Kubera song launch: Beggars can be choosers

Kubera song launch: Beggars can be choosers

Nagarjuna, Dhanush and Rashmika Mandanna in one film. Music by Devi Sri Prasad (DSP) and direction by Sekhar Kammula. This makes the project special (not Director’s Special, please). Also present was Jim Sarbh, who, apparently, plays the villain. They all came to the Juhu PVR INOX multiplex to launch two songs and a teaser on June 10. Proceedings began about two hours late, because Dhanush was shooting and could only come to the venue during the lunch-break. Compère Archana was barely audible and there were sound issues all through. But nothing could prevent the mutual admiration society on showering encomiums at each other for over an hour.

One song had Dhanush dancing in a kurta pyjama, but that made sense because he revealed that he was playing a beggar in the film. Kubera/Kuber is the mythological deity of wealth, possessing an unimaginable treasure, so the contrast was for all to see. Dhanush had no hesitation in choosing this role on account of the tremendous respect he has for Sekhar. Nagarjuna did not reveal anything about his character, but was seen on screen in the company of Jim Sarbh. So, we have a red herring. Rashmika too was secretive about her role, but revealed that she would make the audiences laugh in this film. Her song too went with this premise. Most of the speakers talked about the fact that southern stars and films are gaining increasing audiences in the north, especially since they are dubbed in Hindustani.

Incidentally, Nagarjuna has done a few films in Hindustani a while ago, in the last century, like Shiva (Ramgopal Varma’s debut film), Criminal, Zakhm and Angaaray (all three directed by Mahesh Bhatt). But it has been 27 years since he worked in a Hindustani film. The audience asked him why was he not doing any Hindustani films these days, and he said, “I have never said no, and am open to working in the Mumbai film industry anytime.” Both Nagarjuna (Akkineni Nagarjuna Rao, age 65) and Dhanush (Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja, age 41) were complimented profusely for not showing signs of their age, although they have been around for a very, very long time, particularly Nagarjuna. Asked which was the most unforgettable moment during the shooting, Dhanush recalled, “The 6-7 hours we had to spend in the garbage dump. Rashmika was immune to the offensive odour, but I had a hard time coping with it.

Unfortunately, the director, Sekhar Kammula, and the music director, DSP, could not make it to the event. Never mind. One of the producers declared, “We will have a party in Mumbai after the successful runoff the film.” From what we saw and heard, Kubera is not the super-hero kind of movie, wherein the main cast fights the bad guys and girls, with their bodies, weapons, and make-shift weapons, with bullet fests and blood-baths, over and over again, for 120 minutes or so. That in itself is a big surprise, for there have been so many block-busters that glorified violence and blood-shed to the gore…I mean core.

Rashmika has a killer smile. She arrived with Goodbye into Hindustani cinema. The youngest of the four actors present, Rashmika was born in Karnataka and studied technology, psychology, journalism and English literature. Rashmika Mandanna is a bigger star than her male counterparts, they declared. But she was modest, and, for a change, we had a leading lady at a press event not wearing an itsy-bitsy costume. Her films have done business crossing Rs. 1,000 crore. Think Pushpa: The Rise, Pushpa 2: The Rule and the Hindustani film, Animal, which was a super-hit. Having seen the Pushpa series, I always felt that Rashmika was a director’s actress, and would do very well when moulded into the part she is asked to play. At the launch, she admitted as much. She also let out a secret, albeit hesitatingly, that a large part of the film was made with guerilla shooting, in real locations, without permissions and without sets.

Jim Sarbh (37) is a queer kettle of fish. Born in India to a Parsi family, brought-up in Australia and educated in India and the USA, he began his acting career in theatre and TV, in Mumbai, and made his film debut with Neerja, where he played the role of a hijacker. He had good roles in Padmaavat and Sanju. I appreciated his work in Sanju. His performance in the OTT outing, Rocket Boys, earned him a nomination for Best Actor, at the 51st International Emmy Awards. Parsis usually speak a mix of Gujarati, English and Bambaiya Hindi, but in Kubera, which was shot in the Telugu language, he studied the lines minutely, and was able to deliver.

Kubera/Kuber is releasing on the 20th of June, in five languages: Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. With a name like that, it would be a travesty if it did not mint billions!