So the chocolate becomes gol-gappas in Laal Singh Chaddha. In the original Forrest Gump Tom Hanks, who bears a passing resemblance to Aamir Khan, compares life to a box of chocolates: “You never know what you’re going to get.”
Squeezing a gol-gappa into his mouth, Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha (LSC) drawls, “Life is like gol gappas. The stomach is filled but you can never have enough of it.”
Well, burp to that. Though I like the chocolate truism better.
From the look of it, LSC is an appetizing excursion into the life of a special child who grows up to become Aamir Khan in Raj Kumar Hirani’s PK: the same stiff walk, the same wide-eyed expression, the same annoying innocence, the insistent tautology. The same devotion to Kareena Kapoor that Aamir lavished on her in Hirani’s 3 Idiots is evident here. Aamir looks really in love, with life and with love.
The long-awaited trailer of Laal Singh Chaddha comes to us with plenty of promises. If it is Aamir Khan it’s got to be special. And the trailer shows that it is special. The ambience is velvety, delicate, and precious especially in the scenes showing little Laal with his feisty mother (if it is Punjabi, can it be any other way) played by Mona Singh who doesn’t allow anyone to support her son although he is polio-stricken.
Cut to Aamir Khan’s voiceover informing us that miracles do happen in real life….in Punjabi. I have a question for Aamir. Is he going to speak in Punjabi all through the film just because he plays a Sardarji? That’s pretty much like watching Nanak Naam Jahaaz Hai, Part 2. But it is also a part of the adaptive scheme. Actor Atul Kulkarni, a long-time associate of Aamir Khan (they worked together in Rang De Basanti) feels the re-telling of the Tom Hanks classic could only work if placed sensibly in an Indian context. So gol-gappas it is.
Aamir, I must admit looks changa (cool) in the trailer. His turbaned avatar is convincing. There is something magical about his vibes with the world around him, whether it is mom Mona Singh (played so memorably in the original by Sally Field) or the woman he loves the incandescent Kareena Kapoor Khan (played in the original by Robin Wright) or Laal’s pal in the army Naga Chaitanya (played with fabulous kinship by Guy Sinise in the original).
Yes, this adaptation seems to work. It is tender and sensible, heartwarming and sincere. I believe Advait Chandan was reluctant to direct this desi take on Forrest Gump. He probably prefers chocolates to gol gappas. But as far as acquired tastes go, Laal Singh Chaddha succeeds in putting a desi tadka into the original Robert Zemeckis film.
The original remains an all-time classic. As per the trailer, the Indian remake seems to get it right. It seems to venture into the world of Salman Khan’s Bharat without stumbling over the perils of excessive jingoism.
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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by Subhash K Jha
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