Source: Hindustan Times
By: Arnab Banerjee
Date: November 25, 2006
Creative brains seldom get credit for their imaginative inventiveness, more so in India where it is invariably the actors who get written about for ‘delivering’ great performances. So shouldn’t scriptwriters and the director be given their due credit for all the effort they put in? Ideally, they should. That is, not unless the actor takes more than a perfunctory interest in his role.
Sadly there are only a handful of actors – Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur and to some extent Amitabh Bachchan too – who don’t parrot lines from the scripts. In fact, their contribution is sometimes equal or may be more. But that’s mainly for off-mainstream films.
In the popular format that mainstream cinema follows, few would match Hrithik Roshan’s high degree of intensity and the dedication with which he assays his roles. This week’s solo Hindi release Dhoom II is one of the few sequels that Hindi cinema has seen in its history. And by the looks of it, it should be one of the first grand successes too that should set a trail-blazing effect.
Hrithik Roshan is pitted against the nation’s laadla – Abhishek Bachchan alias Junior B. For the first time, he also gets to pair with the hottest sensation this side of the Himalayas - Aishwaryra Rai. And together they sizzle, making all other cast members look like kindergarten children out on a mild excursion.
As Aryan or A, the Indian robber whose long chain of heists leave the international police clueless about his real identity, Roshan simply rules.
Hrithik steals enough screen-time with getting his stunts right; his seamlessly-crafted movements shows off his dexterity in using his Greek God body faultlessly. So what, you’d say, anybody in Hindi films can do that, eh?
But it’s not about his perfected action. It’s not even about his terrific dance movements or his splendidly supple and enviously sinewy frame.
There’s more to this actor who made us sit up and take note of his rare acting prowess in Koi Mil Gaya or Krrish.
Hrithik Roshan displays the right kind of style along with having the requisite body language to look the global burglar that he plays in the film. Looking classy, clever and engagingly distinctive, he overshadows everyone in the cast even while he enacts an out-and-out negative character.
And it’s got nothing to do with the witty retorts, or the wily tricks his reel-life persona gets to exhibit – for even as he is unapologetically wicked and immoral in the battle between Good and Evil, he remains endearingly funny, ruthlessly violent and charismatically loveable through and through.
The film is all about action-filled sequences, breath-taking camerawork, superb special effects and loads of attitude thrown in by actors while enacting their characters.