Jo Jeeta Wohi Joker
Like her mom, my kid is great film-freak. As hubby
had reservations about our little one being taken to Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal
Padi (U/A) & From Sydney with Love (U/A), Joker was one of two (U) films
available this Friday, August 31, 2012, the other being ‘I Am 24’. My kid and
her friend chose Joker, Akshay Kumar’s 100th film.
What or who is Joker? No,
not Batman’s arch enemy, not the British comic-strip, not even the ‘jester,
jokester, fool, wit-cracker, or prankster’
employed in Circus to tell jokes! Joker is a special type of
playing card found in modern decks. As per Wikipedia,
in card games, the Joker's use is varied. Many card games omit it from
use entirely. Sometimes, Jokers are simply used as replacements for lost cards
in a deck. Some games accord it importance. Often, the joker is a wild card,
and thereby allowed to represent other existing cards. The Joker can be an
extremely beneficial or an extremely harmful card.
Sonakshi Sinha tweeted in Twitter: “JOKER refers to
a place that does not exist on the global map. Just like #Joker in a pack of
cards that does not belong to any colour.”
Here, Joker
refers to the village of Paglapur, with a population of 600 inhabitants…cut-off
from the rest of India as it’s not on the map, having been abandoned by a
British surveyor in 1946. Joker is orphaned by the present three bordering
Indian states (MP & Rajasthan were two. Which was the 3rd?) As
Agastya says, ‘Joker Jiska hua, baazi
usiki!’ (Joker owner will be the winner) ‘Yeh joker aisa punter, Jo khele baazi khud par’.
For your IQ, Agastya is
one of the Saptarishis ("seven sages" extolled in the Vedas) and the
author of Agastya Samhita; -Agastya is a name of Shiva too; -A-ga means a
mountain, and Asti means thrower.; Agastya is also the Indian astronomical name
of the star of Canopus, is said to be the 'cleanser of waters', since its
rising coincides the calming of the waters of the Indian Ocean. He was son of
Pulasthya, son of Brahma.
Agastya (Akshay Kumar) is a US-based scientist who lives with his
girl-friend, Diva (Sonakshi Sinha). Agastya has built ‘the most sophisticated’
instrument to communicate with aliens. With a 1-month-ultimatum to prove
‘results’, he and Diva visit Paglapur, Agastya’s village after his brother
Babban’s (Shreyas Talpade) call that his father (Darshan Zariwala) is ill. Agastya
discovers the reality soon and plans metamorphosis of Paglapur’s status from ‘unwanted’
ignominy to ‘sought-after’, wooed by 3 CMs! Aiding him are the happy-go-lucky Paglapur-residents.
They design a crop-circle that catapults Paglapur into radar. The
great-Paglapur-Tamasha begins! Night-active desi-aliens manage to sustain
interest. They befool all the media and politicians with elan, but for American
scientist, Simon (Agastya’s rival)! To quote Abraham Lincoln, ‘You
can fool all the people some
of the time, and some of the people all the
time, but you cannot fool all the people
all the time’. Their ‘hoax’ is soon discovered. Fraud-earned
electricity and water-supply are scrapped. But, all ends well when a real alien
in a UFO leaves behind a ‘gift’ after visiting Paglapur. The alien proves that
our hero’s gadget had been ‘working all along for the last 2 years’! NRI
scientist reigns again!
This simple story set in innocent Paglapur reminds one of scenes from the
movies- Swades, Lagaan, Peepli Live, Deewar and Koi Mil Gaya.
Observations:
Shirish Kunder really loves the name Agastya. Incidentally, Akshay Kumar’s name was Agastya
in Kunder’s first directorial venture, Jaan-E-Mann.
Kunder also loves NRI scientists. Akshay Kumar also played an NRI scientist
in Jaan-E-Mann.
How does Babban manage to make an ISD call to Agastya’s home, when they have
no phone connection in their village? Had someone sneaked in a cellphone from
across the border?
If Babban had indeed made the call to inform & invite Agastya to India,
how did Diva understand his language? Agastya was the only one who could
interpret Babban that too with sign-language!
After arriving in Paglapur, Agastya strolls at a leisurely pace to his home,
interacting with key-characters on his way as if he had all the time in the
world, though his father is ‘beemar aur
kuch hi dino ke mehmaan.’ Not once does he hurry, though the Paglapur
public keeps reminding him exactly that!
Paglapur school-children duck for cover whenever an aeroplane passes. Their
Masterji (Asrani) screams ‘German! Hitler!’ still believing World War II to be
on! Surely, Agastya could have & should have changed this fallacy years ago-
before catching the flight to USA.
