There are some decisions you make which you wish you hadn't .....and seeing Grand Masti was one of them! With time on my hands and nothing to do I decided to catch a movie....and because of the suitability of the timing and having heard that it was shot in Baroda, my city, I bought my pop corn and a bottle of water and settled into my seat believing I would be seeing a slap stick comedy...
Well instead what hit the screen in techni-color was a soft porn film that looked like it had been dredged out of the era of the 60's with its dated feel about it. With cheap innuendos that scripted the entire film and heaving bosoms, I watched in horror as Vivek Oberoi transformed from being an actor of such potential in his early film debuts into this fat obnoxious caricature of a buffoon who contributed his terrible non acting skills to make this debacle passing off as a cinematic offering.
Perhaps what really disturbed me was that Samarjit Gaekwad allowed for the Laxshminivas Palace of Baroda to be used as the central location of this crude and atrocious film. The city of Baroda is so proud of its heritage and most specially of the educational legacy that the Gaekwad's vision gifted to a nation. And then we have (for the commerce of it all!) the Baroda Palace rented out to be used as (and please don't miss the irony of it!) a college, referred to as the SLUT university! Call me overly sensitive but this just made me so very sad. What a come down to the prestige of the legendary Gaekwad state.
If comedy is about sheer vulgarity than this director certainly made a successful film. A film that debases women and further steers the ideas of sexuality down the road of lust and depravity is certainly what we need as "entertainment"in this age of sexual violence and rape that we are confronting. We have the urban woman portrayed in figure hugging/revealing/boobs pooping out of attire, and with give-me-sex stamped all over their pretty pouts ( because thats all the mouths do!). So wow! This is indeed the great maturity of Indian cinema that packages modernity as promiscuity and we are all expected to just all line up and laugh! Wow again!
But the most bizarre aspect of it all was to see the three male lead actors whom I would have imagined desiring to aspire to standards of greater achievement as individuals in cinema, selling their crotches for a quick buck....Wow for the umpteenth time.....what a come down indeed.....excuse the (h)corny pun!
