Sharmaji Namkeen: Why Rishi Kapoor’s final film is more a compromise than a lasting tribute-Entertainment News , Firstpost

Irrespective of the circumstances, a working actor’s death is almost always “untimely.” Living in the consciousness of millions, nothing prepares a fan to come to terms with their favourite actor’s eventual death. An actor’s passing usually kicks off a myriad of events: the family (obviously) is in mourning, eulogies flood our social media timelines, the fans’ lives come to a standstill.

However, not very infrequently, there is also the indelicate situation of an unfinished film. Without being insensitive to anyone, a producer has the unenviable job of coming up with pragmatic solutions to finish the film. After all, films are an expensive business. So we see filmmakers use all tricks to find ways to preserve the original illusion, or try and build a new one.

Director Hitesh Bhatia setting out to make his first film, Sharmaji Namkeen, was dealt with more than a few difficult circumstances. Having cast Rishi Kapoor as the titular character, Bhatia managed to shoot a significant portion of his script. Then Rishi Kapoor was diagnosed with cancer, and his health began to deteriorate. This resulted in the film being stuck in a limbo, waiting for its leading man to fully recover so he could resume shooting.

Unfortunately, Kapoor passed away a few weeks after he returned to Mumbai, after undergoing a long and rigorous treatment in the US. Faced with a choice of completely abandoning the film he had shot with Kapoor, Bhatia took a swing of Rajamouli proportions by choosing to cast Paresh Rawal for the rest of the film without getting rid of Rishi Kapoor’s scenes in the film. 

So we have a film that is betting on its audience to accept two actors playing the titular role through the film. The different demeanours, their varied interpretation of a senior citizen experiencing the vacuum of early retirement forced to introspect about their interests for the very first time, their polar opposite temperament inside the kitchen and while dealing with two grown sons: it requires its audience to take a leap of faith and see both Rishi Kapoor and Paresh Rawal as one.

The onus on the audience is a tricky one: because how one might react to the first scene of Paresh Rawal in what is essentially a Rishi Kapoor film,” will probably dictate one’s experience of the film. Filmmaking is the process of building an illusion, and I found myself constantly snapping out. Even after being informed by Ranbir Kapoor in a prologue, where he tells the audience that the producers even considered having him essay the role of his father after using prosthetics, which is one of the silliest ideas anyone’s probably thought out loud.

Kapoor Jr then mentions how Paresh Rawal was ‘gracious’ enough to fill in the shoes of his father. For a better film, it would feel like a heads-up, but in Sharmaji Namkeen, it begins to seem like a premature apology: “We’ve tried to come up with a solution, please accommodate our half-heartedness.” — Ranbir Kapoor almost seems to be saying implicitly.

Rishi Kapoor as the bumbling Brij Sharma, who scratches his bum without a hint of self consciousness, is reminiscent of his parts in Do Dooni Chaar, Rajma Chawal and 102 Not Out. Rawal on the other hand, is a perpetually irate elderly man, who most memorably did a similarly acidic Punjabi diction in his triple role in Oye Lucky Lucky Oye!. These are two clashing personalities, two different films begging their audience to imagine them as one homogeneous mix. It is hard. 

While Rishi Kapoor looks more believable as the foodie who took to cooking after his wife’s untimely demise, Rawal gets the funniest scene, where he argues that his ‘momos’ be given the dignity of being called Dim Sums. While Kapoor seems more believable as the one sweeping Juhi Chawla’s character off her feet, Rawal does a better job of playing the unkind and jealous version of Brij Sharma, almost a split personality, who becomes a wingman for Kapoor’s part.

It is meant to be “cute.” And that is all there is to Sharmaji Namkeen in the end, the film is meant to be “breezy” and “feel good.” The more you prod into the film, the less sense it makes. While we can spend an eternity debating whether a whole film with Paresh Rawal would have made for a more consistent watching experience, or whether it might have helped/hurt the film, we only have the released film to comment on. The rest is all conjecture.

In an interview with Film Companion, director Bhatia recounts how it was co-producer Farhan Akhtar’s idea to bring Paresh Rawal in for the remainder of the part. “It either doesn’t work at all, in which case it won’t ever be tried in the future of Hindi cinema. Or if you make a good enough film, then people won’t notice at all,” Bhatia recounts Akhtar telling him, during the interview. I am intrigued which filmmaker would like to be in a position to make this choice in the near future. 

Something I was simply unable to afford by the end. Especially in a glaring scene where Kapoor watches a ‘viral clip’ of himself (as Rawal) acting in a round of dumb charades. Having been brought up on a healthy dose of Kyunki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, where a new Mihir Virani emerged every few years, even I could not unequivocally submit to the makers’ vision. That scene became a litmus test for me because after that, it was clear I was watching two actors, and not one character. 

As crude as it might seem, I find myself most uncomfortable lying about the dead. It is a sign of disrespect in my books. Somehow the Hindi film industry (and a lot of the fans) consider it a ‘noble’ thing to walk around on eggshells, when discussing the work of someone who has passed. There is an automatic reverence that seeps into our voice. Who can forget the reviews of Dil Bechara quietly sweeping its incompetence under the carpet, after Sushant Singh Rajput’s shock demise. Hindi cinema’s largely unwritten rule of being ‘kind and respectful’ is almost as dated as Amitabh Bachchan’s monologue from Baghban (2004), which is invoked in Bhatia’s film on more than one occasion. 

As Rishi Kapoor’s “final performance,” does Sharmaji Namkeen do justice to his legacy of nearly five decades as an actor? It is a loaded question: because we see why Kapoor was the automatic first choice for the part. He looks absolutely at home as the often mercurial, sweet-natured, and genuinely restless father desperately trying to break out of his boredom of early retirement. But one look at the overall film and it seems as if Rawal is almost intruding into Sharmaji Namkeen.

Would any self-respecting actor (especially as passionate as Rishi Kapoor) have agreed to this hodge-podge that is equal parts of a ‘tribute’ and a barely salvaged film relying heavily on the generosity of its audience? This was always going to be a losing battle, but we shall speak no evil. Let us just pretend this is an extension of a Bollywood funeral, where everyone bows their heads and prays. Let us all be solemn, any talk around merit and objectivity can burn in the pyre.

Sharmaji Namkeen is streaming on Amazon Prime Video India.

Tatsam Mukherjee has been working as a film journalist since 2016. He is based out of Delhi NCR.

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