Films and politics are increasingly getting ghetto0ised.
Kids of politicians enter politics (or sometimes films) and kids from film
families becomes actors. In both cases, this career is theirs for asking –
whether they deserve it or not. This is scary in politics where inefficient and
undeserving people make decisions and pass laws that affect every person in the
country (look where it has got India now). It is disturbing in films when there
are so many truly talented people who cannot even get an audience with the
makers who lap up film folk and thrust them on the entertainment scene – where people
end up seeing whatever is available.
The latest in this long line is Arjun Kapoor. Looking at him
always brings up this question: if he wasn’t Boney Kapoor’s son, would he have
dared nursed ambitions about becoming an actor? If he wasn’t Boney Kapoort’s
son, would he have ever had access to Aditya Chopra, Yash Raj Films and Karan
Johar? The answer is always the same: unequivocally and most definitely not.
If someone else who looked like Arjun tried to meet Aditya
Chopra or Karan Johar, they’d probably not even make it to the gates of the
offices of these guys. If someone else was as fat was Arjun Kapoor used to be,
there would be no Salman Khan to help them get into shape. They probably wouldn’t
even have the luxury to time (a year or so) to just concentrate on losing
weight. No sir. They’d have to go out to make a living. To make ends meet.
Arjun Kapoor is at best an average looker but honestly a bad
looking guy. His height and the confidence of money give him a certain
personality but that is about it. Arjun is conscious about his poor looks and has
decided to imitate another bad looking, but privileged star-child: Abhishek
Bachchan. Arjun’s style of acting, dancing, carriage – everything is a faithful
duplication of junior Bachchan.
Looks-wise Arjun Kapoor is way below the “outsider” who is
his contemporary, Siddharth Malhotra. Acting-wise he scores poorly against his
co-star (also something of an “outsider”) Ranveer Singh. There is truly nothing
to distinguish him. In his two previous releases (Ishaqzaade and Gunday)
his co-stars (Parineeti Chopra and Ranveer Singh) walked away with the thunder.
Isn’t it sad that in the past five years every single person
(with very, very few exceptions like Siddharth Malhotra and Nargis Fakhri) who
has been able to get a break in any aspect of Bollywood – action, music,
scripting, direction etc. – has come from a film family. The accident of birth
is the new Bhramin-isation of this era.