Why not a word from Aamir Khan after the fiasco?

As the whole world and its favourite box office analyst know, there were two catastrophic events this month at the box office. While Akshay Kumar has had the decency to finally own up to the failure of Raksha Bandhan and his other recent debacles namely Bachchhan Pandey and Samrat Prithviraj, promising that he will try harder, not a word has come from Aamir Khan whose Laal Singh Chaddha is one of the biggest flops in the history of the  Hindi box office, rivalling such demoniacal duds as Kamal Amrohi’s Razia Sultan, H S Rawail’s Deedar-e-Yaar, Vijay Anand’s Rajput and Ramesh Sippy’s Shaan, not to mention Aamir’s own Thugs Of Hindostan.

When  Laal  Singh Chaddha was in the post-production stages Aamir showed it to everyone who mattered to him, from his two ex-wives to his cousin the self-exiled filmmaker Mansoor Ali Khan. All of them declared the film an epic achievement, a masterpiece.

I had spoken to one of  Aamir’s favourite filmmaker-friends after he saw a preview of Laal Singh  Chaddha ; this accomplished director couldn’t stop raving about the film. “What a monumental creation!  Laal Singh Chaddha will go down in history as one of the landmarks…” etc etc.

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Why didn’t anyone warn Aamir that his puppet-like expressions suggesting the hero had autistic tendencies and the historic references in the sprawling saga wouldn’t go down well with the audience?

I am told Aamir Khan is “hurt” by the debacle. One of his close friends says Aamir feels his film deserved a lot more, and I don’t disagree with him. Laal  Singh Chaddha is  cinema of many virtues. But the bottom line is, the audience didn’t like it. Period. And the sooner he accepts the better it would be for him.

This is the superstar who has given us some of the most iconic films in recent years, from Dangal to 3 Idiots to PK. I  feel Laal Singh Chaddha is a superior work to all three films on many counts. But it doesn’t connect with the audience. If excellence in storytelling was the deciding factor for cinematic performance, then Mani Kaul’s Siddheshwari would probably be the biggest blockbuster of all time.

Why are our stars so cut off from reality? Why are they constantly buffered from reality by their faithful group of family and friends who tell the stars what they want to hear? I remember I was at the premiere of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya when a filmmaker whispered in my ear, ‘What has Sanjay made? Who’s going to watch this?’ But when this filmmaker met Sanjay during the interval he hugged Sanjay and congratulated him for a great film.

The only invitee at the Saawariya premier who grumbled loudly against the film was Rishi Kapoor, the film’s hero Ranbir’s outspoken dad who believed in calling a spade a spade, even if it was offensive to all.

I wish there were more  Rishi Kapoors in the film industry. Then there would be many less Laal Singh Chaddhas.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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