Friday, March 7, 2008

Mithya is great news for talented non-chocolate heroes like Ranvir, Vinay, Rajat Kapur

The surprise hit of the season, Mithya has been a encouraging success story for actors not in the good looking mould of Salman, Aamir or Hrithik. Bollywood is fueled by good looking heroes, vanity and glamour. Rarely do ordinary looking heroes and heroines get a chance to show case their talent. Producers prefer taking guys and gals who have way too good looks as they belive it will draw the audiences in. So if a actor is talented and perfect for the role, he might get passed over for the position. Therefore in so many years very few actors with modest looks have succeeded in Bollywood. Like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Seema Biswas, Ajay Devgun. In fact many of them ended up becoming character actors or comedians where at least they got to hold a regular job or got a chance to showcase their histrionics.

Thats why a movie like Mithya which has Ranvir Shorey and last years Bheja Fry which had Vinay Pathak are very important for talented non-chocolate heroes like Ranvir, Vinay, Rajat Kapur. They give a chance for a story to be told without the trapping of glamor, sincerely and in a heartfelt way. Bheja Fry made Vinay a ful fledged star and he started demanding a package of up to 1 crore plus. And why not? He is realy talented and funny. And he has taken the long road to success.

The same for his buddy and Channel V conspirator, Ranvir. Hardly the typical good looking Punjabi munda, he is a sensitive and natural performer. He was also seen in Jism, Traffic Signal, Khosla Ka Ghosla, and Aaja Nach Le.

Rajat was part of both films. A good role in Bheja... and the director in Mithya. So it looks like a nice (and funny) team is forming in Bollywood and it doesn't include SRK, Yash Johar, Yash Chopra and Farah Khan. And yet the result is a hit film. And a well made human drama.

Though the movie hasn't raked in tons of money, the fact that it was made on a small budget of 2.5 crore, allowed it to reach break even faster and now it is making money for its distributors. Bring on the bubbly.

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