Trade Talk: Can Nani’s Dasara take on Ajay Devgn’s Bholaa?

This week’s two big releases come to us a day earlier to the traditional Friday on the auspicious occasion of Ram Navami. Would the day prove auspicious for the two action films? Or at least one of them?
Devgn has a reputation for delivering solid box office hits almost uninterrupted.With Bholaa he once again turns director. Devgn had earlier directed Shivaay in 2016 which was directorially weak and also dedicated to Lord Shiva as Bholaa is.That apart, Bholaa is a remake, a comparatively feeble one at that, of the superhit Tamil film Kaithi, which starred Karthi as prisoner on parole to meet his daughter.
Retaining the essence of the original, Bholaa moves into a turgid territory forfeiting dramatic tension for tons of unnecessary action. Inexplicably Bholaa converts the male cop in the original Tamil film to a female cop, played by Devgn’s favourite actress Tabu.
Whether these cosmetic changes would help Bholaa score points over the original is highly debatable. Kaithi was a far more tense and clenched experience with no room for diversion. Devgn had earlier scored a success with a remake in Drishyam 2. Bholaa is unlikely to scale the same level of success. Far from it. But it should get decent numbers over the weekend.
And those trade experts who are counting on Tabu’s “luck” rubbing off on Bholaa, they forget the recent Kuttey where again she played a cop. The terrifically talented Tabu faces the risk of being trapped in khaki. As for Ajay Devgn, he is a tense, tactile actor. He should leave the direction to others.
Dasara dubbed in Hindi from the original Telugu, is Nani’s do-or-die attempt to attain a pan-India success. It looks feels and smells like Allu Arjun’s worldwide blockbuster Pushpa The Rise. But it lacks the genuine verve and vigour of Pushpa. Nani, a very talented actor always known to be pushing the envelope, has a much softer image than Allu Arjun. There is a sense of anxious desperation in Nani’s tribal stunts. They are staged well. But they look staged.
As for Keerthy Suresh, why after the powerful author-backed role in Saani Kaayidham (probably the best performance by a female lead in the past one year) would she be willing to be a side-kick to Nani, just because it’s a big film?
Learn from Tabu: you don’t need to romance the hero any longer to be noticed in an action film.