the outset. Animal, whose pre-teaser has received a positive response, is sure of good viewership in the first weekend before feedback decides its fate. The surprise could be Gadar 2, the sequel to Sharma’s period action drama Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), a blockbuster set during the Partition of India in 1947.
AN ACTION-PACKED LOVE STORY
Gadar: Ek Prem Katha is a film from a different era. The film features Deol as Tara Singh, a truck driver who falls in love with and marries an affluent Muslim girl, Sakina (Patel). What happens after Sakina, who gets separated from her parents, discovers they are alive forms the core of the story. Gadar is more than three hours long, not the sort of run time modern-day filmmakers prefer. The songs are mostly unnecessary. But the film is a pop classic for Deol fans, who remember it fondly for its larger-than-life hero, punchy dialogues — and audience-friendly sequences of the kind in which Singh takes out the hand pump from the ground with his bare hands. Deol had won many hearts as the man at the centre of action after Gadar was released. Twenty-two years later, can he pull off that same magic trick with Gadar 2?
Time flies. Most film-goers, who have seen Deol’s films since the start of his career, may not have realised that he will complete 39 years as an actor this year. Among the leading Bollywood stars of the 1980s and ’90s, he also experienced political success in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after he contested as a BJP candidate and won to become a Member of Parliament from the Gurdaspur constituency in Punjab.
The famous eldest son of Dharmendra, his more famous father, Deol’s popularity is mainly because of his image of an action hero in commercial cinema. His well-sculpted physique has been the subject of admiration. The actor has also testified to his comfort in tender romantic moments and exhibited good comic timing when necessary. His one weakness has been his inability to score pass marks in dancing. Stand-up comedians have copied his few steps and the stiffness of his body when he has moved to the rhythms of songs in his films, resulting in much humour.
A BIG SUCCESS AT HIS PEAK
A soft-spoken man, Deol maintains a low profile and prefers to spend his time away from the spotlight. Among those actors, who have experienced success with their first film, he had debuted in Rahul Rawail’s romance Betaab (1983) opposite Amrita Singh, who was also making her debut. Tailor-made for film-goers of the 1980s, Betaab, whose highlight was its two new stars, became a huge success. Both Deol and Singh acquired many fans overnight, and it seemed they were destined to become big stars. That happened, although Singh’s decision of taking a decade-long break after appearing in a supporting role in Mansoor Ahmed Siddiqui’s successful romance Rang (1993) resulted in her disappearance from public view. By the time she was back, a lot had changed.
Deol’s popularity had peaked in the 1980s and ’90s. Appearing as an amateur boxer accused of his brother’s murder in Rajkumar Santoshi’s action drama Ghayal (1990), his performance made viewers flock to the theatres and also won him the National Film Award – Special Mention. The story of his self-directed 2016 sequel Ghayal: Once Again, continues from where Ghayal ends. It was reasonably successful, but failed to match the popularity and appeal of its predecessor.
Many Deol fans believe his most memorable performance is in the supporting role of an alcoholic lawyer in Rajkumar Santoshi’s crime drama Damini (1993), which revolves around a woman who seeks justice for her housemaid who has been raped by her brother-in-law and his friends. Although the story focuses on the woman who is determined to ensure that the criminals do not escape punishment, Deol’s dialogues such as “Tarikh par Tarikh milti rahi hai, lekin insaaf nahi mila, my lord!” and “Dhai kilo ka haath” made film-goers cheer loudly inside movie halls. More than these dialogues, however, he played his character to perfection, which contributed significantly to the critical and commercial success of this first-rate woman-centric film.
His list of successes includes several commercial hits such as Yash Chopra’s romantic thriller Darr (1993), Raj Kanwar’s romantic action drama Jeet (1996), Rajkumar Santoshi’s action drama Ghatak (1996), JP Dutta’s ensemble cast war film Border (1997) and Rahul Rawail’s crime drama Arjun Pandit (1999). He has appeared in the successful Anil Sharma-helmed sports drama Apne (2007) with his father Dharmendra and younger brother Bobby Deol. He has also appeared with them in the Yamla Pagla Deewana series of three action comedy films, the first of which titled Yamla Pagla Deewana (2011) directed by Samir Karnik was a perfect fun-filled entertainer that became a commercial success.
Those who love Deol’s image of an action hero must gravitate to the theatres in huge numbers if Gadar 2 has to succeed. The film’s box-office returns in the first weekend will get affected because of the avoidable clash with two films, mainly Animal which also features Bobby Deol. But if Anil Sharma and Sunny Deol succeed in delivering a film with the right amount of spice, it might spring a surprise at the box office.
The author, a journalist for three decades, writes on literature and pop culture. Among his books are ‘MSD: The Man, The Leader’, the bestselling biography of former Indian captain MS Dhoni, and the ‘Hall of Fame’ series of film star biographies. Views expressed are personal.
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