By Nalin Rai
As the year comes to a close, one would have hoped for a leisurely closure to the year. But the film fraternity does not believe to be so and there is lot of fire work in store for December. The screens are going to see one of the biggest clashes that the film fraternity would watch for a long time to come. It would be Sanjay Leela Bhansali vs Rohit Shetty through their epic films BAJIRAO MASTANI and DILWALE.
Grapevine was rife with the rumour that attempts were made to dissuade Sanjay Leela Bhansali to shift the date of release of his film so that it did not clash with DILWALE, but Sanjay Leela Bhansali would have nothing of it and so the box office indeed could witness a lot of fireworks. HATE STORY 3 is another film that is going to see the light of the day during the present month but it is not much worth talking about in light of the clash of epic proportions that is going to be unspooled on the silver screen this month.
First and foremost result that the fans of cinema would be anticipating through this epic clash is, whether the new generation indeed would mark its arrival with aplomb as it is a Shah Rukh Khan who is pitted against Ranveer Singh through DILWALE and BAJIRAO MASTANI. While Varun Dhawan also stars in DILWALE the industry is abuzz with anticipation whether fan following of SRK would be put to test against that of Ranveer Singh or would they both continue to consolidate their positions?
For SRK who has had a super successful film HAPPY NEW YEAR in 2014, he would like to consolidate his fan following at the box office and he has his favorite director Rohit Shetty backed with his all time favorite co-star Kajol and the icing of the cake is the inclusion of another heart throb of the new generation Varun Dhawan as the second lead actor in DILWALE. SRK would hope that the fans of Kajol would come in drove and bless the film with super success.
For Ranveer Singh, BAJIRAO MASTANI would be an acid test as he did not have the anticipated success with Zoya Akhtar film DIL DHADKNE DO, but he could draw a solace from the fact that it was a multi-star cast, but even his KILL BILL was a damp squib. So Ranveer indeed would be hoping that the magic of Sanjay Leela Bhansali would work for the second time for him again as it did for the first time when they came together with GOLIYON KEE RASLEELA-RAMLEELA. Besides, Ranveer has his lucky mascot Deepika Padukone who has carved her own niche with the tremendously super success in the form of PEEKU and this pair had set the screen on fire in GOLIYON KEE RASLEELA-RAMLEELA.
For the fans of Hindi cinema it indeed would be an acid test about their choices and preferences. On the one hand in the form of a DILWALE is a typical mushy romantic film, the staple diet of Hindi cinema, while on the other hand is a period film BAJIRAO MASTANI. If one were to compare both the films from the perspective of the quotient of direction, then the scale would tilt in favor of Sanjay Leela Bhansali as he has already directed a period film shot through and through with romance in the form of GOLIYON KEE RASLEELA-RAMLEELA that had set the box office on fire. For Rohit Shetty whose genre is either an action film or comedy film to direct a romantic film and to be able to invoke the magic of romance that SRK and Kajol epitomize could be his rubicon that he may have to cross and emerge as the director of caliber and panache who can handle all genre with diligence and consummate ease. So fans sit back and salivate in enjoyment, box office never had provided such eclectic choice in the recent times as it is doing it right now.
