Arjun and Madhubala in “Gentleman”
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
There is a meme-fest on social media centred around Indian 2. A sequel to the 1996 blockbuster Indian, and helmed by Shankar and starring Kamal Haasan, it was expected that the box office would rumble. The movie took a strong opening, then crashed, and provided fodder for mock-videos in the digital space.
It is a rare blip for Shankar, used to making larger-than-life flicks that turbo-charged cash registers for more than three decades. Back in 1993, he made his directorial foray with Gentleman, a successful one at that. In that Madras of yore, there were single screens and some complexes, and this film, starring Arjun and Madhoo, was released in five theatres.
K.T. Kunjumon, the producer, did an advertising blitzkrieg. In suburban railway stations, where students and office-goers gathered for their regular commute, the Gentleman trailer was screened in all the closed-circuit televisions. There was no YouTube back then, and these sneak peaks at public spaces and newspaper advertisements drew in the initial audience.
A strong magnet
It helped that songs like Usilampatti were a hit and once the crowds settled into their seats, Shankar’s world of make-believe proved to be a strong magnet. The movie was a sleeper hit and Shankar’s vigilante trope had its first instalment. The duality of the hero, both a regular guy and a Robinhood, another theme in the director’s output, kept the fans hooked.
Audiences lapped up the commercial fare with A.R. Rahman’s music becoming quite the rage. An emerging Prabhu Deva dished out a cameo, grooving with Gautami in the chartbuster Chikku bukku raile and the college students, especially girls, were all agog. Not many would have noticed him in the earlier Raja rajadhi rajan indha Raja song from Agni Nakshatram, but this was Prabhu Deva’s moment as a supreme dancer. Equally, it was a significant leap that propelled him to become a hero.
Comedy track risqué
Education, corruption, and a compromised political system, ideas usually employed by Shankar in most of his films, were all in vogue through an effective screenplay. The comedy track was at times risqué but even that went through without a murmur. ‘Brand Shankar’ was firmly set and his world of mass films carved a unique space, while at the other end was Mani Ratnam, who was deemed as the classy auteur.
The one-man army cleansing an inept system, raging against the light, finding time for some romance through feet-tapping songs were all in place in Shankar’s universe. This plot-recipe has been lapped up by his juniors, like Atlee, while avid movie-goers will remember that the seeds were sown through Gentleman.
