Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Evil Twin Syndrome

It’s Unintentional Theme Week here at the Gorilla’s Lament. On the heels of the superb Seeta Aur Geeta, Netflix sent me another two mistaken identity comedies. First up we have Duplicate, starring Shahrukh Khan, Shahrukh Khan, and some other people.

Bablu and Manu (Khan) are not identical twins seperated at birth. They’re not related at all, in fact; they just happen to look exactly the same. Bablu is an aspiring chef. We can tell immediately that Bablu is a Nice Indian Boy, because he loves his mother (played by Everybody’s Mom, Farida Jalal). Bablu comes from a long line of famous Punjabi wrestlers, and he’s something of a disappointment to his mother due to his lack of muscles or big bushy mustache. Still, mother and son are close. En route to a job interview, Bablu shares a cab with the lovely Sonia (Juhi Chawla). Naturally he tells her all his hopes and dreams, and just as naturally, when he reaches the interview, Sonia is his potential boss. Thanks to the cab ride, she doesn’t have to ask him any questions, but he does have to prove his kitchen-fu by creating a Japanese meal. “In twenty minutes,” the hotel manager (Mohnish Bahl) adds with a triumphant sniff. So Bablu does it in ten. While singing and dancing; this is Bollywood, after all.

At first, Manu seems to be in another movie entirely. We first meet him as he escapes from prison, and during the course of his escape he shamelessly rips off the Dirty Harry “Do you feel lucky” speech, clearly establishing that he’s not a Nice Indian Boy. Manu hooks up with his old girlfriend Lilly (Sonali Bendre), then goes looking for his old partners; the four of them pulled a job together, and Manu did the jail time. Now he wants his cut of the profits. They don’t feel like sharing, however, so Manu tears through their hired goons in an operatic gun battle straight out of a John Woo movie.

The police, hunting for Manu, arrest Bablu by mistake. Manu takes the opportunity to don clever disguises and murder two of his old partners. (Shahrukh in drag? Not a pretty sight.) The police issue Bablu a special identity card to prevent confusion, and Manu and his goons go to Bablu’s house, steal his card, and imprison him, with Manu heading off to the hotel with Sonia for good measure. Bablu realizes that he’s disappointed his mother, and vows revenge - if Manu can pretend to be Bablu, Bablu can pretend to be Manu!

The lead actor’s performance will make or break a film like this one, and Shahrukh does not dissapoint. Both his characters are very clearly drawn, even when impersonating each other.

Long time Gorilla’s Lament readers know that, like all good-hearted people, I love Preity Zinta. There’s room in my heart for more than one actress, though, and thanks to Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, I’ve become a Juhi Chawla fan as well. She is once again criminally underused here, but her natural comedic gift shines through, especially in the songs. Farida Jalal also has some nice comedic moments; it’s a refreshing change, since her characters are usually so proper and solemn.
The action scenes are really very good, especially the aforementioned Wooish gun battle. The songs are also on the whole quite entertaining.

Bablu is no Geeta, and so Duplicate lacks the ferocious energy that made Seeta Aur Geeta so great. Still, taken on its own terms as a comic romp, Duplicate succeeds; I laughed.

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