Chennai Express (9 Aug 2013)

Cast: Shah Rukh khan, Deepika Padukone, Sathyaraj, Nikitin Dheer

Director: Rohit Shetty
 

How can you enjoy a movie - which has most of its dialogues narrated in a south Indian language and that too without any subtitles? How can you enjoy a movie where the hero’s dialogue delivery is pure hamming? How can you enjoy a movie which has hordes of extra artists without serving any purpose? How can you enjoy a movie where there is no romantic chemistry between the leading pair, but only pure camaraderie? Last but not the least, how can you enjoy a movie where Shah Rukh is not the super uber charming metro guy but a very unconvincing common man?
 

The director-actor duo – Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn created box office wonders when they worked together (Golmaal, Golmaal Returns, Golmaal 3, Singham). But without each other, they seem to be falling flat. Ajay delivered a dud with ‘Himmatwala’ and Rohit Shetty has done the same with ‘Chennai Express’. You don’t expect all movies to be logical and perfect, but each kind of movie is supposed to have its pure flavour which at least makes it entertaining and spellbinding enough to make you sit through it. This one neither fits into the Rohit Shetty’s ‘wham bam’ mould, nor does it manages to showcase the superstardom and intensity of Shah Rukh Khan!
 

Deepika, however is a revelation in the movie. Watching her dress and adapt the south Indian traditional attire and body language is a pleasant surprise. Otherwise, you normally watch her doing bold roles in ultra modern dressing (Race 2, Love Aaj Kal, Cocktail). She looks and acts good throughout the movie. In fact, there is a consistency in her character which is otherwise absent with other characters in the movie. She deserves special accolade for a scene wherein she speaks out in a very weird manner in her dream and ends up kicking Shah Rukh out of the bed. Therein her acting is very natural, fresh and funny, without any iota of inhibition. Nikitin Dheer has a mountain like body presence.

All said and done, ‘Chennai Express’ actually manages to have the biggest opening of all times i.e. Rs. 33.12 Crore collection on the very first day itself and goes on to enter the 100 Crore Club within 3 days of its theatrical release! This is due to ferocious promotion activities taken up by Shah Rukh and team prior to the movie release or a clean field during Eid season when the movie has no other rival movie  to compete against for an entire week, is pretty hard to guess. Sometimes, the box office results can be really shocking. And of late, this is happening very often!