The father and son sure look like they had great fun letting their hair down together in the totally over-the-top commercial film, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. But luckily for them, Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan have also individually made substantial gains to their credibility as actors this year.

Guru was a slow starter, even a non-starter, if the opening collections are anything to go by. The film had opened to empty halls on Friday, on Saturday night the Bachchan-Rai engagement was planned, on Sunday night Abhishek and Aishwarya exchanged rings, on Monday it hit the headlines and by the end of the week Guru had begun to get an audience!

How much the perfectly-timed engagement helped the film may be difficult to calculate. But one should put the announcement in the same category as a promo. This promo worked to bring in the audience that had largely ignored the dull, pre-release TV spots, hoardings and posters. But a promo can do only that much — make the audience curious. No promo in the world can turn a rank bad film into a money earner. So it’s safe to conclude that Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Mani Ratnam ultimately made a film that a fair percentage of the audience appreciated. In the final tally, Guru counts as a successful film with Abhishek Bachchan’s performance (ageing from an energetic lad to an enthusiastic old business czar) winning him a heap of accolades.

What must be ungrudgingly granted is that Abhishek dared to go against the commercial grain — and gained.

If Guru added brownie points to his resume as an actor, dad Amitabh Bachchan also made an addition to his already-impressive repertoire with the refreshing Cheeni Kum. Like son Abhishek’s Guru, this AB-Tabu starrer also took off like a snail. On the day that Cheeni Kum was released, I was with someone who was involved with the distribution and exhibition of the film. There was nary a smile on his face as he sat with a paper and pen and took down comparative figures every few hours — Cheeni Kum was drawing a pathetic 20-30 per cent audience while Shootout At Lokhandwala (released on the same day) was buoyant with 90 per cent.

A week later the same gentleman’s face was crinkled with relieved smiles. Very steadily, Cheeni Kum had reversed the trend and was now sitting pretty — in multiplexes here and overseas — with tangible profits.

For Amitabh Bachchan, especially after the Nishabd experience which had Boom-eranged (like the seedy Kaizad Gustad film) on him, the stylish chef turn in Cheeni Kum was a definite step up. Although Cheeni Kum was tiresome after a point and inexplicable in places (for instance, why does a 34-year-old fall so suddenly for the 64-year-old? She even cooks a better zafrani pulao than him), what came across well was its style, wit and sheer freshness. At this stage of his life, to talk of Amitabh Bachchan’s performance would be practically blasphemy. It’s his choices that need to go under the scanner. And he comes through as an actor who has once again dared to go where his contemporaries would dread to be seen.

Now isn’t it strange to be discussing the goals Amitabh and Abhishek have lately scored instead of lingering on their allegedly dubious land deals and court cases? It just proves irrefutably that AB is cut out for the entertainment industry and should not go anywhere near politics. Is it too much for the first family of the film industry to understand and accept?

Hey, psst!

Saif Ali Khan’s firm ‘no’ to Karan Johar’s Abhishek-Ash starrer is said to have been because of lack of dates (rubbish, because Saif knew what he was doing when he picked up a Yashraj film precisely on the dates that he had reserved for Karan’s new project). There’s also been the story that Saif didn’t want to work with the newlyweds because he was miffed that they hadn’t invited him to their wedding. Petty point, since an invitation card is not more important than a terrific film project.

Now here’s some inside info: Since Karan Johar’s new film (to be directed by Tarun Mansukhani) is an Indianised version of Two Boys And A Girl, there are comic gay scenes strewn all over the screenplay. After sportingly carrying off the gay-tinged Kantabai act in Kal Ho Naa Ho with Shah Rukh Khan, Saif was sure that he didn’t want to play with his image by doing such overtly gay scenes. And that’s why he neatly stepped out of it!

Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor of Movie Mag International