As Waqt: Race Against Time (they couldn’t get the title Waqt, hence the silly tagline) races to its 20th year on April 22, it’s time to revisit this seriously flawed but altogether touching family drama.
Vipul Shah’s emotional arrow shoots directly into the family -audiences’ hearts and lodges itself comfortably, if now entirely compulsively. Sure, Waqt isn’t an example of great cinema. But its inherent transparency of purpose and sincerity of expression guide the lengthy family saga through a series of carefully nurtured slopes and dips that culminate in a rabble-rousing emotionally cataclysmic climax.
The film’s familial circle draws you into itself gently. The persuasions come, not from outside but from within the intrinsic drama of the plot. The domestic milieu spreads itself out in a pastiche of heartwarming episodes between a rich father Ishwar(Amitabh Bachchan) and his spoilt heir-apparent Aditya(Akshay Kumar) who learns to be a responsible man the hard way.
Though the plot is inherently melodramatic and message-oriented, director Vipul Shah has adapted a stage-play to screen without allowing the narrative to be a slave to theatrical conventions. This work looks far less theatrical than Vipul Shah’s robbery caper Aankhen.
A large part of the credit for the drama-driven plot’s efficacy must go to the writer Aatish Kapadia whose one-liners and quips flow out with constant and instant comic consequences. The bantering between Bachchan and Boman Irani is vaudeville at its best. Seen first as a warring family -friends who keep running into each other at social gatherings and then as reluctant in-laws, the two actors bring a fabulous flamboyance and finesse to their farcical war of words.
Another outstanding stagey characterization is Rajpal Yadav’s deadpan depiction of the exasperatingly daft domestic servant. His literal interpretation of Amitabh Bachchan’s and Boman Irani’s sarcasm brings miles of smiles and acres of chuckles to this sunshine-and-clouds family drama.
It’s been a while since a mainstream family film yoked comic elements with the basic tragedy of a family scion’s compulsory coming-of-age, with such a skilled understanding of melodramatic conventions.
Also Read: Akshay Oberoi On 9 Years Of Laal Rang: ‘It Will Always Remain A Film Very Close To My Heart’
The director brings vivid elements from the original Gujarati play into a cinema that screams hard but never in deafening monotones. No matter how clichéd the episodes Vipul Shah manages to make almost every sequence engaging and absorbing. For this, the credit must go to the two principal players.
Amitabh Bachchan moves effortlessly from the sorcerer’s wizardry of his performance in Black to the state-of-the-art melodramatic kabhi-khushi-kabhi-gham mode required to enact his spirited tycoon’s role in Waqt.
Akshay Kumar’s scion’s part is done with a great deal of believable emotions. The scenes where he has to outwardly express hatred for a father he loves to death are heartbreaking in their intensity. It’s hard to imagine these potentially trite scenes of father-son rave union being performed with such restraint and pride by any other two actors.
Throughout, director Shah walks the tightrope between melodrama and comedy without toppling over into the realm of farce. Many of the crucial episodes are written in the robust language of Gujarati stage plays, and they yet convey a muted regard for subdued tastes.
This is certainly not the first film about a father-son conflict. What sets it apart is its discernible reverence for traditional values vis-à-vis both the Indian joint-family system and cinematic conventions. Vipul Shah is respectful to both without buckling under the pressure of delivering walloping punches in every sequence. The punch lines are insinuated and not punched into the plot.
The narrative could’ve avoided the over-the-top dramatics of the last half-hour. In pursuit of a high-voltage climax, the narrative wheezes its way through gallons of hiccupping speeches and confessions which culminate in the daft servant Rajpal Yadav’s deadpan question to his dying master. “But when will you come back?” A line that gets no comeback.
Deftly written and expertly negotiated the melodrama of Waqt is the drama of the Indian patriarchal system, so long used and abused by films as far-ranging as Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Aapke Hain Koun and Shyam Benegal’s Kalyug. Waqt avoids the excessive sugariness of the former and the tangled familial tree of the latter. Restricting himself to a handful of vividly written characters and emotions that are drawn from the depths of the Hindu joint family, Vipul Shah has created a world of laughter and tears, satire and fears, morality and immortality.
