The seasoned actor’s career has been all about guns and glory, but the genre is now becoming archaic
By Mayur Lookhar
For a man who has repeatedly said that he is no longer interested in politics, it does come as surprise to see Dutt star in political thrillers. At 60, he can’t be playing the gun slinging romantic hero, and so he needs to find the suitable ‘character roles’ – a jargon that’s popular in Bollywood.
Dutt’s next is the political thriller Prassthanam,, the Hindi remake of the Telugu film of the same title. There’s an additional ‘s’ in the Hindi title which has been helmed by the original filmmaker -Deva Katta. Just reading about the original film, it does seem to have a little different plot vis-q-vis the Hindi remake. The original starred Sai Kumar, Sharwanand, Mannava Balayya in leading roles.
This writer hasn’t seen the Telugu film yet. So, the trailer of the Hindi remake ought to have come with a fresh appeal. However, after watching it, you can’t help but get a sense of déjà vu. Power, politics, bloodshed, dynasty, these are are attributes on which a typical Indian political thriller is built. Prassthanam has all of those.
Baldev Pratap Singh [Dutt] is a seasoned politician, a man who has seen his share of bloodshed. Having the experienced the dirty politics, bloodshed, Singh is not too keen on any member from his family join politics save his sane, educated son Ayush [Ali Fazal[.
As always with such political thrillers, there’s a black sheep in the family. That appears to be Singh’s other son [played by Satyajeet Dubey]. Khatri [Chunky Pandey] is the one who’s sowed the seed of disharmony in the Singh family. Pandey sports a weird look, and is hamming in the brief footage in the trailer.
Manisha Koirala appears to be playing the distraught wife of Singh, Amyra Dastur the girl friend of Ali Fazal, while Jackie Shroff is the right hand man of Baldev Pratap Singh.
It’s easy to gauge how this film will pan out unless Deva Katta has some real surprise in store for us. Dutt’s career has been all about guns and glory, but the genre is perhaps becoming archaic.
The sense of inevitability could hurt the film. What Prassthanam does have though is a stellar cast. So, it will have to be a brilliant performance by the cast alone that will drive this film
Produced by Sanjay and Maanayata Dutt, Prassthanam is set to be released on 20 September where it will clash with The Zoya Factor.
Watch the trailer below.
