'Osthi' (Tamil)
Director: Dharani
Cast: STR, Richa Gangopadhyay,Jithan Ramesh, Sonu Sood, Santhanam, Revathi, Saranya Mohan, Nasser.
‘If Sivaji is the boss, Osthi is the mass’
With its record box office collection, ‘Dabangg’ was a milestone in Salman Khan’s career. There were various factors that worked in its favour. A racy script with happenings not that common on the Hindi screen; pithy lines and the catchy songs like the sizzling ‘Munni badnam hui..’ item number; and the unusual casting.
And, there was Salman Khan.
In a role tailor-made for the actor in his home production, the flamboyant Khan was a perfect fit as the fearless, irreverent, swaggering small town cop who took on the aspiring local politician and his goons head on.
Now, ‘Dabangg’ comes to Tamil as ‘Osthi’.
But unfortunately it’s unable to recreate the same magic of the earlier version, the film a passable routine masala entertainer. The film is an almost faithful remake of the original, but sans the punch and fizz. The earlier part moves at a watchable pace. As the narration progresses, a sense of disillusionment creeps in.
Simbu as Velan aka Osthi, with his high energy quotient and a natural flamboyance, makes a valiant effort to reprise the role of the gutsy cop. But after a while the act looks forced, consistency is missing. The Nellai slang he sports not making it any better.
Richa (of ‘Mayakkan Enna’) just passes muster as the cop’s girl. The family squabbles, Velan’s alienation from his father, his resentment of his younger step brother (Jithan Ramesh), the agony of the mother (Revati) who makes futile attempts to reconcile her two warring children, are scenes that have no novelty for Tamil viewers.
Nativity and local flavour too is missing in the ambience and in the romantic episodes between Velan and his girl. Most of the lines get a literal translation, the punch lost. Take the popular one of Sonakshi’s in the original where she says, ‘Mujhe Thappad se dar nahi lagtha saheb, pyar se dar lagtha hai…’ (I’m not afraid of slaps, but of love’). Literally translated in tamil , it falls flat.
The songs, except for the title track, are nothing exceptional either. The ‘Kalasala….’ song and Mallika Sherawat’s item dance are no match to Malaika’s ‘Munni badnaam hui’.
In all this melee, Sonu Sood reprising his role of the baddie from the earlier version, stands out like a sore thumb, not quite gelling with the rest. The final Salman-Sood shirt-off scene is reprised here too, but it’s a pathetic replay.
If ‘Sivaji is the Boss, Osthi is the Mass’ is a line repeated quite a few times in the film. It’s just an alliterative, and not to be taken seriously.