A decade or so ago, i immensely enjoyed the flesh show the movie called "Tridev" was never forgot the name Rajiv Rai. Subsequently dissolved into the more gripping Hollywood and eventually world cinema.
Meanwhile, have always followed the changes in the degrees of flesh flashing that has taken place in bollywood. But then the pompous beginning of "Tridev" remained in my mind and also the strange tonal and also pompous rambling of the villain during a song. Of course the legend of alternate movies Naseruddin shah acting in it made it remote compulsive viewing. Typically 80's with villain's jumping out of every twist and each one having a strong character of their own, the dialogues are naive, pompous to the point, subtlety is like the wind that blows past the window.
Many decades later, thanks or no-thanks to a friend i was persuaded not to miss the ebb and flows of bollywood.
Asambhav is definitely an Ebb in the scheme of things. The movie was as ridiculous as a carry over from the 80's, but then it seemed deliberate to relive the pompous not at all subtle 80's. But then the twists are a deliberate inclusion and they exist in the format.
A handsome Arjun Rampal (my girlfriends call him "The Dish") referring to the tasty meat he can make.A slick "the Hulk" like comic book edit, where multiple screens are adapted to narrate the story. A shapely non-actress but quite a turn on called priyanka chopra, she holds on to the nearest hunk like thing (it is only Arjun in the movie).
The short coming here was that the screenplay remained steeped in the 80's an upgrade to the 2000's screenplay would have aided the idea even more.
What is gravely naive and even more funny is that the format that rai adapted and also claims original concept rights to is best suited for a comic strip hero, it seems a good adaptation from a naivety point of view but not so in a mature movie space, but then bollywood is not a mature movie space but purely a entertainment space for the 1/6 of the world. What right do we have to assume that a large cross section like that will need mature entertainment?
So the 80's screenplay in multiple screen format is the novel inclusion, that is if the movie was not multiple screen format it would have been one hell of a long movie that could have served better narrated in a cartoon format.
The multiple screens format obviously does create a technical challenge and Rai was up to the challenge less times than he should have been. When the multiple screens format is abandoned the movie gets limp like all the 80's get limp when watched now in the 2000's .
Purely from the above stand point of enjoying a clean juxtaposition of concepts, the trashy 80's and slick techno 2000's this is a hilarious movie. No matter what Rai's intention was I enjoyed 'Asambhav' from that stand point and if I have to view it from a serious critic standpoint, which Bollywood movie is better than the other?
