UraniumPlutonium = Missed Target?

Well, his uncertainty over how audiences will react has, in part, been answered.

The Hero has opened to mixed responses. As with Gadar, critics have slammed its jingoistic flavour. But unlike Gadar, its opening has been less than impressive.

Before its release, trade analysts predicted that the first two weeks would be phenomenal, owing to the gold rush of holidays dotting the calender. But its opening-weekend response was confusing. Ticket sales dipped on Saturday, picked up on Sunday and have dipped again since Monday. Cementing this impression is the tepid response to the film in the North territory, Sunny8217;s traditional stronghold.

The Hero is in a sticky spot because its makers got carried away by its potential and the overwhelming success of Gadar. Comparisons are odious, but that is exactly what audiences have done with The Hero. And so far at least, they8217;re not enthused about this mostly-restrained Sunny who pops a vein only in spurts and shows way less passion for his Preity princess.

Sunny8217;s strengths this time round have been underplayed because of Sharma8217;s notion of him. 8220;When it is Sunny throwing 50 men, it is somehow more believable. But Sunny is a He-Man with a soft face; he has subtlety.8221;

The actor himself yokes his popularity to that of his father Dharmendra. 8220;His fans have spilled onto us. It started off with dad,8221; he says. Be that as it may, Sunny is among the handful of privileged actors to command a territory.

Which is why there is a lot of hope pinned on The Hero, after Bollywood8217;s nightmarish 2002. Sunny knows that the industry is counting on this film to bring people back to the theatres. Says producer/director Shyam Ramsay, 8220;Usually, producers are in competition with each other. But this time round, we8217;re all praying that The Hero is a hit.8221;

The Hero is the biggest film of 2003 so far. One of its three producers, Dhirajlal Shah, puts the budget at just over Rs 55 crore. Industry buzz is, however, that the film hasn8217;t crossed a budget of Rs 30-35 crore.

Trade analyst Komal Nahata says the film was also sold very expensively, at Rs 3.5 crore per territory. Sharma boasts that 600-700 prints were released in the market, double the normal number. Even last year8217;s biggest release Devdas had around 400 prints. In Mumbai city alone, 40 theatres are screening the film, one industry analyst called this overexposure 8220;suicidal8221;.

The flood of prints has hit its opening, along with overpriced tickets. Says an industry source, 8220;The problem with The Hero is that it is too English for the masses. Also, to those people who would have been impressed by the strong anti-Pak wave 8212; most of those dialogues are mouthed by Sunny8217;s sidekick, not him.8221;

While there are scattered bursts of clapping and ceetees for Sunny8217;s flashes of anger, he has to share the glory with Arif Zakaria8217;s impassioned 8220;Indian Muslim8221; dialogue. Sunny has played safe this time by toning down his rhetoric.

Yet patriotism has been stretched thin in The Hero. At his bungalow in Juhu, Sunny grins and shakes his head when asked whether the Indian Army calender hanging in the room is his touch. 8220;I think I8217;m more Indian than anyone. But it isn8217;t how the media has made it out to be. Earlier, the villain used to be a smuggler and we weren8217;t allowed to name countries. Now the villain is another country; it8217;s relevant because the world has become a smaller place,8221; he says.

While it8217;s too early to write off the film, insiders are clear this is no blockbuster. Even so, Sunny sees this as a beginning of big things. 8220;I want to be a part of films that makes Hollywood wonder how we pulled it off. To make things look real even if they aren8217;t,8221; he says.

Maybe The Hero8217;s problem lies in its telling. Sharma says Gadar8217;s story is plain 8212; Sita is in Lanka and Ram has to bring her back. The Hero too hinged on a spy full of desh prem. Its makers should have just kept it that simple.