Bollywood preview: The joke’s on the audience

Hours before the film releases and a day before the reviews appear, here’s what you can expect from this week’s release(s)…

Hours before the film releases and a day before the reviews appear, here’s what you can expect from this week’s release(s)…

Film: Joker
Cast: Akshay Kumar (last seen in Rowdy Rathore), Sonakshi Sinha (last seen in Rowdy Rathore) Minissha Lamba (last seen in Hum Tum Shabana; 2011) and Shreyas Talpade (last seen in Housefull 2)

Storyline: A researcher comes up with a cunning plan — that involves aliens — to draw the world’s attention to his native village, which doesn’t even feature on the Indian map. How? “Dimag laga kar, matlab, by fighting brains,” says the promo.

Director
Shirish Kunder (last directed Jaan-E-Mann; 2006)
The opening credits of Shirish’s films are what he likes the most; they feature his name numerous times. His last directorial project was Jaan-E-Mann, which he also edited, wrote the dialogue and story for and composed back ground score of.

Music
GV Prakash Kumar and Gaurav Dagaonkar
The soundtrack has received neutral reviews. Daler Mehndi’s ‘Sing Raja’ is being played on the radio on loop.

Controversies/stunts
The filmmakers mentioned the names of a few states in the promos that are now reportedly being redubbed. The song, ‘I want fakht (meaning ‘only’ in Marathi) you’ is also being censored, keeping in mind the ‘family audience’ that’s the main focus of the filmmakers.

Marketing/hype
Shirish, who had ages ago poked fun at Shah Rukh Khan’s RA.One, apparently apologised to the actor on Twitter recently. Reports also suggested that Akshay has abandoned the marketing activities.

Our assessment
Farah Khan (co-producer of Joker) made popular films before she directed a three-hour-long blooper with husband Shirish’s production, Tees Maar Khan. Makes one wonder whether he’s indeed been blessed with an anti-Midas touch — one that turns everything into a big, bad joke. The promos of this film have the potential to prove that true.

—Compiled by Serena Menon

For the final verdict, look out for Anupama Chopra’s review tomorrow in the Watch & Listen page in the Hindustan Times