“The Name is Ahlawat, Mohit Ahlawat”: Film review of James
RGV (that’s Ram Gopal Varma to you) revealed two things about this film before its release that had me, a longtime RGV fan, blinking madly:
James was the first project RGV developed purely as a vehicle for an actor–in this case, newcomer Mohit Ahlawat, whom he was convinced was star material.
And secondly, that he was putting out more prints of James (over 300 across India) than he had of Sarkar, the double-Bachchan starrer.
Was it worth it?
Hmm. Yes and no.
On the first count, RGV was definitely right. Mohit Ahlawat is a hell of a package.
A towering Jat of a guy with suiting-shirting model good looks, a smouldering brooding screen presence, and a fighting style that Akshay Kumar would give his right quadricep to possess.
He has the downside of most young action heroes–his dialogue delivery is a bit stiff, and his performance slightly robotic. But only slightly. Guys like Bobby Deol are ten times stiffer and they don’t have half of Ahlawat’s physical screen presence.
Considering this is his first feature film, Ahlawat is amazingly good. He is certainly star material. Although I don’t know how he’d work in a Karan Johar film, and his desi cowboy stature and looks might actually work against him, or lead to him being typecast in similar B-grade action movies.
But in James, he’s fantastic. Looks, charm, screen presence, muscles, and a fighting style that’s more convincing than any other Bollywood star today. Sort of like what Sunil Shetty would want to be but can’t.
I have no doubt that with RGV’s continued support, and the kind of ultra-violent action-crime films he loves to churn out, Ahlawat will find plenty of other good action star roles to showcase his unique talents.
About the film.
James is a straightforward RGV product.
A direct hit to the solar plexus of any action movie buff.
It’s what they call a good ‘B movie’ in the USA.
An action flick that’s basically about the action, with everything else, including technique and budget and script, subordinating itself to the single-minded goal of providing the audience with 90 minutes or less of pulse-pounding bone-crunching blood-spewing violence from start to finish.
This being a desi B movie, RGV as producer, and extremely competent first-time director Rohit Jugraj manage to fit in a love story track, a comedic sidekick, another comedic sidekick, and even a side-track about Mumbai politics, crime and police corruption.
If you’ve seen and liked movies like Roadhouse (starring Patrick Swayze) and The Transporter (starring Jason Statham), or even the sequel The Transporter 2, which is the current No. 1 on the US Top Ten, you’ll have a ball watching James.
The title character is a stranger who rides into town, is too honourable to back off when he sees someone doing something wrong, and quickly gets tangled with some really bad guys–so bad, that they’re almost larger-than-life caricatures, even by RGV’s we-live-in-a-violent-city theme–and then proceeds to punch, kick and dropkick his way through a small army of nasties, until Dirty Harry, sorry Clean James, has cleaned up the town as neatly as a mop swabbing a tiled toilet floor.
The action is very well choreographed, with some extremely well designed and executed sequences. If you’re looking for maar-dhaadh, you’re going to get your paisa vasool here.
Just don’t expect anything original or even unpredictable in terms of plot or storyline. It’s all as predictable as mud and dirt.
The obligatory pin-up girl in the film, Nisha Kothari, does her job about as well as you could expect. She’s playing a sexy kitten of a model-actress, the kind that dons the tiniest short skirts and prances around for music videos–giving the film a tidy excuse to segue into song sequences when required. She’s not bad at all, and manages to carry off her part with just enough kittenish sex appeal and credible acting to carry off the love-at-first-sight (of his muscles, presumably) plotline.
The humorous distractions are provided brilliantly by Snehal Dabhi and RGV regular Rajpal Yadav who inject welcome doses of silly but well-done comedy at the most unexpected moments. This helps the ultra-violent story from drowning in buckets of blood and actually helps in balancing out the non-stop violence.
This same excess of violence is the reason why I think RGV went too far in releasing so many prints. I very much doubt that families, or couples, or even the teenyboppers that turn out in such droves for the latest sugar-romance Bollywood movie will come to see a film that’s only maar-dhaad all the way.
But that’s RGV’s problem, not our’s.
As far as we’re concerned, RGV adds yet another notch to his record as India’s best maker of gritty non-Bollywood action flicks.
And in the process, he’s given Mohit Ahlawat the best damn debut in Hindi films since the last star-son made his ‘entry’ onto the big screen.
Happily, he’s well worth the ‘big break’. And so is James, if you can look past the cliches and just sit back and enjoy this actionpacked orgy of violence.
