NOT long ago, the most exciting Indian film news of this week would have been the release of Jersey on April 14.
It is the Bollywood remake of a smash hit Telugu film and marks the return of popular star Shahid Kapoor after his 2019 blockbuster success Kabir Singh. Instead of being the centre of attention, it is running scared of two regional Indian language juggernauts and was postponed by a week, just days before its release. The first film Jersey producers seem afraid of clashing with is Kannada language action entertainer KGF: Chapter 2, which is the hotly anticipated sequel to a 2018 blockbuster hit that clocked up huge box office figures and will release on April 14 as planned. Part two will get an even bigger release with dubbed versions in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam dropping in cinemas simultaneously. The trailer has received a rip-roaring response and it is expected to clock up a bigger opening weekend than any Bollywood film that has been released in the past few years.
Ironically, the film headlined by Kannada superstar Yash has seasoned Bollywood names Sanjay Dutt and Raveena Tandon in smaller supporting roles.
Beast
This week’s other new movie release that has petrified Bollywood is Tamil blockbuster Beast. It is headlined by Tamil titan Vijay, who is one of the biggest stars in India and pretty much always generates huge box office figures due to his massive fanbase. This being his first big post-pandemic release and opposite popular actress Pooja Hegde means it is guaranteed a huge response. Songs from the film have already become a rage and the trailer has received a thunderous response, including a big thumbs up from Shah Rukh Khan. The black comedy action thriller will have dubbed versions releasing in Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam, simultaneously, to reach a much wider audience, just like KGF: Chapter 2. The recent pan-Indian blockbuster success of Telugu film RRR movie will help KGF: Chapter 2 and Beast.
Jersey
These factors and the recent dramatic downfall of Bollywood meant it became impossible for Jersey to get involved in a three-way Indian box office clash. What has also worked against Jersey is that like so many recent Bollywood films it’s unoriginal and a remake of a very popular Telugu film of the same name, which was widely seen in different languages and is available online. It also hasn’t generated much hype in the lead up to its release.
This is yet another indicator that Bollywood is no longer the boss in India like it has been for so many decades. This probably explains why Aamir Khan delayed the release of his new film Laal Singh Chaddha from April 14 to August 11.
Today, the regional blockbusters which are releasing simultaneously in multiple languages, including Hindi, have changed the face of cinema in the country. This has spilled over globally. So far this year the biggest Indian box office openers have been Telugu films RRR, Bheemla Nayak and Radhe Shyam, along with Tamil film Valimai. Another huge 2022 success has been Telugu action-drama Pushpa: The Rise – Part 1, which released end of December and then became a box office juggernaut in January, including the Hindi dubbed version. The dominant nature of these regional language films is such that postponing Jersey to April 22 won’t make much difference, which means this week’s monster releases KGF: Chapter 2 and Beast will likely still crush it.
Going forward Bollywood producers will keep an extra eye on when major blockbusters in other languages will be in cinemas before deciding what to do with their own movies.
Jersey running scared has shown that Bollywood can no longer compete and needs to significantly raise their game
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
Her book ' Under Her Root'Facebook/ AA Chaudhuri
Her book 'The School Gates'Facebook/ AA Chaudhuri
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5