David Dhawan, Govinda emerge as latest box-office success with their earthy comedies

Dhawan's films are often outrageous but their dizzying tempo is winning audiences.It is unlikely that future film festivals will include retrospectives of his work. Or that students of Pune's Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), where he was a gold medallist, will ever analyse his characters. Or that critics, who call his movies inane, will change their mind. But he's not complaining. David Dhawan, 40, film editor-turned-director, has just delivered his fourth consecutive hit in two years.And it's no coincidence that the hero of three of those four hits is the boy from Virar who made it big, Govinda. The actor, who was initially known for his rugged rustic roles and his dancing prowess, took on more comic roles around the same time Dhawan saw a potential goldmine in earthy comedies. The rest, as they say, is box-office history.Dhawan's films are often outrageous but their dizzying tempo is winning audiences.Jolly, pudgy and enormously successful, Dhawan is Bollywood's newest Santa Claus, and his bag of goodies is seemingly bottomless. His rustic comedy, Raja Babu, is expected to gross around Rs 5-6 crore. Aankhen, last year's box-office smash, netted nearly Rs 13 crore, making it the biggest hit of his career and one of the nine top-grossing Hindi films of all time. In 1992, Dhawan made Bol Radha Bol (approximate grosses: Rs 4.5-5 crore) and Shola aur Shabnam (approximate grosses: Rs 4 crore).Currently, Dhawan is said to charge Rs 50 lakh per film, while desperate producers are reportedly offering Rs 75 lakh for immediate dates. He has five films on the floor, is booked till 1997 and has some Rs 15 crore of industry money riding on him. Stars are desperate to work with him and distributors are lining up to buy his films.So what is the secret of Dhawan's success? Luck, Govinda and a formula that blends heavy doses of salty comedy with high drama, fast music and at least two pelvis-thrusting, bosom-heaving dances. He might steal a sequence from Beverly Hills Cop 2 for Aankhen, but the flavour is distinctly Indian. Unlike the current industry favourites - Mukul Anand, Shekhar Kapur and Vinod Chopra - Dhawan is not about style. "It's easy to be slick," he says,' 'but the audience reacts to the content, not the finesse." Scenes from Raja Babu and Aankhen: smashing hitsAnd the content can be wacky and irrelevant to the plot: three sets of twins can play out a comedy of errors aided by a genius monkey. A loose structure allows for sharp turns, from comedy to emotion.The resulting potpourri is outrageous but the tempo leaves no time for questions and the sheer audacity of it all makes it work. "David knows 'how to juggle all the elements that work for the audience," says director Kundan Shah. "And he has a versatile actor who can carry it off."Govinda's versatility and Dhawan's understanding of the viewer's mind are paying off.After Aankhen and Raja Babu, the Dhawan-Govinda team, seen as a jackpot combination, is increasingly being compared to other surefire legendary alliances such as Manmohan Desai-Amitabh Bachchan and Shakti Samanta-Rajesh Khanna. In Dhawan's films, Govinda, while retaining the small town Virar flavour which is his biggest asset, has matured into a genuinely funny actor, not so much in the slapstick moments as in the little asides and barely noticeable gestures and expressions. Currently, two more Dhawan-Govinda films are in production, a third is being planned and the producers are hankering for more. "We've received feelers from every top producer," says Govinda. "A film with these two could sell for Rs 50-60 lakh per territory," says distributor Shyam Shroff.But success contains its own fears. According to Govinda, the fear of failure is making both conscious of quality. And they don't want to lose their spontaneity either. The mutual understanding is obvious on screen. The comedy is mostly improvised and has a spontaneity that comes from absolute trust between actor and director. Dhawan, who says he can't work with a rigid script, allows his actors to ad lib their lines, keeping what he likes and changing the rest. For Govinda, who says he developed an understanding of the audience's needs after watching nearly 1,000 films with them in the chawl where he used to live, this method works like a charm. "When I'm acting, I know 90 per cent where the audience will clap. I'm an actor and an audience," says Govinda. "David knows how to pick out the best expression from all the ones I show him," he adds.' 'I told him right in the beginning, 'you are my Manmohan Desai'."Dhawan, in fact, always wanted to be Manmohan Desai. He was 20 when he saw Amar Akbar Anthony and decided that if he ever made movies, they would be non-stop entertainment. After completing an editing course at the FTII, he joined the film industry where elder brother Anil Dhawan was already an actor. David edited around 40 films, including Saaransh, Love Story and Souten, before shifting to direction in 1988. His first film Taqatwar, starring Govinda, failed to make an impact. Then came three more flops, and one average-earner, Swarg. But the trademark Dhawan style only crystallised with Shola aur Shabnam.Sometimes, however, the pressure of performing for the box-office becomes too much. There's the constant danger of not living up to expectations.' 'It's very frustrating to be this successful," says Dhawan. "The industry is just waiting for me to fall." And then there is the credibility problem. Despite the phenomenal success, few would considerDhawan a serious film maker. And the critics are not amused. Says film historian Firoze Rangoon walla: "His films are sheer nonsense. But the audiences' mind has eroded so much, they think this is entertainment." Dhawan is eloquent in his defence: "I'm not forced to make mainstream films. I want to make them. I want to make people laugh. And my conviction is the conviction of the audience. A Shyam Benegal film can't carry a morning show. My films are a sell-out." But critical acclaim is always welcome and both Dhawan and Govinda want it. This year, they won Filmfare nominations for best director and best actor but neither won the awards. Both insist that their collaboration could easily churn out a classic. "If we decide to do it, we can," says Govinda. "I care a lot about what the history books will say about me," adds Dhawan.' I can make a Sholay." But as producers line up at Dhawan's door carrying neatly stacked notes in briefcases, and Govinda is mobbed by fans screaming Raja Babu, both ask: why ruin a good thing?Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 30, 1999 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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David Dhawan, Govinda emerge as latest box-office success with their earthy comedies

The director-actor duo emerge as the latest box-office success with their earthy comedies.

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