Cheatie Pospie...

As i was writing about '3 Idiots', I was reminded of another recent film - one that illustrates what can happen if film makers break their Sacred Covenant with the ticket buying movie-goer, aka Me.

Let me begin by explaining the covenant.

I, as a movie-goer, buy a ticket and sit in a hall, where as the lights are gradually dimmed, I surrender my immediate reality to the creator of the shadow play I am about to witness.

My expectations from the film are coloured by a myriad of factors that I have been exposed to before I enter the hall.

The biggest one is earlier film/s by the same Director / Writer.

If it's a David Dhawan film, I'm ready for loud/camp costumes, the huge leaps of faith in screenplay, the slapstick comedy sequences, the silly scat / double-meaning comic dialogues, etc. But in return, I do want at least a few genuinely comic situations, very good timing on the delivery of comic dialogues, catchy songs and beautiful leading ladies. And I certainly don't want to be preached to, or given a large dose of 'reality'.

Those are the broad contours of the unspoken generic covenant between David and me, a member of his paying audience.

Shyam Benegal has his own with me, even when he pushes himself to do "commercial" cinema like Welcome to Sajjanpur. So does every other well-known director.

S/he can break it, if s/he so chooses. It's risky, but as an average audience member who is always open to being entertained "differently", I don't mind, but they must remember that before the film begins, the next, all-important part of the covenant comes into operation.

This one's the real deal.

It's what I assume is in play when I go to watch a film made by someone I've never heard of.

"Thou shalt, through the whole duration that I surrender my reality to yours, keep that reality consistent."

So, if David Dhawan wants to swap places with Shyam Benegal, and makes a film in the latter's genre, I would be amused during the first five minutes of the film, but if he keeps it consistent through the whole film, I will likely forget who made it, and go along with the film, at least till the lights come back on.

After its all over, if i had actually gone to watch a mindless film, for pure 'entertainment', and ended up having to watch a 'serious' one, I may still complain, but that complaint will be directed at David, not at his film.

Let me now return to Rocket Singh.

Why did I decide to go and watch it? The Writer-Director team of Jaideep Sahni and Shimit Amin had earlier entertained me with Chak De India.

I have a huge dislike for Shahrukh Khan, but despite that, I thought the film was paisa wasool (I experienced the mandatory surges of joy and lumps in my throat at the right places. It was a smooth flight with Captain Buffalo :-)

Other than this, both chaps had earlier good films to their credit, in their respective roles. Shimit Amin had the quasi-realistic Ab Tak Chappan and Jaideep Sahni had Khosla ka Ghosla. (Jaideep also had lemons like Aaja Nachle and half lemons like Bunty aur Babli, but hey, he's prolific and sometimes, you have to go with "best of...")

Anyway, that's why I went to watch Rocket Singh.

I expected that two guys who seemed to understand the middle class milieu would do a good job with a "commercial" Hero like Ranbir Kapoor as the leading man; after all, he was getting pretty good at playing the 'young man out of college confused about what to do with his life' (Wake up Sid & Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani)

And yet, things went horribly wrong.

The film ran too long, and though it was quite interesting in parts, it failed mainly on one front - the climax. No bad acting, mind you, and they had quite a few "moments" through the film - the magic ingredient that make audiences forgive filmmakers huge boo-boos.

What was unforgivable was how the Hero behaved in the fourth act, the denouement, where the Writer-Director broke their Covenant with me.

Many people have written about how the Hero of the film comes out looking like a wimp at the end, and have cited that as the reason for its failure. They're right, of course. But that's only half the story.

For those who may have missed the film, the climax is set up when the Hero, who has been consistently ill-treated by his evil, corrupt boss, has had his dream company, his Rocket Sales Corporation taken away from him by this very man. Rocket Singh finds himself back on the retail shop floor, a store salesman. Despite this, the Boss is unable to capitalise on his forceful acquisition of Rocket Sales and comes back to return the company to our Hero.

Once he gets to the shop where our Rocket is working, the Boss again goads our Hero, literally pushing him to butt heads. So what does Rocket Singh do? Does he whip the Boss man's behind? No, no, not our Rocket. He instead whines about not being given a fair chance and finally shakes hands with the Boss, offering to "see you in the field" for the next round of the marketing fight. Chee...its an obvious let-down, a bad ending. So yes, the weak Hero was to blame, but once again, its not really that simple.

It wasn't the first time I'd seen a 'reality' (even of a 'filmy' variety) inspired ending in a film. And I would have happily swallowed it, had the rest of the film been as 'real', with a weak mortal as its leading man.

Instead, till that point in the film, the Writer-Director had asked me for several 'commercial' liberties, which I had gladly let them take. There was the peon/coffee boy who could apparently assemble PCs "with his eyes shut", there was the whole bunch of traitors from the parent company moonlighting with Rocket Sales for a longish period with just a yawn or two to show for it during the day, Rocket Singh himself could do no wrong in his night avataar, and so on...

So, having given them a long line of "commercial" credit, as per my Covenant with them, I was happily expecting the film makers to give me a full-blown, 'commercial', happy ending. But they gave me reality instead.

It was like watching a David Dhawan film and finally, in the climax, being left with a "think-about-what-that-says-about-us-as-a-society" kind of Shyam Benegal ending.

When I was growing up, the anglo-Indian boys in our Jesuit school used the phrase "Cheaters never prosper" quite often.

The poorer, more vernacular boys used to ape this as best as they could, and would scream "Cheatie Pospie" every time someone tried to get away with a cheap one, but got what they deserved instead.

I'm told Rocket Singh is a flop at the box office.

I don't know if its true, but sorry da. "Cheatie Pospie!"