'Bachchhan Paandey’s hugely problematic trailer

The trailer of the new Akshay Kumar starrer (his 7^th or 8^th release in 3 years) Bahchhan Paandey shows the actor in a wannabe Pushpa mode. The “hero” is a one-eyed outlaw and very proud of it, the glass eye and his chosen profession.

At one point in the noisy messy trailer (the colour palate is that of a child left to smear colours in a kindergarten classroom) he tells Kriti Sanon (an aspiring filmmaker who wants to make a bio-pic on the glass-eyed Pandey) and her sidekick Arshad Warsi a sob story about how he became a gangster because he didn’t have money to pay his father’s medical bills.

Before Sanon can react ‘Bachchhan’ Akshay Kumar bursts out laughing and admits he became what he is because he enjoys killing.

This is the first time I’ve seen a leading superstar of mainstream cinema play a character who ENJOYS killing. Even Amjad Khan’s Gabbar Singh didn’t say it aloud. His actions spoke louder than words. Bachchhan Paandey’s words speak as loudly as his action. He is an aberration a subverted horribly misconstructed version of the noble heroes that Akshay played in Air Lift, Padman, Namaste London and Toilet Ek Prem Katha.

He plays this …this….trashy monster with a glee that suggests, ‘Look you guys out there.I am bored of being good. I want to have fun playing bad.’

Its a loathsomely crude part , the kind that one sees desperate actors play in cheap Mexican films. Why would a star of Akshay Kumar’s stature play this despicable creature of the ravines? A self-indulgence , perhaps. But this time PM Modi isn’t going to be pleased.

It is rather sad to see Warsi reduced to a sidekick.

“But they always steal the show, haven’t you seen Circuit in Munnabhai?” Sanon consoles Warshi as they head to the ravines to make a gangster epic.

“Like Satya, Sarkar and Gangs Of Wasseypur,” Warsi explains.

Look what Ram Gopal Varma and Anurag Kashyap have done.