Chitrangada Singh’s Kafirana item-song
has superbly rendered English lyrics- “I want just you, I want just you, Baby I
want just you!” How did this chamatkaar
happen with such a Masterji?! With such a damsel around, you can’t blame if
Paglapur’s public lives up to its name- becoming paglas!
Paglapur has a new Dam in the vicinity but a 65-year-old disfunctional
post-office.
Agastya’s assurance ‘Sab theek ho jayega’ (All will be well) is greeted with
loud cheers!
One of the Lagaan-tunes plays in the background, to bring about the obvious
connection.
Agastya and Diva watch news using his laptop. How did they charge it in this
village-without-electricity? Perhaps, laptop was solar-energy-compliant.
How did the 600 Paglapur citizens bathe, wash clothes and cook if there was
no water-supply and the river had dried up? Ponds, wells and tube-wells, right?
ET communication is more powerful than local communication. An alien helps
Paglapur to identify its hidden potential. Then, only the village believes in
what has been their natural gift all along. Though Lord Fawkland states it
earlier, no one, including Agastya, believes him! Lesson- If you don’t listen,
check out & learn the true-story at home, be prepared when a foreigner comes
to teach you the same!
Didn’t the media look for the aliens in Paglapur during the day? They seemed
ready only for the night-action! Our media is so efficient that they would have
done the ‘khulasa’ about Paglapur
being oil-rich, rather than an alien doing the same!
Disappointments:
Why is Diva his live-in partner for the past ‘4
years’, why not his wife? Living-in is fine, but not marriage without family
approval?
What is Vrajesh
Hirjee (Hrithik Roshan’s friend ‘Tony’ in Kaho Na Pyar Hai) doing here? Ditto
comedian Gurpreet Ghuggi (who plays a
cameraman assisting news-reporter ‘Tanya’, Minisha Lamba’s character) Such a waste
of talent! Each one of the other talented bunch of stars at least has 2-3 lines
to boast…
Likes:
Team-work wins - Incorporating team-concept like in
‘Lagaan’, even the number of key-players in ‘Joker’ is 11 (Agastya, Diva,
Babban, Pitaji, Masterji, Lord Fawkland, Rajaji, Vrajesh Hirjee’s character, Vindu
Dara Singh’s character, ‘Lalten’ kid & Hunchback character!) Add Tanya and
her camera-man, and you have 13!
Hard-work and dreams count – Anyone can work hard and rise like this boy
from Paglapur- walking miles to school & then becoming a high-flier. Once
in the USA, he sets his eyes skywards to reach the aliens, and what’s more, he
succeeds.
Realistic sets - Joker has an amazing down-to-earth, old & antique look
and feel. I was reminded of ‘Adventureland’ in Disneyland, Hong Kong.
The Great-Paglapur-Tamasha – Seems like a circus or mela out to entertain
all! Loved the mad-media-reactions to the crop-circle!
Local Pagal-Khana (Paglapur Mad Hospital) is transformed into Paglapur-Lodge
overnight to host the media at Rs 200 per room!
Co-existence of Sophistication & Ancient Rituals – Crop-circle Surveys
& Yagya by Sadhus!
Farah Khan in a guest appearance – Directing a song to cash in on the
crop-circle!
Babban’s chemistry with Tanya- Especially, the first scene when he saves her
from the rain by removing the latter’s news-van’s dish-antenna, for use as an
umbrella! Love knows no language!
Mr. Simon getting ‘abducted by aliens’!
Masterji’s English Translations- Not playing an ‘angrez ke zamane ke jailor’(a la Sholay), here he says, ‘SIMON, GO
BACK!’
Babban’s Temple soliloquy- Emotional outburst in the temple (akin to Amitabh
Bachchan’s in Deewar) that gets Agastya’s machine to communicate (akin to
Hrithik Roshan’s in Koi Mil Gaya) with aliens!
Aliens have their eyes on us – Be careful on what you do & how you
dance! An alien might just be learning dance-steps from you! Everyone will love
the real alien’s thumka!
Why
you must go with kids
-Joker was initially intended to be a 3D-film for
kids.
-Kids will connect with the simplicity, innocence
& fun-factor of the film
-You will be happy to see them enjoying the film.
-Laughter is infectious. You end up laughing with
them.
-They will be delighted by the
light-emitting-veggie-wonders- the desi-aliens providing general entertainment
when darkness descends!
- Neat & clean family-entertainment- not one
kissing scene or mindless violence & gore.
(The latkas & jhatkas of item-song may be discounted as kids are
subjected to much more on National TV!)
- They will love the Alien & UFO in the climax.
Don’t listen to critics! Just go and
watch Joker with your family and kids!