Also Read: BR Chopra Birthday Special: There Was So Much To The Visionary Filmmaker Than Yash Chopra
Besides Aatish Kapadia’s dialogues, I’d rate Omang Kumar’s artwork and Santosh Thundiyil’s camerawork as able allies to the director’s dramatic vision. The film looks posh in a stagey way, but never garish and over-stylised. The performances add a special flavour to the popped-up proceedings.
Amitabh Bachchan of course strides with Leonine strides across the film, creating an atmosphere conducive to pleasurable acting for the entire cast. Akshay Kumar is inspired beyond anything he has done so far. He isn’t afraid to look vulnerable weak and even ridiculous on screen—a sure sign of an evolving actor. Boman Irani shows us some more of that ever-bubbling brilliancy of which he’s now the Badshah in Hindi films. But it’s Shefali Shah as Amitabh Bachchan’s wife whose expressive eyes convey spousal and matriarchal pain that you come home with.
As for Priyanka Chopra, she may not be pivotal to the plot. But she creates space for herself and leaves a sinewy impression, proving once again that she’s well on the way to becoming the next best star-actress after Hema Malini, Mumtaz, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai.
How do you wish Vipul Shah had avoided those never-ending duets and festive songs that make Waqt look like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham mated into Baghban? This film didn’t need derivative energy. It contains enough of its own steam to chug effortlessly to a fretting-finish finale where it isn’t just Bachchan whose breath the plot takes away. We too come away silenced by the noisy display of dramatic virtuosity.
Akshay Kumar got very emotional about the film. In an interview with Subhash K Jha on the event of the film’s release Akshay spoke of his close it was to his heart. “Waqt is the first film I’m distributing… in Mumbai only… and for now, the only film I’m distributing. This showed my faith in Vipul Shah’s product. I’ve never done a film that has affected me so much. Five years ago while I was shooting for Jaanwar my father was dying. I played a father in the movie and I cried throughout the filming. In Waqt, I play the son while Amitji plays my father. Again I felt I was re-living the emotions connected with my dad. Both Amitji and I constantly kept going into our relationships, he with Abhishek and I with my father. That’s why the emotions you see in the film look so real. I told my director that the film should be dedicated to my father. It was my only pre-condition and my only reason to go into the business side of films even though I had vowed I would keep away from it. My mother was overwhelmed when she saw it. I hope I can always live up to her expectations. And to the audience’s expectations… My ambition isn’t to have ten hits in a row. As an actor, I just enjoy acting. Success is neither in my hands nor that it is important to me. In Bollywood, I feel the competition is very stiff… especially among women. Waqt is very close to my heart. It took a lot from me as an actor. And the line dividing the character from the actor almost disappeared. In real life, I wasn’t the spoilt brat I played in the film. Waqt drained me completely. This is my most challenging role so far. And more so since I’m with Bachchan again. Hard to believe we’ve done five films together. I don’t think even Shashi Kapoor (who was Bachchan’s steady male co-star in the 1970s) had the pleasure of doing so many films with Bachchan. Every day I learnt something new from him. He manages to turn every scene into something special. I don’t even try to act before him. I just try to be part of the magic he creates.”
On the much-talked-about pairing with Priyanka Chopra, Akshay had said: “We’ve already given three hits together. ‘Waqt’ is our fourth success together. We’re a very successful and appealing pairing. Our success ratio is amazing. We share a great on-screen chemistry. And we’ve been lucky for each other.”
Waqt was Akshay’s second film with director Vipul Shah and is based on a Gujarati play.”I’m surrounded by Gujaratis. My wife and her family are Gujjus. And some of my favourite directors are also Gujjus.”
Also Read: Netflix’s iHostage Review: A Lame Thriller That Makes Us Nostalgic About Diehard
