Laal Singh Chaddha movie review: A remake that does some things better than Forrest Gump, some things mindlessly worse

Language: Hindi

Robert Zemeckis’ Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks as the eponymous lead deserves neither of the extreme ends of the polarised responses it has received since its 1994 release, neither the unblinking adulation nor the over-thinking, undiluted condemnation. It was brilliant in its format – the saga of a slow-witted man chatting with strangers on a bus-stop bench and recounting his life story parallel to world-altering events that he had witnessed up close or even participated in without realising their significance, unaware that he had sometimes personally influenced great artists or the course of national affairs through several tumultuous decades of American history.

Forrest’s blissful ignorance translated into often hilarious scenes and some that were poignant. The use of technology to insert him into archival footage of actual historical personalities (President John F. Kennedy, John Lennon and others) was impressive even by today’s standards. And Tom Hanks’ innate likeability has always been so hard to resist that it is tempting to forgive the film its simplistic, blinkered politics. But simplistic it was, seeming to suggest that as long as you do what is good and right, you will find good things (in this case, a remarkable career and prosperity) coming to you – a philosophy that might perhaps seem logical from the place of social privilege that Forrest, a white American male, occupied, but shut its eyes to the reality of most of humanity, especially communities deprived of prosperity specifically because of white American male dominance. It was also self-contradictory, on the one hand attributing Forrest’s successes to his limited intellect and unquestioning nature that spurred him to follow orders to the T, yet in some of its best episodes appearing to mock those who blindly follow where they are led.

Laal Singh Chaddha, director Advait Chandan’s Hindi remake of Forrest Gump based on an adapted screenplay by Atul Kulkarni, replicates the original’s narrative structure, and in its plot, does some things better but some things mindlessly worse.

Forrest was slow, so is Laal. Forrest Gump’s bench is replaced here by fellow passengers on a train listening to him narrate his biography. Forrest’s mother’s axiom that “life is like a box of chocolates” is substituted here by a more intelligently reasoned line about gol gappas. Forrest’s defining quality – his unflinching obedience to clearly spelt out orders – was symbolised by the line “Run, Forrest, run” first shouted out to him by his childhood friend Jenny trying to get him out of a dangerous situation, here it is “Bhaag, Laal, bhaag”. Forrest fought in the Vietnam war, Laal in the Kargil war in a decade in which he had also observed in the background but not understood the import of L.K. Advani’s Rath Yatra, the Babri Masjid demolition, the Bombay riots and bomb blasts, and the anti-Mandal agitation.

Atul Kulkarni’s most remarkable move is that he has not refashioned Forrest as an upper-caste Hindu man, but instead draws him from one of India’s religious minorities, a community that, in the boy’s childhood, was the target of the 1984 massacre. Having done that though, in his later years the script more or less sticks to Forrest Gump’s philosophy and largely non-committal nature.

By the time the curtain falls on Laal Singh Chaddha, India is well past the 2014 elections – we know that because we fleetingly see an image from Narendra Modi’s campaign that year and because of a tragedy that strikes the protagonist in 2018. Yet, Laal Singh Chaddha plays it safe by completely avoiding comment on or even mention of the deeply troubling divisive forces dominating India today. Instead, it panders to those very forces with the comment it pointedly chooses to make in one of its most underlined passages involving the Muslim community.

Aamir Khan’s performance as Laal is occasionally endearing, but largely over-done. He often reduces Laal to a wide-eyed cartoonish figure and draws too much on aspects of his acting in 3 Idiots, PK and Secret Superstar.

Where Laal Singh Chaddha is a vast improvement on Forrest Gump is in the characterisation of Laal’s life-long love interest, Rupa (Kareena Kapoor Khan). Forrest’s Jenny (Robin Wright) was a flat cardboard cut-out who popped in and out of his life while bad things just happened to her. Laal Singh Chaddha gives Rupa more heft and agency, allowing her the space to take matters into her own hands in a decisive way, thus making headlines in this film in the way that Forrest repeatedly did but Jenny did not. Kareena brings warmth and sensitivity to her performance. Laal’s interactions with her are among the film’s most heart-warming scenes.

This, in fact, is the primary differentiation between Forrest Gump and Laal Singh Chaddha. Forrest was driven mostly by his instinct to follow commands, Laal's actions are led far more by his devotion to Rupa.

Ultimately, of course, Laal Singh Chaddha must stand on its own sans comparisons since it is being viewed in 2022 by a whole generation of viewers to whom Forrest Gump is not a cultural reference that evokes nostalgia. Like its source material, this film too has some moving and thought-provoking elements, but the makers’ instinct for self-preservation causes them to dilute its potentially most compelling arguments in addition to skipping inconvenient truths about present-day India that could have given it the spark it sorely lacks in its current form.

(A longer version of this review will be published shortly)

Rating: 2.5 (out of 5 stars) 

Laal Singh Chaddha is in theatres

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram